He returned to his room.
Qin Tian took a wooden tablet out of his Bitter Sea and placed it on the offering altar. Two bold characters were written on it-Shi Hao!
Just two simple characters, yet they seemed poised to tower over all the heavens across eternity, bearing the grandeur of one who stood alone above all ages.
He lit three sticks of incense and poured a steaming bowl of beast milk.
Qin Tian prayed devoutly, "O Heavenly Emperor who does not belong to this era, you are the founder of the Secret Realm Method, the emperor who commands He Transforms at Ease."
"Qin Tian hereby offers a bottle of premium beast milk. Its flavor is superb-you simply must try it!"
How much energy it contained did not matter; it had to taste good. After all, what energy-rich beast milk had the Desolate Heaven Emperor not already drunk? Novelty was the key.
As for why he wrote Shi Hao rather than the Desolate Heaven Emperor...
That was because the Desolate Heaven Emperor was Shi Hao, but Shi Hao was not necessarily the Desolate Heaven Emperor.
The simplest explanation was that Shi Hao could be Loves Beast Milk Most, but the Desolate Heaven Emperor could not.
Even a Heavenly Emperor had his dignity to preserve. If Qin Tian put up a tablet bearing the Desolate Heaven Emperor's title only to offer beast milk, the Heavenly Emperor would be displeased.
That was what people called knowing the ways of the world.
Qin Tian murmured inwardly, In this world, gods and Buddhas might not exist, and making offerings to them might not do any good.
But making offerings to Milk Baby? That absolutely had to work-and work wonders.
Because Milk Baby really was there, and had been there all along.
Though fortune did not manifest openly in this world, it truly existed. Once, under the name Desolate, Milk Baby had intercepted a million years of the Immortal Domain's grand fortune to sustain the Lord of the Forbidden Zone's lingering obsession and restore his condition.
From that alone, it was clear that fortune truly existed.
Some people stumbled across immortal gold and Immortal Divine Medicine just by stepping outside, while others never encountered so much as a single piece of divine source in their entire lives.
Qin Tian had previously belonged to the latter group. Now, through his ritual, the fortune surrounding him gradually grew, and he was slowly becoming one of the former.
And the ritual that increased his fortune was worshipping the Desolate Heaven Emperor.
In his previous life, he could have called him Loves Beast Milk Most or Milk Baby.
He would not have taken offense.
But now that he had come to Shrouding the Heavens? What should you call me?
The Desolate Heaven Emperor, Dao Ancestor Shi Hao!
Exactly!
Anyone who came to this world and cultivated the Secret Realm Method had to respectfully address him as the founding patriarch.
That was right!
He had once repaired the Nine Heavens with his vital essence, and his Dao methods still circulated throughout the world.
Throughout the Nine Heavens, traces of the Desolate Heaven Emperor remained in both spirit and substance. The Nine Heavens and Ten Earths had already taken on Brother Hao's shape.
Even if the Desolate Heaven Emperor was no longer present, his exalted standing had always remained in this world.
His position as founding patriarch was rock-solid. Everyone who cultivated the Shrouding Method was, without exception, a disciple or descendant of Desolate.
Whenever a Great Emperor was born, their fortune would be anchored to the founding patriarch's spiritual station.
The present world of Shrouding the Heavens, both at its core and on its surface, had long since taken on Shi Hao's shape.
And as the only person in all the Nine Heavens who worshipped the founding patriarch...
How could the Secret Realm Method's system and the whole of heaven and earth not dote on him? Finding divine source when he stepped outside was only natural.
But Qin Tian had not thought of that at first. What he had initially sought was the return bestowed through the power of faith.
The return bestowed through a Great Emperor's power of faith could grant someone a healthy body, keen hearing and sight, and a hundred years of life.
What, then, of the return bestowed through faith in an Immortal Emperor?
Qin Tian had originally thought that an Immortal Emperor's blessing would elevate his innate essence. Even if he could not rival a chaos body, surely he would at least be no worse than Ye Hei.
After all, that was a supreme being at the end of the path. Even a single trace of a Quasi-Immortal Emperor's blood, divided countless times, could create countless Immortal Kings. Surely an End of the Path Immortal Emperor's blessing through faith could produce one sacred body?!
But Qin Tian felt no change at all. He still had a mortal body. He had thought it was because the Desolate Heaven Emperor was fighting Above the Heavens and had no time to pay him any attention.
After all, so many people in the Boundary Sea worshipped the Desolate Heaven Emperor, generating immeasurable power of faith. Who did he think he was?
Until one day, Qin Tian dug up a piece of divine source. He realized things were not so simple. After repeated experiments, he found that his luck had become exceptionally good.
As the Desolate Heaven Emperor's only believer in this realm, Qin Tian's actions stirred the power of fortune that had originally belonged to Desolate, allowing him to share the tiniest sliver of that luck.
And even the smallest scrap of blessings left behind by a supreme Immortal Emperor was an immense stroke of fortune for Qin Tian.
The unseen return of fortune made Qin Tian extraordinarily lucky. Finding divine source just by stepping outside became commonplace.
There was never an eternally favored child of fortune in this world. Fortune was like water, moving with the wind, rising and falling with the tides.
And so, through sheer effort, Qin Tian had artificially fashioned himself into a different kind of child of fortune.
Of course, being a child of fortune was not all that rare or precious.
Wang Teng, for instance, was also a child of fortune in a sense. As a former protagonist, his luck had always been excellent before he met the genuine protagonist. Before he was even two years old, an immortal crane had carried him up into the clouds. He would often vanish for a month or two like that, returning transformed as though reborn each time.
It had only stopped when he turned twelve. During that time, he had obtained the Chaotic Ancient Great Emperor's inheritance! At five, he danced with a flood dragon in a deep pool. At seven, he entered Ancient God Lake in the Northern Region alone and obtained a golden Ancient Chariot. At nine, he entered Ancient Emperor Mountain and brought out the Chaotic Ancient Divine Talisman and a Heavenly Emperor Sacred Sword. At twelve, he fell into Divine Phoenix Cave and obtained undying divine phoenix blood.
Unfortunately, powerful fortune was not omnipotent. When he encountered someone with even stronger luck, he was knocked straight back to his original form.
When fortune came, heaven and earth lent their strength; when it departed, even heroes were no longer free.
Throughout the ages, there had been countless children of fortune, great and small. Not every one of them managed to achieve something.
Ye Fan was not some destined protagonist or born child of fortune, either. It was simply that, as someone with a desolate ancient sacred body, he benefited from the merit and fortune earned by the previous nine generations of great accomplishment sacred bodies who had protected the world. It let him turn calamity into blessing and carve out a path to survival from situations where death was all but certain.
Of course, possessing that merit and fortune did not mean everything would go smoothly or that he could recklessly charge all the way to attaining the Dao. It simply made his luck a little better.
That was all.
Did not the Azure Flood Dragon King still have the Saint's Desolate Ancient Sacred Body Remains in his possession?
"I offer beast milk in worship of Lord Loves Beast Milk Most!"
"Milk Baby, aid me!"
Once the incense had burned out, Qin Tian lifted the beast milk he had offered to Milk Baby.
Qin Tian narrowed his eyes, a blissful smile appearing on his little face.
"A delicacy of the mortal world. I simply must try it."
Even offerings should not go to waste!
"Mmm, delicious!" Qin Tian raised the large bowl and drained it in one gulp.
Just as he finished the beast milk, Qin Tian sensed that familiar feeling again.
The cowlick atop his head stood upright, sensing that a fortuitous opportunity was nearby.
"Right here in this stone house?"
Qin Tian looked around, dug into the ground, and took out a stone.
Clenching his fist, he struck it hard. The apple-sized stone cracked open, releasing a dazzling light.
At the same time, an intensely rich fragrance drifted out, intoxicating his senses and opening every pore in his body.
Inside the stone, a fruit lay quietly, like a gemstone, shimmering with a radiance akin to divine source.
"A Divine Source Fruit?" Qin Tian recognized what it was.
Before you continue