Starry Sky Gourd, Kunpeng and Donghua Take Action

Clang!

A hundred years passed in the blink of an eye. Ziwei Star Lord stood with his sword sheathed, the crisp ring of the Emperor Sword returning to its scabbard fading away as the starry radiance filling the sky withdrew with it.

He looked at the Sun God Sword in Lingxiao's hand, which remained steady and unruffled. His sharply defined face showed no excess emotion, yet his eyes were filled with wholehearted admiration.

Over these hundred years of sparring, Ziwei Star Lord had already seen the truth clearly. From beginning to end, Lingxiao had merely been feeding him moves, his sword momentum effortless and composed, never exerting even half his full strength.

Yet he himself had pushed the might of the North Pole Central Ziwei Sword Technique to its utmost limit. Even the stellar killing moves he had kept hidden away had all been brought out, but he had never managed to break through that seemingly ordinary curtain of sword light.

Ziwei Star Lord had always been cold-faced but warm-hearted, and he had always respected only mighty figures with genuine ability.

After this battle, he had been completely won over by Lingxiao and already regarded him in his heart as someone worthy of respect.

Now that he knew the difference between heaven and earth, there was no need to persist any further.

He immediately gave Lingxiao a deep bow. His tone remained level, but it carried several shades more heartfelt respect. "Brother Dao Lingxiao's Dao realm is unfathomable. I am utterly convinced. This exchange has benefited me greatly. I shall take my leave now. When Brother Dao's wedding day arrives, I will certainly come to offer my congratulations."

"Good." Lingxiao returned the gesture with a smile. Only after watching him transform into a violet-gold streak of starlight, tear through the void, and race toward Ziwei Star did he return to Lingxiao Palace with Xihe and Changxi.

Back in the hall, Lingxiao raised his hand and took out the 129,600 Stellar Fruits. Gleaming starlight instantly spread across the entire great hall.

"Big Brother Lingxiao, what exactly are these fruits for?" Changxi leaned forward, her almond-shaped eyes sparkling as she stared at the fruits and asked curiously.

Xihe beside her also turned her gaze toward him, quietly waiting for Lingxiao to clear up her doubts.

"These Stellar Fruits are divided into major-star large fruits and subsidiary-star small fruits. Their effects vary in strength, but all can alter a living being's innate foundation and temper the physical body." Lingxiao brushed a Stellar Fruit with his fingertip and spoke slowly. "However, to people like us, both of these effects are as tasteless as chicken ribs."

Naturally, he knew in his heart—

Other than for mighty figures who specialized in body cultivation, these Stellar Fruits were of little use to ordinary Innate Sacred Beings. Instead, they were more suited for mortal creatures, or even for raising the overall strength of an entire faction.

Just as with those postnatal Demon Race members of later generations whose intelligence was awakened by the Emperor's Celestial Nectar from the moon: those with outstanding aptitude could use Stellar Fruits to connect with their corresponding stars, receive the blessing of stellar power, reverse themselves to the innate state, and cultivate special constitutions such as the Innate Solar Body, Innate Lunar Body, and Ziwei Stellar Body.

But for top-tier Innate Sacred Beings such as Lingxiao, Xihe, and Changxi, who had been born with such foundations, there was absolutely no need to replace them with these weakened versions of innate foundations.

They were already the masters of supreme stars, while these so-called special stellar constitutions could at most be considered children of the stars in terms of status.

Compared to their innate foundations that allowed them to command the stars from birth, the gap was as vast as heaven and earth.

"Brother Dao is quite right." Xihe nodded slightly, her cool voice brimming with clarity. "In terms of innate foundation, my sister and I had Eighth-Grade Flower Blooms, while Brother Dao had a Ninth-Grade Flower Bloom. We are the very pinnacle of the starry sky, beyond anything mere Stellar Fruits could elevate. In terms of cultivation, we are more suited to the path of laws. We should naturally play to our strengths and avoid our weaknesses—why abandon what is long for what is short?"

It was not that shoring up one's weaknesses brought no benefit, but that was a choice to make only when one's primary path had reached a bottleneck and could advance no further.

Otherwise, while one could still forge ahead by great strides along the path of laws, insisting on taking another path where twice the effort yielded half the result was no different from refusing to walk the broad road and insisting on crossing mountains and ridges.

After all, every road could lead to Primordial Unity. There was no inherent superiority or inferiority between paths; it only depended on whether a path suited oneself.

"Huh? So these fruits can only be left there for display, with no real use?" Changxi froze at this, her face full of regret.

"They are not entirely useless. We simply need to use them differently." Lingxiao pondered briefly, then raised his hand and took out the Purple-White Gourd he had obtained from Mount Buzhou.

The seven gourds borne by the Calabash Vine could all become Innate Spiritual Treasures.

Though the Stellar Fruit Tree had a different origin from the Calabash Vine, and its fruits grew batch after batch in cycles, making its uniqueness of origin inferior to those seven innate gourds, there was still something in common between the principles behind them.

—If these Stellar Fruits were not consumed but used for artifact refinement instead, perhaps they could become a complete set of formation-core banners, much like the Heavenly Cycle Star Banners.

"129,600 Stellar Fruits perfectly correspond to the number of one cycle. Perhaps I can use them to construct a Heavenly Cycle Star-Dipper Layout inside this gourd."

Lingxiao had never intended to refine this gourd into an unparalleled killing treasure like the Immortal-Slaying Gourd. Now that he had obtained this entire set of Stellar Fruits containing stellar power, he had an entirely new plan.

Nuwa's Demon-Summoning Gourd could house the Demon-Summoning Banner,

Hong Yun's Nine-Nine Soul-Scattering Red Gourd held endless crimson stellar sands,

Yuanshi's Chaos Gourd contained a small Chaos world within...

A gourd's belly was vast and hollow. This Purple-White Gourd could originally hold the Immortal-Slaying Flying Dagger, and it likewise contained a self-contained space.

"A Heavenly Cycle Star-Dipper Layout? Inside this tiny gourd?" The two sisters looked at the Stellar Fruits glittering like a sea of stars throughout the hall, then at the Purple-White Gourd in Lingxiao's hand, no larger than a palm. Their faces were filled with confusion.

Compressing space and opening a secret realm was not difficult for them, but building a complete starry-sky layout within such a small gourd was far more difficult than merely opening up space.

"Precisely." Lingxiao nodded with a smile. "I wish to refine these Stellar Fruits into formation cores, turn them into a grand formation, and open a miniature starry sky inside the gourd."

Three supreme killing formations of the Primordial World had been renowned throughout the ages:

The first was the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation, unparalleled in slaughter, impossible to break without four Saints;

The second was the Twelve Capitals Heavenly Gods Baleful Formation, which gathered Pangu's true form and could overpower the Primordial World;

The third was the Heavenly Cycle Star-Dipper Formation, the Demon Race Heavenly Court's clan-defending grand formation. Dijun and Taiyi had derived the trajectories of the Heavenly Cycle Stars from the River Map and Luo Script, then worked together to perfect it using the Primordial Dao Runes within the Chaos Bell. It was the ultimate manifestation in the world of the mysteries of the Stellar Dao.

This formation took the number of stars in heaven and earth as its framework, secretly corresponding to the cycles of the Heavenly Dao:

It used 365 Great Heavenly Cycle Star Banners as its roots, corresponding to 365 ancient major stars, and required at least 365 Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals to wield them;

It used 14,800 Lesser Heavenly Cycle Star Banners as its trunk, corresponding to the subsidiary stars of the Heavenly Cycle, and required over ten thousand Golden Immortal Realm cultivators or even Primordial Unity Golden Immortals to hold them in place;

Beyond that, it required 129,600 star imprints as its branches and leaves, corresponding to the number of one cycle and linked to an army of hundreds of millions of Demon Race members. Only then could it draw upon endless stellar power and unleash world-destroying might.

Lingxiao had never intended to contend for supremacy in the Primordial World. Though this formation could overawe all races, it required an enormous number of people to maintain it and involved karmic entanglements far too deep for him to wish to touch.

But leaving the Dao runes on his accompanying treasure unused would be an outrageous waste, far too regrettable. It would be better to open up the entire Cosmic Starry Sky within this Purple-White Gourd.

—Should he encounter a magical battle in the future, he could draw his opponent into the gourd and trap and kill them with the self-contained Heavenly Cycle Star-Dipper Formation inside. It would form a world of its own, possess boundless power, and incur no external karma.

"Opening a starry sky inside a gourd... is that like Pangu opening heaven and earth, following the path of Proving the Dao through Force?" Changxi blinked and asked curiously again.

"No. The difference between them cannot be measured by reason." Lingxiao smiled and shook his head. "I am merely borrowing the treasure to take a shortcut. What I am opening is only a starry sky, not a complete great world. It cannot be called opening heaven and earth. I am simply using the evolution of the starry sky to perfect my own Dao."

After saying this, he gave Xihe and Changxi a few instructions, then turned and entered the inner hall to begin secluded refinement.

Using his own Sun Dao as a guide and the Fire Dao as support, he evolved the mysteries of Yin-Yang Five Elements and refined all 129,600 Stellar Fruits into the Purple-White Gourd one by one.

Each fruit became a star in the void within the gourd:

The 360 major-star fruits stabilized the trajectories of the Heavenly Cycle Stars,

The more than 120,000 subsidiary-star fruits laid out the Star-Dipper Layout,

And in a mere thousand years, he opened a miniature starry sky within the gourd and established the embryonic framework of the Heavenly Cycle Star-Dipper Layout.

The reason it was only an embryonic form was that the Stellar Fruit Tree's origin had been damaged during the Creation Calamity, causing it to fall in grade. What it carried was no longer the complete Stellar Dao.

There were only 360 major-star fruits, leaving the number of Heavenly Cycle Stars incomplete. The same was true of the remaining subsidiary stars and minor stars.

Altogether, there were still at least 15,165 missing stars.

These would naturally need to be gradually filled in later.

Lingxiao was in no hurry. Less than one Yuanhui remained before the wedding day, so the remaining refinement would naturally be left until after the wedding.

And while Lingxiao was refining his treasure, Eastern King Lord and Kunpeng were also carrying out their respective plans according to his earlier guidance.

Upon the Primordial Lands, the two Great Supernatural Beings traveled together, traversing the Four Seas and eight wildernesses as they visited the myriad races.

Kunpeng traveled through the various races, studying their writing and symbols, copying their forms, comprehending their principles, and laying a foundation for creating a universal script for the Primordial World in the future.

Eastern King Lord, meanwhile, used his status as the Dao Ancestor's personally appointed leader of male immortals. Holding the Dragon-Headed Staff bestowed by the Dao Ancestor, he subdued unruly Rogue Cultivator groups and brought them under the jurisdiction of the Immortal Ranks.

Whenever Kunpeng drew upon a race's writing, he would appear and lecture on the Dao, or offer North Sea natural treasures and cultivation resources to make up for the shortcomings in each race's cultivation. This not only dispelled some of the estrangement and disputes between the races, but also earned Eastern King Lord genuine prestige and goodwill.

The two complemented each other: one established rules, the other settled hearts; one handled internal matters, the other external ones.

In only several hundred years, they had already amassed considerable renown among the Rogue Cultivators of the Primordial World and many minor races.

However, among the groups subdued by Eastern King Lord, the strongest cultivators were only at the Primordial Unity Golden Immortal Realm.

Those groups and great Rogue Cultivator figures with Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals in command were all watching and weighing the situation. Not one was willing to submit lightly.

As for ancient races like the Dragon Clan, which had endured the Dragon-Han Calamity, they directly voiced a polite refusal. They were willing only to remain mutually unoffending with the Donghua Purple Mansion, with no intention of entering the jurisdiction of the Immortal Ranks.