The five days of preparation vanished in the blink of an eye. Within the secret chamber, the chaotic currents swirling around Neji gradually subsided, and the vertical mark on his brow withdrew its glow. He opened his eyes, divine light shining within his Dual Pupils. His aura was deeper and more substantial than before his seclusion. With the high-grade energy of Ōtsutsuki Star, his Early Nascent Soul realm had been thoroughly stabilized. Both the quantity and purity of his true essence had risen slightly, leaving him only an opportunity and sufficient time for steady cultivation away from Mid Nascent Soul.
"Unfortunately, the time was still too short. But it should be enough for the initial exploration," Neji muttered.
He did not leave seclusion at once. Instead, he sank his divine sense into his Sea of Consciousness and connected with the Primordial Bagua Diagram suspended within. Faint light flowed across the scroll, projecting intricate and profound patterns. He was not attempting to divine the future, but to combine the Ōtsutsuki knowledge he had absorbed over the past few days with his attainments in formations and restrictions, preliminarily devising a plan that would allow him to remotely control matters from the Mother Star while secretly cultivating his own forces.
Senjumaru alone, though shrewd and calculating, lacked the strength to support Neji's long-term plans. He needed true hidden pieces that belonged solely to him and were absolutely controllable.
With a thought, he took several materials from his storage ring: a small scrap of Silent Blackstone, several strands of refined Stardust Gold Thread, and a tiny bottle of dew taken from near the Astral Divine Tree model on Moonlight Star, containing faint stellar essence.
These materials were not high-grade and were not rare on the Mother Star, making them ideal for his initial experiment.