Xun Cosmic Crystal

The gaseous giant star, its diameter unknown but surely measured in billions of kilometers, shrank into an indigo bead the size of a fist and floated in the palm of the Wind Beast God's claw.

After Wind Abyss Star vanished, that stretch of space abruptly collapsed, forming a brief vacuum zone.

King Lanke also bowed with cupped fists, utterly motionless.

The Wind Beast God stored the indigo bead within the bell hanging from his neck. After flicking the bell, he turned and glanced at Fang Yan.

"Boy, remember your words."

He said, "No one can make the right choice every step of the way. But I hope you make fewer wrong turns than I did."

Fang Yan clasped his fists and gave a deep bow.

"This junior will remember."

The Wind Beast God's figure began to fade, as though merging into the void.

Fang Yan turned toward the guardian.

"Thank you for your protection, Senior."

King Lanke straightened. No expression could be seen on his pale face.

"No need for thanks. It is simply my duty."

Even so, Fang Yan solemnly clasped his fists and bowed once more.

When Fang Yan returned to the Footless Bird, Little Fox Fairy immediately began chattering away.

"Master, Master! Was that the Universe Lord just now? He was terrifying! So Master is now the Universe Lord's named disciple?"

Fang Yan slumped into the cockpit seat and let out a long breath, then gave a bitter laugh.

"Beast Gods never come to a good end."

"Master, where are we going now?"

Fang Yan leaned back against the chair and closed his eyes.

"To the Virtual Universe Company headquarters, to see how the Chaos Stele construction is progressing. I wonder how badly Chaos Venerable's heart aches now that Wind Abyss Star has been snatched away by the Wind Beast God."

At the edge of the Xianan Starfield, the Footless Bird completed its turn and transformed into a streak of silver light, plunging into the Dark Universe.

Fifty times the speed of light.

Fang Yan touched his World Ring. Inside lay ten Xun Cosmic Crystals, one Beast God Inheritance Token,

as well as Wind-Flow Origin Liquid, Wind-Commanding Flow Liquid, the Replica Windbearing Divine Spear, Wind-Listening Fang, and other rare treasures worth nearly fifty million chaos elements.

Fang Yan quietly took stock, a smile rising at the corners of his mouth.

"The gains... are plentiful."

The silver-white spaceship continued sailing through the emptiness of the Dark Universe.

Behind the cockpit, inside the cultivation chamber.

Fang Yan sat cross-legged, suspending a Xun Cosmic Crystal before him.

He first tested it with the Spring Autumn Cicada, only to discover that the Spring Autumn Cicada could not fuse with the Xun Cosmic Crystal.

Startled, Fang Yan lightly drew the index finger of his human Clone's right hand across his left palm. A thin wound split open, and crimson blood seeped out.

Without hesitation, Fang Yan pressed the amber-colored Xun Cosmic Crystal against the wound.

The instant the Xun Cosmic Crystal touched his blood, a strange suction force came from the wound. The entire crystal melted at a visible rate like ice dropped into boiling water, turning into a blue-silver liquid that slipped through the wound and entered his body.

"Hiss—"

Fang Yan sucked in a sharp breath.

It hurt.

It felt as though a red-hot iron spike had pierced through his palm and traveled upward along his meridians.

But it was far more bearable than he had imagined.

Fang Yan remembered that, in the original work, when one absorbed Blood Luo Crystals, their baleful aura could directly break a World Lord with insufficient willpower.

Yet the Xun Cosmic Crystal was extraordinarily gentle, like a breeze—powerful, but not violent.

"Perhaps it was because the Wind Beast God had yet to fall."

Fang Yan guessed.

Absorbing the first Xun Cosmic Crystal took less than the time it took to burn an incense stick.

Once that blue-silver power had completely merged into Fang Yan's body, he could clearly sense that his perception of the Law of Wind and the Time Law had sharpened somewhat.

"Not bad."

Fang Yan took out a second Xun Cosmic Crystal from the World Ring and pressed it against the wound.

The third, the fourth... the pain layered upon itself, yet it never reached Fang Yan's limit.

By the fifth Xun Cosmic Crystal, Fang Yan finally felt resistance.

That blue-silver power rampaged through his meridians like a ferocious beast trapped in a cage, trying to burst out of his body.

Fang Yan let out a muffled groan. When he pressed the sixth Xun Cosmic Crystal to the wound, even his hand was trembling.

This time, the pain had reached a terrifying degree. Blue-silver patterns began surfacing across his skin, spreading from his palm to his arm and shoulder, until they covered half his body.

Every pattern emitted a faint glow. They resembled ancient secret markings, yet also seemed like a sign that some power was about to lose control.

Fang Yan gritted his teeth as veins bulged across his forehead.

He felt his body undergoing some kind of mutation. The muscles beneath his skin began twitching uncontrollably, while his bones let out faint cracking sounds, as if something inside him was about to force him apart.

Yet just as he was on the verge of failure, the pain finally ended.

Fang Yan gasped for breath, drenched in sweat from head to toe as though he had been pulled from water.

He lowered his head to look at his arm. The blue-silver patterns were slowly fading, like receding seawater, shrinking bit by bit back into his palm until they disappeared entirely.

"Six crystals. That's the limit."

Fang Yan wiped the sweat from his face and forced out a smile.

The effects of absorbing six Xun Cosmic Crystals had already far exceeded his expectations. He could clearly feel an entirely new power within his body.

With a thought, Fang Yan activated that new power.

Blue-silver patterns began appearing across the skin of his chest, covering half his body.

"Xun Cosmic Power."

Fang Yan clenched his fist, feeling that power flow through his body.

A two-and-a-halffold boost, and that was merely the result of fusing six Xun Cosmic Crystals.

If he could fuse all ten Xun Cosmic Crystals, the boost would reach tenfold. That was the true value of the Xun Cosmic Crystals.

Fang Yan rose and walked over to the mirror in the corner of the cultivation chamber.

The young man in the mirror was pale, exuding an indescribable aura.

"I knew from youth that the world was hard..."

He muttered to the mirror, then extended a hand and took out a pair of gold-rimmed glasses from his World Ring.

Fang Yan set the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose and examined his reflection again.

He nodded in satisfaction, pushed up the frame, and gave the mirror a gentle smile.

"I walk the righteous path. Looking like this... makes me seem more like a good person."

Little Fox Fairy's snicker immediately rang out. "Master, since when did you start caring about that?"

Fang Yan did not answer. You wouldn't understand if you'd never been to the Gu World.

"Chaos Venerable should be getting anxious by now, right?"

Fang Yan said. The matter of the Wind Beast God taking Wind Abyss Star should already have reached Chaos Venerable's ears.

The Footless Bird continued through the Dark Universe. At fifty times the speed of light, it became an almost invisible silver thread within the Dark Universe.

One hundred and twenty years passed.

Fang Yan sat cross-legged in the cultivation chamber, faint blue-silver light lingering around him.