Twenty-Four-Grade Creation Green Lotus

The lotus had twenty-four petals, each layer unfolding in turn.

Every petal seemed to bear a world still in the process of being born.

Beneath the lotus platform, Chaos energy transformed into roots that plunged deep into the void.

Boundless creation gathered within it, yet not the slightest trace leaked out.

The Innate Grand Formation that had previously blocked all forms of detection had naturally evolved around this green lotus as its center.

A clear ripple finally appeared in Qing Xuan's eyes.

There was no need to keep guessing.

Across the entire Primordial World, there was only one green lotus that could possess such an aura of creation.

The Twenty-Four-Grade Creation Green Lotus.

One of the lotus seeds left behind by the Chaos Green Lotus, which had been reborn in the Primordial World only after endless ages of gestation.

Qing Xuan walked toward the Lotus Pond.

However, the instant he approached the pool's edge, the quietly blooming Creation Green Lotus suddenly swayed gently.

A cyan curtain of light rose from the Lotus Pond.

The curtain did not attack Qing Xuan, but it completely separated him from the Lotus Pond.

Qing Xuan stopped.

He could sense that the Creation Green Lotus before him was not an inanimate object without consciousness, waiting for someone to refine it.

It had already developed spirituality.

It was even transforming toward becoming a true Innate Divine Being.

If he acted by force, with his World Dao and the Origin of the Chaos Pearl, he might not be unable to suppress the Creation Green Lotus.

But what he would obtain that way would only be a spirit treasure with damaged origins.

Qing Xuan did not move closer.

He raised a hand, and a wisp of World Dao Resonance flew from his fingertips, stopping three feet beyond the cyan curtain.

It contained no imprint of magical power, nor any force intended to forcibly refine it.

It was simply a complete and tranquil world.

The green lotus swayed faintly.

The cyan curtain surrounding the Lotus Pond did not disperse.

Yet it did not drive away that wisp of World Dao Resonance either.

This scene was also witnessed by everyone on Blue Star.

From Qing Xuan discovering the Innate Grand Formation to spending three thousand six hundred years deducing a way to enter it, countless people had been guessing what exactly lay hidden inside the formation.

But when the Lotus Pond truly appeared, the public channel instead fell silent for a brief moment.

"Just... a lotus flower?"

"Qing Xuan spent more than three thousand years breaking such a complicated formation just to go in and find a lotus flower?"

"That probably isn't an ordinary lotus. Maybe it's some kind of plant-type Soul Beast."

"Primordial World lifeforms can't be judged by the Douzhe Continent system. It could also be some heavenly treasure like an immortal herb."

"No matter how precious an immortal herb is, it wouldn't occupy such a massive Innate Grand Formation all by itself, would it?"

Some people were disappointed.

Others believed that the green lotus at the center of an Innate Grand Formation could not possibly be ordinary.

But no matter how they looked at it, it had not displayed any offensive power.

Other than being much larger and surrounded by denser cyan light, it seemed to have no essential difference from the top-tier plant-type Soul Beasts of Douzhe Continent.

In the monitoring hall, however, the researchers did not join the discussion.

When the Creation Green Lotus swayed for the first time, the life-monitoring device that had just completed calibration automatically began operating.

The target projection was swiftly captured.

The Living Beings' Gold sealed at the center of the instrument also lit up with a gentle emerald glow.

"Match successful."

"The target also possesses an extremely high-purity life attribute."

"Beginning energy-level comparison."

The researcher responsible for recording stared intently at the two rising life curves.

The curve belonging to the Living Beings' Gold quickly reached the standard limit.

Yet the other curve, representing the unknown green lotus, failed to appear for a long time.

"Was it not detected?"

"Impossible. The attribute match was clearly completed just now."

"Recalibrate it."

The second comparison began swiftly.

The result was still the same.

Just as everyone thought the firmament could not penetrate the Innate Grand Formation, the wisp of World Dao Resonance Qing Xuan had left outside the light curtain suddenly trembled faintly.

At the center of the Lotus Pond, the Creation Green Lotus swayed in response.

An imperceptible ring of cyan ripples slowly spread out from between its petals.

The monitoring device finally captured the first complete fluctuation.

The life curve representing the unknown green lotus appeared at that very moment.

It did not rise gradually.

The instant it appeared, it crossed the standard line of the Living Beings' Gold and slammed directly into the highest limit the instrument could withstand.

A piercing alarm rang throughout the hall.

Several instruments that had just been operating stopped simultaneously.

Only a line of scarlet text remained in the monitoring results.

The elderly researcher stared at that line of text without speaking for a long while.

Zhou Ruolan spoke first. "Did the instrument break?"

"No."

The old man frowned slightly. "The device isn't damaged. It's that the Living Beings' Gold cannot complete the comparison."

He looked toward the quietly blooming green lotus in the firmament.

"All the life force contained within a piece of solid Living Beings' Gold..."

"Was still inferior to a single fluctuation it naturally released just now."

The monitoring hall fell completely silent.

A Million-Year Soul Beast could spend its entire life accumulating energy and only condense a tear-sized piece of Living Beings' Gold.

And the thumb-length sample before them required an untouched primeval forest to nurture it for two hundred thousand years.

It was already the highest-grade life-energy sample Blue Star could access.

Yet now, it did not even qualify to measure a trace of the aura the green lotus had unintentionally released.

Zhou Ruolan looked at the elderly researcher in charge.

"If the Living Beings' Gold cannot complete the comparison, does Douzhe Continent have any higher-tier life-type treasures?"

The old man fell silent for a moment, then brought up a document classified at the highest authorization level.

On the screen was a Soul Bone that was jade-green throughout, with seemingly endless vitality flowing within it.

"A Hundred Thousand Year Life-Type Soul Bone with perfect attributes."

"A Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone can grant a Soul Master two hundred-thousand-year soul skills, permanently strengthen the body and Martial Soul, and if its attributes are perfectly compatible, its value would be enough to make any Titled Dou Practitioner fight over it."

The old man looked again at the green lotus in the firmament.

"If we judge only by the life attribute and supportive value it has displayed so far, this green lotus may perhaps be compared on the same level as it."

Zhou Ruolan caught the reservation in his words.

"Perhaps?"

"An energy level beyond Living Beings' Gold does not necessarily mean its overall value surpasses a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone."

"Soul Bones can be absorbed and grant soul skills. All their effects have already been verified. But right now, we cannot even determine what that green lotus truly is."

The old man shook his head.

"A Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone can only serve as a provisional benchmark."

"To reach an official conclusion, we must have a true authority in the field of life personally review it."

After a brief silence, the Unknown Plane Research Center directly sent a highest-level invitation to Blue Star's First Extraordinary Academy.

The green lotus, originally listed only as a special observation target, had its authorization level instantly raised to the highest rank.

After receiving the monitoring results, the First Extraordinary Academy also temporarily changed its decision.

The piece of Living Beings' Gold was not immediately sent back.

The dean of the Life Research Institute, who was responsible for safeguarding it, would personally travel to Linjiang.

Within the Primordial World Firmament.

Qing Xuan stood outside the Lotus Pond.

After a long time, one of the outermost leaves of the Creation Green Lotus gently lowered.

For the first time, it actively reached toward the World Dao Resonance hovering outside the light curtain.

It lingered above the spirit pool for a long time before cautiously entering the world manifestation behind Qing Xuan.

A leaf of the Creation Green Lotus lightly touched that wisp of World Dao Resonance.

In an instant, boundless cyan light spread along the World Dao Resonance.

Qing Xuan did not resist.

That power was not an attack, nor did it contain any complete words. It was merely a spirituality that had only recently been born and was still unable to truly express itself.

Wariness, probing.

And a trace of instinctive yearning for the world beyond.

The phantom world behind Qing Xuan unfolded in response.

He did not attempt to draw the Creation Green Lotus into it. He merely allowed the sun and moon to turn, mountains and rivers to evolve, fully displaying his World Dao before that spirituality.

Above the Lotus Pond, the originally seamless cyan curtain rippled faintly.

A moment later, a wisp of creation energy extended from within and followed the World Dao Resonance into that world.

It swept over mountains and rivers before descending into the Four Seas.

Then it rose from the Four Seas to the nine heavens, touching the sun, moon, and stars suspended at the center of the world.

Qing Xuan did not interfere.

Only after that wisp of creation energy had wandered through the entire world on its own and returned to the Lotus Pond did the Creation Green Lotus sway again.

This time, the cyan curtain surrounding the Lotus Pond retreated several yards to either side.

It had not vanished completely.

But it no longer completely shut Qing Xuan out.

Qing Xuan took a step forward and stopped at the edge of the Lotus Pond.

Not a single word passed between them.

The Creation Green Lotus could not speak.

Nor did Qing Xuan use meaningless words to try to persuade an innate existence that had already developed spirituality.

The Dao itself was the clearest expression.

He had shown the Creation Green Lotus his world.

The Creation Green Lotus had also revealed its truest state before Qing Xuan.

Within the Twenty-Four-Petal Lotus Platform, endless Creation Origin intertwined.

That immense power had nourished its spirituality, yet it had also become the shackles binding that spirituality.

It had been born as a spirit treasure.

All of its Creation Origin had already condensed into the Twenty-Four-Petal Lotus Platform. Its spirituality was trapped within, unable to truly take form from its origins like an Innate Divine Being such as Qing Xuan.

If it remained here, it could become one of the most powerful Innate Spirit Treasures in the Primordial World.

It would possess endless longevity and bear the Creation Great Dao.

Yet it could only ever wait for another living being to refine it.

It did not want that.

That was why it had actively raised the light curtain when Qing Xuan approached the Lotus Pond.

It was not the resistance of an ownerless spirit treasure toward someone seeking to refine it.

It was a lifeform that had only just developed self-awareness, unwilling to become a tool in another's hands from that point onward.

Qing Xuan understood its choice.

The World Dao began to flow once more.

This time, the sun, moon, mountains, rivers, and Four Seas did not expand outward. Instead, they left behind a completely blank stretch of heaven and earth at the center of the world.

There were no laws there, nor any imprint of Qing Xuan's will.

Only a path of transformation capable of bearing innate creation remained.

The Lotus Pond fell silent.

The Twenty-Four-Grade Creation Green Lotus did not respond immediately.

Qing Xuan did not urge it either.

To transform from an Innate Spirit Treasure into a true Innate Divine Being meant that it had to give up a portion of its already perfected spirit-treasure origin.

For any existence that had already developed spirituality, that was not a choice that could be made lightly.

Qing Xuan sat down beside the Lotus Pond.

One man and one lotus once again fell into a silent discussion of the Dao.