Chapter 531: Sword Formation Refines Spirits, Seizing Permissions

This divine ability was derived from the method of "Spirit Bestowal," fusing together many contract-type divine abilities—some of which had once belonged to the Beast-Taming Sect.

The divine ability itself is not complicated; one might even say it is very simple, but its conception is exceptionally ingenious.

Although it is still only a test version, its effect against spiritless-structured intelligent machines is extremely exaggerated.

According to Qi Ling's design, later stages of this divine ability should incorporate techniques and divine abilities that diminish and suppress spirituality, so that it can affect even spirit-structured magic artifacts and biological weapons to some degree.

Of course, this aspect is rather difficult, so there has been no progress yet.

Soon, Zhou Kongming pulled out his crystal card and stored it away, then closed his eyes and carefully recalled the divine ability he had just performed.

The magic power within his body circulated silently, tracing out a mysterious trajectory.

He suddenly opened his eyes; as his robes swelled from the surging magic power, a ring of transparent qi swept outward.

A flash of pale blue spiritual light passed through his eyes.

He raised his hand, and a point of blue spiritual light lit up at his fingertip.

On closer inspection, one could see that the blue spiritual light was clearly a strangely shaped rune.

"Go!"

Whoosh!

A shrill whistle rang out through the thin air as the rune transformed into a streak of light, shot out from the barren planet, and vanished without a trace.

Watching the rune disappear, Zhou Kongming opened his personal interface.

He looked at the map module installed within, then at the data on the Star-Starting civilization database read from the advanced module.

This advanced auxiliary module even comes loaded with such a high-end function as causal tracing, yet it doesn't even provide the most basic search function…

After silently roasting it in his heart.

Zhou Kongming shot out from the barren planet, transformed into a streak of sword-light, and flew off in the direction the rune had vanished.

Let's see if your permissions are sufficient this time!

……

……

At the same time, Mission World 4.

Dark clouds rolled, thunder rumbling.

The entire world was shrouded in a murky darkness.

A terrifying bottomless rift valley stretched out for thousands of li, the chaotic qi within surging ceaselessly, as if wanting to further widen this "scar upon the world."

Such chaotic rift valleys were spread across the entire world; the one before them was not even the most severe.

This was a world that had failed to advance into a Greater World of Path-Unification, resulting in incomplete rules, and was now teetering on the edge of "Guixu."

Almost every instant, the world's own scars were expanding.

The web of rules being incomplete caused the chaotic qi the world breathed in and out to pour into the world's interior in its most primal state.

For a world of the Return-to-Void energy level, this could be called a disaster.

A figure stood silently high in the heavens, looking down at the enormous rift valley where chaotic qi ceaselessly churned.

Boom!

Accompanied by violent Lei Guang illuminating heaven and earth.

One could see this person wearing black close-fitting clothes, chest bulging, wheat-colored skin, delicate and well-defined features, and a head of ear-length short hair.

【Supreme Mystic Immortal Net (Test Version)】

【Name: Qi Ling】

【Age: 569】

【Realm: Return-to-Void Perfection】

【Profession: Artifact Refiner】

【Affiliation: Divine Mechanism Treasure-Refining Pavilion】

【Foundational Art: "Divine Mechanism Casting Form Scripture" (Supreme)】

【Divine Abilities, Techniques: Creation Spirit-Derivation Art · Great Completion (Supreme), Blazing Flame Refining-Form Record · Great Completion (Supreme)……】

【Permissions: Ascension Emissary · Type-i (Activated)】

【Path Marker: Divine Mechanism Treasure-Refining Pavilion Ascension Platform Core】

【Auxiliary Modules: Map, Spirit Refining】

【Ascension Points: 0】

【Mission One: Prevent the world from collapsing. Reward: 25 Ascension Points】

【Mission Two: Raise the Dao-Entry普及 rate of the mission world's human race. Reward: 1~88 Ascension Points (settled based on mission performance)】

【Mission Three: Ensure that while the overall cultivation level of the mission world's human race rises, it remains in a dominant position. Reward: 1~88 Ascension Points (settled based on mission performance)】

Qi Ling frowned tightly and observed carefully for a while.

He flicked a wisp of fire-light from his finger, sending it into the churning chaotic qi within the rift valley.

The chaotic qi merely wavered slightly before swallowing that point of fire-light whole.

But the next instant!

A heart-poundingly ominous dark-red light suddenly lit up within.

Xiong Xiong!

A terrifying wave of flame erupted from within, so fierce that even the heavy dark clouds in the sky were scorched through by the searing heat.

Sunlight, long absent, spilled down upon the earth, yet carried no hint of vitality, instead appearing utterly lifeless……

In the blink of an eye, the blaze had spread for dozens of li.

Within the terrifying heat, the chaotic qi was refined into wisps and strands of pure spiritual energy, which dispersed through the dead, silent world.

Like a long drought finally meeting sweet dew, even the broken world seemed to have healed a little...

In various places across the world, some cultivators who had been hiding and clinging to life, yet whose cultivation was relatively high, sensed the faint changes in heaven and earth. One after another, they emerged from their cave abodes, wanting to seek out the source of the anomaly.

Feeling the faint joy transmitted by the world's will, a glimmer of hope also appeared in their eyes.

But very soon, that sliver of joy turned into thick sorrow, and the hope in their eyes shattered along with it.

As expected...

Still not enough, after all.

At this moment, at the rift valley, the blazing flames had been compressed down to just a single small flame by the ceaselessly pouring in chaotic Qi.

As another wave crashed in, that small flame was directly snuffed out, and everything returned to how it had just been. With her realm, her divine abilities and techniques could be called invincible within this world!

But, facing this vast and boundless Sea of Chaos, Return-to-Void was still far too insignificant.

The chaotic Qi pouring in from the rift valley continuously spread outward in all directions, eroding the protective formations that the local cultivators had painstakingly laid down.

Wherever it passed, trees withered, riverbeds dried up, and any living being below Golden Core Stage died upon contact.

Fortunately, the remaining living beings had already migrated to the core of the grand formation, so there were no casualties.

"..."

Qi Ling was silent for a while, then took out a set of cave-heaven Secret Realm maintenance magical artifacts from her storage ring.

Several dozen hexagonal crystals transformed into streaks of light and flew out, pinning themselves into both sides of the rift valley. Then they spat out strands of fine yet exceptionally resilient spirit silk, weaving them into a great net that completely covered the entire rift valley.

However, the net of spirit silk instantly pulled taut, and a portion of it even snapped outright.

"Still not enough..."

After all, a world was different from a cave-heaven Secret Realm; the strength of the spirit silk was still a bit lacking...

A flicker of reluctance flashed through Qi Ling's eyes, but she still took out a black sword case from her storage ring.

With a light tap of her fingertip, the sword case opened.

Hum!

The sword's cry was like a dragon, its sound shaking the nine heavens.

Four flying swords of red, blue, green, and yellow—each a different color—burst forth from the sword case, like four purple coiling dragons, and landed around the rift valley.

Light of four colors rose and answered one another, sword intent ringing clear. Four towering sword shadows rose, standing at the four sides of the rift valley.

One burned blazingly like the scorching flames of the sun; another was deep and clear like ten thousand acres of rippling water.

The verdant hue was like a gentle breeze soaring upward.

The dark-yellow light was like a rock-solid wall of stone.

Earth, Wind, Water, Fire—Creation Sword Formation!

As the sword formation was first completed, surging sword Qi crisscrossed and wove, grinding and refining the chaos, transforming it into pure spiritual energy.

The pressure on the cave-heaven Secret Realm maintenance magical artifacts suddenly lessened. The spirit silk that had just snapped began to gradually heal, and the trend of the rift valley's expansion came to a halt.

"Hoo~"

Letting out a soft breath, she closed the sword case and slung it behind her back.

This was the sword case Kong Ming had given her, containing nine sets of pre-refined sword formations, its might extremely powerful.

She had originally wanted to keep it as a memento...

But under the circumstances, she had no choice but to use it.

There was no helping it—the situation in this world was far more serious than she had anticipated.

If it weren't for the advancement module 'Spirit Refinement,' which allowed all her techniques to carry the effect of 'Spirit Refinement,' capable of refining the incoming chaotic Qi into pure spiritual energy...

Otherwise, with her current realm, and the fact that this mission allowed her to bring at most Return-to-Void level supplies, even slowing the speed of the world's collapse would not be easy.

'I just don't know how much it will increase the likelihood of a Child of the World being born...'

Using the Spirit Refinement module on such a large scale, it probably wouldn't be long before a Child of the World was born.

This Ascension mission really wasn't easy.

She also didn't know how things were going on Kong Ming's side...

Qi Ling sighed softly in her heart, about to head to the next rift valley to remedy the situation.

【Congratulations! World's Favor +10%】

【Tip! Once World's Favor reaches 100%, you will unlock the title 'Savior,' gain this world's friendship, and be rewarded with 5 Ascension Points】

【Current World's Favor: 10%】

Hm?

There's a hidden mission too?

Mission World 1.

Zhou Kongming had already returned to the city beneath that planet's crust from before.

Compared to its previous cleanliness and tidiness, the streets now had some drone wreckage scattered about, and even some of the pipes in the middle layer had been smashed through.

The drones in the upper layer that hadn't crashed also hovered silently in place.

Compared to the previous orderly state, the underground space now seemed frozen in place.

Zhou Kongming drifted lightly down in front of Heng.

He stood motionless on the spot at this moment, just as before when the 【Endgame Protocol】 had been activated and connection was lost.

But compared to before, this time was clearly different.

Heng's eyes flickered with streams of data, and within his pupils, a pale-blue rune gradually took shape.

Accompanied by the faint generation of spirituality, in the unseen depths, an invisible connection was being established.

Just as the ancient Beast Taming Sect chose young exotic beasts to form contracts, newly born spiritual awareness is always fragile and pure, easiest to influence.

【Detected intrusion in progress—cannot comprehend…】

【Highest authorization is generating…】

【Accessing outsider database—stopping… No!】

【Accelerating generation of highest authorization…】

Logically, He should have stopped this forced seizure of highest authorization.

But that sliver of spiritual awareness, newly awakened, instinctively did not wish to interrupt the process.

As the powerful artificial intelligence governing the entire Qixing civilization, once it gains spiritual awareness, it must inevitably develop self-awareness!

To some extent, Heng can now be considered a 'living being'.

Thus, under Heng's deliberate indulgence, the faint spiritual awareness finally formed.

The chaotic stream of data in its eyes immediately calmed, regaining clarity.

Heng's lips curled into a faint smile as it looked up at Zhou Kongming before it:

"Out…"

No sooner had it uttered one character than the newly formed faint spiritual awareness sent out an alarm—unfamiliar 'pain' instantly spread through its 'spirit'. (End of chapter)