A Lotus Flower-Was This Also an Innate Divine Being?

Blue Star, Linjiang Extraordinary Academy.

A soul-guided vehicle personally escorted by two Titled Dou Practitioners slowly entered the academy grounds.

The door opened, and a woman in a pale blue-and-white dress stepped out.

She appeared to be no more than twenty-seven or twenty-eight. Her long hair was pinned up, her features gentle, and she carried none of the sharp aura of a powerful expert.

Yet the moment she appeared, every instructor waiting outside the monitoring hall fell silent.

Shen Qinghe.

Director of the Life Research Institute at Blue Star's First Extraordinary Academy, a level ninety-eight healing-type Super Dou Practitioner.

One of the foremost authorities in Blue Star's field of life research.

She had once single-handedly sustained the lives of three severely wounded Titled Dou Practitioners. She had also entered the core life forbidden zone of Douzhe Continent and communicated with several plant-type Soul Beasts that had lived for hundreds of thousands of years.

The Living Beings' Gold used as the calibration sample was ordinarily kept by her personally.

Shen Qinghe did not linger outside.

After entering the monitoring hall, the first thing she looked at was the Creation Green Lotus within the Primordial World Firmament.

By then, Qing Xuan had already sat beside the Lotus Pond for several centuries.

Strands of World Dao Resonance and creation energy intertwined, yet no greater change had occurred.

"Is that it?"

Shen Qinghe asked.

The elderly man in charge of unknown-plane research handed her the calibration results for the Living Beings' Gold together with the candidate report for the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone.

Shen Qinghe did not immediately give her judgment.

She first reexamined the Living Beings' Gold, confirming that the sample had suffered no loss. Then she personally reviewed the life fluctuations recorded by the monitoring instruments.

Only then did she open the reference materials on the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone.

No one in the monitoring hall spoke.

After a long while, Shen Qinghe set down the report.

"The instruments are not wrong."

"A single life fluctuation naturally emitted by that azure lotus has indeed exceeded the upper limit this piece of Living Beings' Gold can reach."

That conclusion had already been reached before.

But when it was truly spoken by a level ninety-eight healing-type Super Dou Practitioner, its meaning became entirely different.

Zhou Ruolan pressed further.

"Then how does it compare to a Hundred Thousand Year Life-Type Soul Bone?"

"The previous line of judgment was not mistaken."

Shen Qinghe looked at the azure lotus in the firmament.

"If we only calculate the life attributes and supportive value it has currently displayed, its overall value is roughly equivalent to a Hundred Thousand Year Life-Type Soul Bone with perfectly compatible attributes."

"But this must be noted: that is only the treasure's value. It does not represent its combat power."

"Some plant-type Soul Beasts that have lived for tens of thousands of years possess vitality far surpassing Soul Beasts of the same rank, yet they may not necessarily excel in actual combat."

"Likewise, although it possesses an extraordinarily vast life origin, it has not displayed any offensive, defensive, or law-based authority."

Shen Qinghe paused briefly before giving her final conclusion.

"For now, classify it at the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone level."

"It has not reached the level of a divine artifact."

This was the first time since the Creation Green Lotus had appeared that Blue Star had used its familiar cultivation system to assign it a definite place.

It was incomparably precious.

Enough to make Titled Dou Practitioners fight over it.

Yet it still ranked below true divine artifacts that carried divine power and laws.

This preliminary appraisal personally made by Shen Qinghe was swiftly entered into the Primordial World Observation Archive.

The value of the Creation Green Lotus was already beyond question.

But whether it was an Innate Spirit Treasure, a special lifeform, or some plant-type Soul Beast beyond Blue Star's understanding remained impossible to determine.

Shen Qinghe looked toward the Lotus Pond in the firmament.

"If we could collect one of its lotus leaves, or even a drop of pond water, all the questions would become much simpler."

The old man from the research center shook his head.

"That cannot be done now."

"The firmament can only use Qing Xuan as an anchor to capture events occurring in the Primordial World. We cannot send any matter into that world, nor can we actively change the observation position."

Shen Qinghe frowned slightly.

"Since we already have stable coordinates, can we establish a plane passage?"

Once that question was raised, several instructors in the monitoring hall looked over at once.

Blue Star had been connected to the myriad worlds for centuries.

Stable two-way passages had been established with the vast majority of planes that had already been fully analyzed.

Adventurers could enter them.

Some otherworldly lifeforms could likewise travel through those passages to Blue Star.

Douzhe Continent and Blue Star had maintained exchanges for centuries.

If they could enter the Primordial World, those forces in the firmament that they had never been able to judge could naturally receive the most direct answers.

"We are already trying."

The old man brought up a plane dossier that was still constantly changing.

"But the Primordial World is different from every plane we have discovered in the past."

"Its spatial barrier is extraordinarily stable, while its time flow differs far too greatly from Blue Star's. At this stage, we can only rely on Qing Xuan as an anchor to complete one-way projection. We cannot support any living being passing through."

"At the current rate of analysis, even if everything goes smoothly, building the first temporary passage will take nearly a year."

Shen Qinghe looked at him. "Blue Star time?"

"Yes."

The old man paused briefly.

"And that is only the most ideal estimate."

"If Qing Xuan enters an area completely isolated from the outside during that time, or if the anchor coordinates shift again, it will only take longer."

Shen Qinghe did not give up because of this.

"Bring the Life Research Institute's plane-analysis equipment here."

"From today onward, I will remain in Linjiang."

A level ninety-eight Super Dou Practitioner had personally joined the research into the Primordial World plane.

This was already the first real change produced in the real world after the azure lotus appeared.

That same day, the Transcendent Association officially launched its plan to construct a two-way passage to the Primordial World.

Estimated completion time: one year.

The information was not fully disclosed, yet it still spread rapidly among Blue Star's top transcendent factions.

For the first time, people began seriously considering the possibility of entering the Primordial World.

And for the first time, people began anticipating what would happen when Blue Star's Soul Masters truly encountered those lifeforms known as Innate Divine Beings.

Within the Primordial World Firmament.

Another thousand years passed.

The world behind Qing Xuan had become one with the entire Lotus Pond.

Within that world, whenever a mountain range rose from the earth, the Creation Green Lotus gave birth to a new strand of Dao Resonance.

Whenever a drop of water fell into the Lotus Pond, a spring rain fell upon the mountains and rivers in Qing Xuan's world.

The World Dao carried creation.

The Creation Great Dao nurtured the world.

They confirmed one another, making the previously blank road to transformation increasingly clear.

On this day, the Creation Green Lotus, which had never made a decision, finally moved.

The Twenty-Four-Petal Lotus Platform slowly rotated.

The entire Innate Grand Formation revived with it.

Boundless creation energy gathered from all directions, yet the water in the Lotus Pond did not stir in the slightest.

The outermost petal of the lotus platform quietly separated from the main body.

Then came the second petal, the third petal.

Streams of azure origin continuously split away.

Until an entire Twelve-Petaled Lotus Platform had completely detached from the body of the Creation Green Lotus.

The origin of the Twenty-Four-Grade Creation Green Lotus was divided into two complete portions at that moment.

One half still carried the spirituality that had already been born.

The other half became the purest Creation Origin once more and slowly flew toward Qing Xuan.

Qing Xuan opened his eyes.

He did not put on a show of refusing it.

This half of the origin was both the karma the Creation Green Lotus had settled in exchange for its path to transformation and what he had earned by breaking open the Innate Grand Formation and using the World Dao to deduce a method of transformation for it.

What belonged to him needed no refusal.

Qing Xuan raised his hand and caught the twelve-petaled Creation Origin.

A world drew it within.

Beneath the encirclement of boundless mountains and rivers, the Twelve-Petaled Lotus Platform condensed anew, becoming an azure lotus platform that shared the same root and origin as before, yet now possessed an independent origin.

The Twelve-Petal Creation Azure Lotus.

It did not give birth to new spirituality.

Nor did it retain that previous consciousness.

From this moment onward, it was merely an Innate Spirit Treasure that truly belonged to Qing Xuan.

At the same time, the remaining twelve-petaled origin in the center of the Lotus Pond began drawing inward.

Immense creation energy washed over it without end.

The Chaotic roots that had originally taken root in the void gradually vanished, while the azure lotus platform slowly changed form amid the boundless Dao light.

That spirituality was truly shedding the body of a spirit treasure.

Qing Xuan rose to his feet.

A phantom of the world rose behind him and transformed into a dark firmament, completely concealing the entire Lotus Pond.

When an Innate Divine Being transformed, its Dao body would naturally be remade.

He would not pry.

The Primordial World Firmament likewise could not cross Qing Xuan's World Dao to capture any scene within.

Above Blue Star's sky, the previously clear image of the Lotus Pond was instantly covered by dark Dao light.

Everyone could only see boundless creation energy rising into the heavens.

But they could not see any changes occurring within the Dao light.

"Has Qing Xuan begun refining that lotus flower?"

"That azure lotus seemed to have split into two parts just now."

"One part was taken away by Qing Xuan. Why was the rest covered up too?"

Speculation appeared one after another in the public channel.

Inside the monitoring hall, Shen Qinghe had already returned to stand before the life-monitoring instruments.

Although the instruments could not penetrate Qing Xuan's World Dao, they could still capture the changes in life occurring within that Dao light.

The vast life source that had originally belonged to the Creation Green Lotus had already completely divided into two.

One portion returned to silence and followed the Twelve-Petaled Lotus Platform into Qing Xuan's world.

But the remaining portion was not absorbed by Qing Xuan.

It was rebuilding a complete life structure in an unprecedented manner.

A heartbeat.

Blood.

An innate Dao body.

As Shen Qinghe watched the second life fluctuation gradually take shape in the monitoring instruments, her eyes lost their former calm for the first time.

"Qing Xuan is not refining it."

Zhou Ruolan looked at her.

Shen Qinghe slowly raised her head and looked toward the Primordial World Firmament, completely obscured by dark Dao light.

"That azure lotus..."

"Is becoming a true living being."

As her words fell, an aura of an Innate Divine Being, entirely different from Qing Xuan's yet equally pure and ancient, slowly awakened from the azure light filling the sky.