Chapter 227: Divine Artifact

"Lin Qing?"

Inside the Space-Time Cage, the Nine-Star Emperor looked at Lin Qing with cold eyes. "How dare your true form enter to see me?"

He could tell at a glance that Lin Qing was still merely a Ultimate Star Being; even if he had become a Star Deity, so what?

He had also heard that peerless geniuses within a Level Two Civilization, after obtaining a Star-level Deity Position, could rival Void Beings, but even such peerless geniuses could only match them.

Although he was not qualified to contact a Level Two Civilization, he understood exactly how powerful Void Beings were.

"Oh? It seems you have no intelligence on Level Two Civilizations?" Lin Qing looked at the Nine-Star Emperor, a trace of pity in his eyes. "Truly pathetic..."

His name had already spread throughout the Void Sea, and now, having passed the Star God Trial with a perfect score to become the new Star God, any Level Two Civilization with good intelligence would surely have judged his strength.

Yet this Nine-Star Emperor still treated him as an ordinary Star Deity?

"Poor wretch..."

Lin Qing was also too lazy to say more; his figure moved instantly, and he slapped down.

Only to see the divine weapon's light condense and collapse, pure darkness as if to return everything to extinction; where that terrifying power passed, space showed obvious collapse and rupture, striking directly at the Nine-Star Emperor.

At the same time, the Space-Time Cage that isolated everything suddenly shrank in an instant, leaving the opponent absolutely no space to dodge.

"Hm?"

The Nine-Star Emperor finally noticed something was wrong; his face changed drastically, and a trace of incredulous panic floated in his eyes.

"No! I..."

But it was too late; under his hasty defense, he only felt that endless meaning of extinction as if to destroy everything; the spatial barrier he frantically summoned could not hold, and his body was struck by that terrifying power of extinction.

Silently and without sound, the Nine-Star Emperor's body instantly turned to nothingness, his soul shattering in the void along with it.

After the void within his body collapsed, a large quantity of items scattered out violently.

At the same time, after the Primordial Annihilation strike killed the Nine-Star Emperor, an immense and vast source of life essence surged over.

"Such carelessness saves me a lot of trouble."

A smile appeared at the corner of Lin Qing's mouth; his vertical eye in the brow moved, and he collected these relics left after the Nine-Star Emperor's annihilation.

In fact, without merging with his Black Flame Clone, he possessed only one-tenth of his strength during fusion combustion, and he had not used the World God, so at this moment he was merely at the lower-middle stage of the Yu Xingyuan's eleventh layer.

He was not much stronger than the Nine-Star Emperor, but the opponent's defense was too hasty, and he was locked by the Space-Time Cage with no way to dodge, so naturally it was a one-strike kill.

"Full."

At this moment, Lin Qing clearly sensed that the 'experience bar' of the Divine Path Dongyan Di Jun deity position had instantly filled up.

It was enough for him to experience the process of transforming into a Void Being once.

Lin Qing was not in a hurry to experience it now; instead, he formed a thought-force projection and entered another Space-Time Cage to meet the white-gold robed man.

"Lin Qing?"

The white-gold robed man, who had been refining with his eyes closed, turned his head to look, a smile on his lips.

"Oh?" Lin Qing also noticed the change in the other's attitude.

"I didn't expect a planet civilization to produce a genius like you?" The white-gold robed man smiled. "I misjudged you before; let me reintroduce myself: I am the Seventy-First Pillar of the Tower Wheel Civilization; you may call me Xi Lin."

Lin Qing raised his eyebrows slightly and said, "I heard you are a big shot like the Void Ruler; why are you so polite to a small fry like me who isn't even a Void Being?"

"I apologize."

The white-gold robed man said earnestly, "Before, I was stuck in habitual thinking; I never thought a planet civilization obtaining the legacy of a Level Three Civilization could produce a figure like you. Please forgive me, Mr. Lin Qing."

He shook his head and said, "In front of Mr. Lin Qing, how can I count as a big shot?"

In the past, he never thought Lin Qing could pass the Star God Trial; after all, the difficulty of the Star God Trial had reached an unimaginable level.

Only until the news spread just now did he realize that the leader of this planet civilization before him had actually become the new Star God!

As a 2.3-level civilization, in the Tower Wheel Civilization's history of billions of years, only three Star Gods had ever appeared.

The current Tower Wheel Civilization has not even a single Star God!

This is also the situation for most Level Two Civilizations.

Although he is the Void Ruler who controls the spatial rules and a Pillar-level powerhouse of the Tower Wheel Civilization, even for a powerhouse like him, after the Tower Wheel Civilization endured billions of years, over a hundred could still be accumulated.

But Star Gods are different; although most Star Gods can only exist for about a hundred million years, their status is higher than that of a Void Ruler like him!

The current Tower Wheel Civilization, wanting a Divine Artifact, must ask a Star God from another civilization to help forge it!

In front of a Star God, he has no face to call himself a big shot.

Even if Earth is currently only a planet civilization, with the help of a Star God, it will sooner or later become a Level Two Civilization!

"Mr. Xi Lin, do you want me to let this clone of yours go?" Lin Qing sized up the other.

"Not exactly."

The white-gold robed man slowly shook his head and said, "I know that one must pay the price for doing wrong; I will voluntarily dissipate this clone. The treasure carried by this clone shall serve as an apology to Mr. Lin Qing."

He sensibly did not propose making a separate apology.

Because he knew that making a separate apology would require sending the gift back to Earth, but this civilization and the Star God before him are still too weak; they cannot remove the space-time concealment, otherwise it would give many Level Two Civilizations an opportunity.

Although the treasure carried by this clone was quite precious and losing it hurt, as long as he deleted this memory, it would be fine.

Most importantly...

The Master of the Secret Realm from the Ancient Wheel Civilization had already ordered that neither the Ancient Wheel Civilization nor its subordinate civilizations should make things difficult for Lin Qing.

"An apology?"

Lin Qing looked at him, somewhat speechless.

A堂堂 Void Ruler, a high-ranking official of a Level Two Civilization, voluntarily apologizing to him?

To be honest, after this Void Ruler of a Level Two Civilization descended, he hadn't done anything yet; there was no mortal grudge with the Earth Civilization; now that he was willing to apologize so earnestly, Lin Qing indeed had no need to say more.

Besides, only one of the opponent's clones was locked by the Space-Time Cage; he could not do anything to the other.

With his current strength, the gap between him and the Void Ruler's strength was unknown.

So...

"Good."

Lin Qing nodded and said, "Then I shall consider this matter as if it never happened."

"Mr. Lin Qing indeed has a broad mind," the man in the white-gold long robe laughed, caring not at all that he was bowing before a Star Spirit.

In the entire Void Sea, there were countless Star Spirits with higher status and more noble identities than him.

In his long life, the number of times he had bowed his head was already too numerous to count.

What did it matter to apologize and yield at this moment?

"Mr. Lin, please look."

The man in the white-gold long robe flipped his hand, producing a miniature star model resembling a globe; one could sense the strange spatial distortion and the immense power akin to a rotating star.

"This is an Order-type Divine Artifact."

The man in the white-gold long robe introduced, "Mr. Lin Qing can use it to exchange for a Life-faction Divine Artifact, or ask an Order-faction Star God to erase the Divine Skill imprint within it for others to use; either way is fine."

Lin Qing nodded slightly and asked, "What rank of Divine Artifact is it?" "Five-colored, suitable for imprinting Domain-type Divine Skills," the man in the white-gold long robe said. "At least someone of my strength level can only access the upper limit of this Divine Artifact."

Although Lin Qing had never forged a Divine Artifact, he knew the specifics of Divine Artifacts.

Thus, he asked no more and directly stored away this five-colored Divine Artifact resembling a globe.

"Mr. Lin Qing, then I shall not disturb you further."

The man in the white-gold long robe nodded slightly, then immediately transformed into energy and slowly dissipated, subsequently vanishing completely without a trace.

After the man in the white-gold long robe dissipated, Lin Qing could not help but slowly shake his head, feeling somewhat sighful.

"It was a five-colored Divine Artifact, yet he just gave it up like that?"

As far as he knew—

Divine Artifacts, according to their attributes, can be divided into the Liuda Sect.

And the rank of Divine Artifacts can be divided into seven colors based on the number of colors, with the highest being the Chaos Color.

As faction Divine Artifacts, their greatest function is to resonate with universal rules, thereby triggering the power of the universal origin to unleash even greater might.

!

The higher the rank of the Divine Artifact, the higher the upper limit of its might.

However, one must possess a Divine Skill to unleash the might of a Divine Artifact—one must transform one's own mastered Divine Skill into secret patterns, find a suitable Divine Artifact vessel, imprint the Divine Skill secret patterns onto the Divine Artifact, and only then can the Divine Artifact's origin take shape.

Once successful, not only is the consumption of casting the Divine Skill extremely low, but it can also unleash even more terrifying might.

Of course, the premise is that the Divine Artifact's might upper limit is high enough.

"Although it is a basic Divine Artifact, it is still five-colored level, so it is not bad..."

Lin Qing nodded inwardly.

A basic Divine Artifact can only accommodate the secret patterns of one Divine Skill to form the Divine Artifact's origin, which means it can only cause one Divine Skill to perform beyond the ordinary.

If it is a combined Divine Skill, to perform beyond the ordinary, one must rely on the rarer and more scarce 'Set Divine Artifacts'.

"The forging method for Set Divine Artifacts seems very precious..."

Lin Qing shook his head slightly. "To find a suitable Set Divine Artifact, one can only start with the Void Great Tomb; only then is there hope..."

He also knew.

Although Star Gods can forge Divine Artifacts, they must also possess the forging method.

Only Divine Artifacts of different forms can adapt to different Divine Skills; only when the Divine Skill and the Divine Artifact are compatible and aligned can they unleash sufficient might.

For example, a long-blade-shaped Divine Artifact used to unleash single-target attack-type Divine Skills might have a high compatibility between the Divine Artifact and the Divine Skill, but if used to unleash defense-type Divine Skills, the compatibility would be relatively low.

Generally speaking—

If the compatibility between the Divine Artifact and the Divine Skill reaches 100%, and the Divine Artifact's rank is high enough and its might upper limit is high enough, it can allow the Divine Skill to unleash might one level higher.

"World God and Primordial Annihilation, these combined Divine Skills, must have Set Divine Artifacts to unleash might one level higher; a single Divine Artifact truly isn't of much use..."

Lin Qing also felt somewhat helpless.

If it is only a basic Divine Artifact, he can only transform one of the Divine Skills composing World God into secret patterns and imprint them on the Divine Artifact.

Even if the compatibility between the Divine Skill and the Divine Artifact is nearly 100%, raising it one level only unleashes might comparable to the complete form of World God, which naturally isn't of much use to him.

Unless there is a Set of Divine Artifacts suitable for unleashing World God, can his strength be raised another level.

"It would be quite good for concealing one's identity..."

Lin Qing pondered inwardly. "In the Void Sea, there are probably not a few people who can afford to ask a Star God to forge a Divine Artifact, especially Void Spirits; only a Level One civilization like the Nine-Star Civilization has absolutely no chance of obtaining a Divine Artifact..."

He glanced at the Nine-Star Civilization Ancestor in another time-space cage and did not rush to enter.

The Black Flame Clone had not yet returned, and his current strength did not give him confidence to kill the Nine-Star Ancestor.

After all, the Nine-Star Ancestor possesses top-tier strength of eleven layers; only when the Black Flame Clone merges and burns can he have some confidence in killing him.

"Let's first help Qi Lingxiao and the others increase their authority..."

Lin Qing's heart stirred, he took a step, and immediately arrived inside another sealed time-space cage.

Inside this time-space cage, the five Imperial Princes who had come with the Nine-Star Emperor and the entire Nine-Star Civilization were suppressed.

As Imperial Princes of the Nine-Star Civilization, every Imperial Prince possesses authority of the Ninth Energy Level.

"You are... Lin Qing?"

These five Imperial Princes were all Star Divine Officials, possessing strength of the Ninth Layer of the Yu Xingyuan; upon seeing Lin Qing now, they could not help but feel some terror.

Inside the time-space cage, Lin Qing's aura as a Star God completely spread out, and the powerful life aura, along with the pressure, completely enveloped everyone present.

"Boom!"

Furthermore, a surging Dahe like dark golden fresh blood rushed over, recklessly scouring everything inside the time-space cage; regardless of whether the five Imperial Princes cast defense Divine Skills or used life-saving treasures, they could not resist the seepage and erosion of the river water.

In an instant, the Divine Skill 'Mother River Blood' had completely filled the entire interior of the time-space cage.

Even as a single Divine Skill's might, it far exceeded the upper limit these Imperial Princes could endure.

Therefore, in the blink of an eye, the five Imperial Princes were completely penetrated in their bodies and minds by the dark golden Mother River Blood.

"I will give you a chance to live."

Lin Qing stood suspended in mid-air, looking down at the nameless Imperial Prince below, and said coldly, "Sign the contract, agree to my demands, and I will allow you to live."

At this moment, these five Imperial Princes could not even commit suicide; they could only lower their heads and agree.

With a thought, Lin Qing used the space-time power of the Vacuum Great Tomb to teleport Qi Lingxiao over.

"Hall Master Qi, wait a moment. I will first let these people awaken their powers. If there is a power that requires more than 38,000 kilograms of Starfall Source Stones to awaken, I will transfer the power's origin to you."

After transmitting the thought, Lin Qing took out the Starfall Source Stones he had prepared earlier and handed them to one of the Imperial Princes to awaken his power.

Besides the remaining Starfall Source Stones borrowed from the Vacuum Great Tomb, during the more than a thousand years he spent in the Vacuum Great Tomb, after using one thousand years' worth of Starfall Source Stones to repay his debts, he had accumulated over 200,000 kilograms from the remaining three hundred-plus years.

This was more than enough to perform the power awakening for the ninth energy level.

As long as Qi Lingxiao's power reaches the standard of 38,000 kilograms, he can enter the Vacuum Great Tomb and has hope of becoming a Tomb Keeper in the future!

As the Imperial Princes awakened their powers one by one, Lin Qing could not help but frown slightly.

"Why hasn't any of them reached the standard of 38,000 kilograms of Starfall Source Stones?"

Lin Qing did not give up and tried to awaken the powers of the Imperial Princes one by one; after all, even if it was less than 38,000 kilograms, it could be used to enhance others' talents.

Until after the fifth Imperial Prince successfully awakened—

"47,850 kilograms of Starfall Source Stones required to awaken?"

Lin Qing could not help but smile.

(End of this chapter)