Chapter 206

Inside the Star-Plucking Secret Realm.

The moment the starlight before his eyes dissipated, thunder light exploded.

But this time, it wasn't just Xu Jin whose feet exploded with thunder light, but also Xu Jin's inner demon.

Both were attacking proactively.

The moment they brushed past each other, intense soul fluctuations rose simultaneously from both combatants.

Both used soul attacks, and both were Demon-Breaking.

Inside Xu Jin's Upper Shang Xinggong, the Suppress Intent star pattern instantly transformed into a giant stele, protecting his Upper Shang Xinggong.

The inner demon's soul attack crashed in, but Xu Jin's Suppress Intent stele remained motionless.

But Xu Jin was still incredibly shocked.

Because the soul cultivation aura emitted by the inner demon when he was at the fifth layer of Refine Star was only at the fifth layer of Refine Star, but the soul cultivation of the inner demon at the sixth layer of Refine Star was actually an aura of the seventh layer of Refine Star.

It was fortunate that Xu Jin's soul cultivation had surged during this period; if it had still been his previous soul cultivation, the Demon-Breaking attack would have had a much smaller impact on the inner demon.

But now, the Demon-Breaking arrow Xu Jin fired with his fourth-tier, first-layer Condense Star soul cultivation clearly wounded the inner demon's soul.

The starlight around the inner demon's body dissipated, and its figure couldn't stop falling.

Xu Jin followed like a shadow, firing a Lei Suo and Flame Explosion simultaneously.

In an extremely short time, the moment the star rope bound the falling inner demon, he fired consecutive Flame Explosions.

The moment the second Flame Explosion was fired, the inner demon had already recovered from the impact of the soul attack, but it took a split second to break Xu Jin's Lei Suo.

It was precisely this split second that allowed Xu Jin to fire another Flame Explosion wildly.

It took three super-strong Flame Explosions, and ones superimposed with the sixth-tier medium spiral star pattern at that, to destroy the current Gold Star-level inner demon.

It is worth mentioning that up to now, under Xu Jin's deliberate control, among the high-tier fire source star patterns, only the sixth-tier medium fire source star pattern was lit, while the branches of star patterns beyond that were all in a dormant state.

The reason for doing this had only one goal—the Brilliant Star!

【Congratulations on your victory in the challenge, you have obtained one Gold Star.】

The moment he received the starlight transmission, Xu Jin simply reviewed the established tactics for challenging the Gold Star-level gatekeeper in his mind and chose to challenge.

The next instant, the light before his eyes shifted, and Xu Jin entered the secret realm battlefield again; the gatekeeper was still that green-robed swordsman, but his aura had clearly strengthened.

He had always thought that the difficulty of challenging a Gold Star-level gatekeeper was lower than challenging a Gold Star-level inner demon.

The gatekeeper's strength was fixed.

In this way, Xu Jin's many star arts had a place to be used, especially speed.

With Explosive Thunder Step fully deployed, it was actually on par with the fourth-tier, sixth-layer Condense Star gatekeeper.

This advantage was very great.

By comparison, challenging a Gold Star-level inner demon was tactically very difficult.

Because when the cultivation was one major realm higher than Xu Jin's, the inner demon also knew the star arts Xu Jin knew.

Any star art Xu Jin knew, when performed by a Gold Star-level inner demon, had power far exceeding Xu Jin's.

Explosive Thunder Step was the same.

Being the same Explosive Thunder Step, when performed by a Gold Star-level inner demon, the speed far exceeded Xu Jin's.

Speed alone crushed Xu Jin.

Therefore, the difficulty of challenging a Gold Star-level inner demon was extremely high; if he couldn't win quickly, Xu Jin would be the one dragged to death.

In just five breaths, Xu Jin defeated the Gold Star-level gatekeeper, and another Gold Star was tucked into his pocket.

"The outside world must be turning upside down again!"

However, Xu Jin's goal this time was the Brilliant Star.

If Gold Stars already made them turn upside down and caused chaos in the order of the real world for several days, then what if he plucked a Brilliant Star?

To borrow a phrase: let the storm come more violently.

Xu Jin spent twenty breaths reviewing the three established tactics he had previously made for challenging the Brilliant Star in his mind before he began the challenge.

【Do you wish to challenge the Brilliant Star?】

【Challenge】

The next instant, the starlight before Xu Jin's eyes shifted, and he was pulled into the familiar secret realm battlefield.

The Gold Star-level gatekeeper and the Gold Star-level inner demon appeared in the secret realm battlefield one after the other, forming a pincer movement.

The starlight on Xu Jin's body lit up one by one, and inside his Lower Shang Xinggong, the Wandering Fish star pattern also lit up for the first time.

Three breaths later, the light curtain vanished instantly, and the battle began!

The very first instant it began, thunder light flashed under Xu Jin's feet, Explosive Thunder Step moved, and he retreated violently in an instant.

The next instant, the inner demon and the gatekeeper chased after Xu Jin simultaneously, the inner demon's speed being extremely fast.

However, the inner demon didn't chase alone but slightly slowed its speed, killing toward Xu Jin together with the gatekeeper.

Xu Jin sighed inwardly; as expected, it was still like this.

This was the difficult part of the Brilliant Star challenge.

It was impossible to defeat them one by one.

Facing the siege of two super-tier experts simultaneously, the difficulty could be called hell-level.

This was also the fundamental reason why Xu Jin could only hold on for a minute and a half in his previous challenges.

It was fortunate that he had done a lot this time; otherwise, obtaining the Brilliant Star would still have been impossible.

One breath later, the inner demon and the gatekeeper arrived simultaneously, again forming a pincer movement against Xu Jin.

The next instant, Xu Jin punched out.

A tiny bit of flame light bloomed like lightning, speed exploding into one flower bud after another, entangling the Gold Star-level inner demon that was killing its way over.

Soul-Swinging Golden Lotus.

Explode!

At the same instant, the attacks of the inner demon and the gatekeeper also arrived!

Xu Jin drove the Wandering Fish star pattern to the extreme.

At the same time, the high-tier fire source star pattern in his Middle Shang Xinggong also lit up completely; Flame Explosion!

It directly bombarded the attack launched by the Gold Star-level inner demon!

The moment he fully drove the high-tier fire source star pattern, the fire light of Xu Jin's Flame Explosion and the flame light of the Soul-Swinging Golden Lotus explosion suddenly became blindingly bright.

In the void, five stars flashed slightly at the same time, as if in response.

Xu Jin felt that his flames seemed to have spirituality at this instant, and the flame light also became terrifyingly intense.

The Flame Explosion before his eyes directly incinerated the attack from the Gold Star-level inner demon into nothingness!

As for the gatekeeper's all-out attack, Xu Jin took it head-on.

The Wandering Fish star pattern dissipated at least thirty percent of the power, but what surprised Xu Jin was that only one of the two layers of Rain Curtain Fire Shields shattered to take the Gold Star-level gatekeeper's full-force blow.

This made Xu Jin overjoyed.

Driven by the seventh-tier medium high-tier fire source star pattern, even the defensive power of the fire shield could surge.

And the exploded Soul-Swinging Golden Lotus instantly caused the starlight around the Gold Star-level inner demon to dissipate, and the thunder shield and body-protecting thunder light cover it had set up were exploded at the same time.

Flames even ignited on the surface of its body, and its torso was being incinerated rapidly.

Strike while the iron is hot!

Xu Jin instantly fired a Demon-Breaking arrow.

But the moment he fired it, Xu Jin had a flash of inspiration.

He had to try the combination of the Warm Dream and Demon-Breaking arrow that the Grand Master mentioned.

Both major star patterns were driven simultaneously, attaching the power of Warm Dream to the Demon-Breaking arrow, and he fired it instantly.

At close range, it hit the gatekeeper without any surprise, instantly causing the starlight around the gatekeeper to dissipate.

Opportunity!

Floating like willow catkins, Xu Jin instantly approached the Gold Star-level inner demon and fired another Flame Explosion.

This Flame Explosion was Xu Jin's full-force burst after obtaining the seventh-tier medium high-tier fire source star pattern.

In an instant, flame light filled the sky.

And just as the Gold Star-level inner demon had just recovered, the Flame Explosion arrived again.

In the Flame Explosion, the Gold Star-level inner demon was directly turned into fly ash.

Previously, Xu Jin used three Flame Explosions and one Lei Suo to take down the Gold Star-level inner demon; at that time, the fire source star pattern was maintained at the sixth-tier medium.

But now, with Xu Jin fully driving the seventh-tier medium high-tier fire source star, he took down the Gold Star-level inner demon with just one Soul-Swinging Golden Lotus and one Flame Explosion.

The power of the seventh-tier star pattern was evident.

And Xu Jin felt that this last Flame Explosion still had power to spare.

After taking down the Gold Star-level inner demon, Xu Jin didn't even look back, setting up two Rain Curtain Fire Shields behind him while driving the Wandering Fish star pattern to the extreme.

This was to deal with the incoming attack from the Gold Star-level gatekeeper.

His Demon-Breaking arrow could at most affect the Gold Star-level gatekeeper for a split second.

At this moment, the attack should be coming.

But to Xu Jin's surprise, the Gold Star-level gatekeeper's attack didn't arrive as expected.

When Xu Jin looked back to observe, he was surprised to find that the Gold Star-level gatekeeper was currently looking bewildered, like someone just waking from a dream, and hadn't even launched an attack yet.

Xu Jin was stunned at first, then overjoyed!

He immediately understood that this should be the special effect of the combination of Demon-Breaking and Warm Dream star patterns that the Grand Master mentioned.

Is this useful?

This is incredibly useful.

How long has this directly hard-controlled the Gold Star-level gatekeeper?

Even if it wasn't a full second, it was close.

One second was enough for the current Xu Jin to do many things.

The next instant, the Soul-Swinging Golden Lotus was fired again.

The moment the flower bud exploded, a Flame Explosion directly killed the Gold Star-level gatekeeper.

Success!

【Challenge Successful】

The moment this message prompt appeared, Xu Jin had a feeling like he was in a dream.

The Brilliant Star challenge was successful.

And there was still a Purple Thunder Boom trump card he hadn't used yet.

But strangely, the prompt for Xu Jin obtaining the Brilliant Star didn't appear.

The next instant, the starlight before his eyes shifted, and the weightlessness he felt during his previous high-tier Dao derivation suddenly surfaced in his heart.

In an instant, Xu Jin appeared inside a pavilion, with the celestial dome above flashing with billions of stars and white clouds drifting outside the window.

This scene was somewhat familiar.

Suddenly, Xu Jin remembered: wasn't this the top floor of the real-world Star-Plucking Tower of Da Chen that the Grand Master had brought him to before?

How did he get here?

Or did the Grand Master come and bring him here directly?

Just as Xu Jin was puzzled, one starlight transmission after another began to appear before his eyes.

【Congratulations, Xu Jin, challenge successful, you have obtained one Brilliant Star】

【Congratulations, Xu Jin, according to the Star-Plucking Tower rules, those who obtain a Brilliant Star can obtain the authority to manage the Star-Plucking Tower; do you accept the management authority of the Star-Plucking Tower?】

Xu Jin was stunned.

Management authority of the Star-Plucking Tower?

What was this?

But it was clearly a good thing.

This good thing had to be accepted.

【Accept】

【Congratulations, Xu Jin, from this moment on, you have become a Bronze-level Manager of the Star-Plucking Tower, and you will obtain the following authorities】

【One: You can freely awaken the Star-Plucking Tower's Star Spirit and obtain the Star Spirit's help on certain issues.】

【Two: You can freely dispose of your own information.】

【Three: Any internal transactions within the Star-Plucking Tower, including taxes, can receive a five percent reduction】

【Four: After becoming a Bronze-level Manager, you can enter the Star-Plucking Tower's Celestial Dome Secret Realm belonging to you once a month without any aura locking, with a time limit of one hour.】

【Five: After becoming a Bronze-level Manager, you can obtain the protection of the Star-Plucking Tower once a year, meaning that in the case of aura locking, you can forcibly enter the Star-Plucking Tower's Celestial Dome Secret Realm, but there must be a Star-Plucking Tower within the sensing range of your Star-Plucking Token.】

【Six: After becoming a Bronze-level Manager, you can obtain some information support under certain circumstances, but you must pay the corresponding price】

Seven starlight transmissions flashed before Xu Jin simultaneously, and each piece of content made Xu Jin extremely pleasantly surprised.

Xu Jin hadn't expected this at all.

After obtaining the Brilliant Star, this would be the reward.

Xu Jin had originally thought that successfully challenging and obtaining the Brilliant Star would probably mean obtaining a higher-tier Dao derivation opportunity.

But he hadn't expected to directly obtain the management authority of the Star-Plucking Tower.

It was a bit like the Grand Master.

But clearly, the Grand Master's management authority should be higher than his. Xu Jin's Bronze-level authority only allowed him to enter the Celestial Dome Secret Realm once a month, but the Grand Master seemed to be able to enter at will?

Then what was the Star-Plucking Tower authority that the Grand Master obtained?

Suddenly, Xu Jin's gaze fell on the second item: "can freely dispose of your own information"?

What did this mean?

"Star Spirit?"

Xu Jin tentatively called out; wasn't it said that he could awaken the Star Spirit and obtain help?

No movement at all?

"Star Spirit?"

Xu Jin waited for a few breaths, still no movement.

"Star Spirit, Star Spirit?"

Xu Jin called out loudly, still no response.

This made Xu Jin extremely surprised.

Was the awakening method wrong?

"Star..."

"Alright, noisy to death! Are you calling for souls?

As long as you are inside the Star-Plucking Tower, I can hear whatever you say!

Speak if you have something to say, spit it out if you have something to say!"

Xu Jin: "..."

Xu Jin gritted his back teeth, feeling like he wanted to hit someone, but he couldn't.

This Star Spirit had a terrible temper!

"What's with the teeth-gritting? If you want to hit or scold me, just do it, no need to hide it; if I were afraid of you, I'd be your grandson!" The Star Spirit's scolding rang out again.

"Are you going through menopause?"

Xu Jin asked suddenly.

The voice in the Celestial Dome Secret Realm paused, "What is menopause? Why haven't I heard of this word?"

Xu Jin explained the meaning of menopause, though he changed some concepts slightly, saying that all people or all living beings would have menopause!

The Star Spirit paused, "Seems like it!"

"I've been guarding this place for I don't know how many years, watching you bunch of grandsons come and go every day; how many years has it been? The tricks are all the same, nothing new, it's meaningless, it bores me to death..."

Xu Jin only said one sentence, and this Star Spirit ranted at least twenty sentences.

An extremely thick aura of a resentful husband or wife rushed toward him.

"Are you very bored?"

"Bored to death. Earlier, there was a kid who could keep me company and talk, but later he stopped coming.

There were also some managers who came diligently at first, but later it was hard to see them for years or even decades; it bored me to death!" The Star Spirit continued to rant.

"Are there many managers?" Xu Jin asked.

"Of course."

This affirmative answer made Xu Jin somewhat disappointed in addition to being surprised.

He had thought he was one of the few managers with Star-Plucking Tower authority!

After all, on the Star-Plucking Secret Realm's records, the record was still zero!

Wait!

Suddenly, Xu Jin realized another problem.

"Can the manager's authority only be obtained by obtaining a Brilliant Star?" Xu Jin asked.

As soon as Xu Jin asked, the Star Spirit immediately stopped ranting and answered Xu Jin's question.

"No."

"Then how many ways are there?"

"Quite a few."

"Specifically?"

"Your authority is insufficient, I cannot reveal it."

"How many people have obtained Star-Plucking Tower authority by obtaining a Brilliant Star?"

"Many."

"Specifically how many?"

"Your authority is insufficient."

"Damn!"

"What does 'damn' mean?"

Xu Jin was stunned, barely explained it, and the Star Spirit started its ranting mode again.

After communicating for a while, Xu Jin also discovered the Star Spirit's characteristics.

It should be limited by the rules; if he asked a question, the Star Spirit would answer, but after answering, it would start the nonsense ranting mode.

A chatterbox!

And during this period, Xu Jin also learned many things.

Why was the Brilliant Star record in the Star-Plucking Secret Realm zero?

Because after everyone obtained a Brilliant Star, they obtained the Bronze-level management authority of the Star-Plucking Tower, and the second item of this authority, "freely dispose of your own information," essentially meant that they could choose to hide their public information in the Star-Plucking Tower.

For example, Xu Jin could choose to hide the record of obtaining a Brilliant Star this time.

In this way, the record of successfully challenging the Brilliant Star in the Star-Plucking Secret Realm returned to zero!

Damn, no wonder the Brilliant Star challenge record had been zero for so many years.

It turned out they were all a bunch of old timers!

After succeeding, they hid their own information.

Now, Xu Jin had also joined the army of old timers!

As for how many there were, it was really hard to say.

The Star Spirit wouldn't say.

Xu Jin speculated that there wouldn't be too many, but there definitely wouldn't be too few either.

At least it wouldn't be a single-digit number.

The number of Brilliant Stars obtained in the Star-Plucking Tower was likely a two-digit number.

After all, the Star-Plucking Tower had existed for thousands or tens of thousands of years.

Besides this, the number of Gold Star successes Xu Jin challenged could also be hidden.

However, it could only be for future ones.

The number of Gold Stars he had already successfully challenged was already on the leaderboard and couldn't be hidden.

Besides this, there was a lot of other information that could be hidden.

For example, the God-Slaying Battlefield.

Xu Jin could challenge it to the limit in one go and then choose to hide his ranking.

However, the God-Slaying Battlefield belonged to another rule system of the Da Chen National Dao Academy; if he chose to hide his ranking, Xu Jin wouldn't be able to obtain Dao Merit rewards.

Looking at it this way, the number of Brilliant Stars and Gold Stars plucked by various forces throughout history was likely far higher than the number displayed in the Star-Plucking Secret Realm.

Thinking of this, Xu Jin suddenly had a thought, and a question surfaced in his mind: had the Grand Master hidden anything in this regard?

"Star Spirit, since there is Bronze-level management authority, then there should be Silver-level management authority; so how does one obtain Silver-level management authority?" Xu Jin asked.

"Don't know."

The Star Spirit answered unpleasantly.

"Why this attitude?"

"For non-basic questions, I, Lord Star, don't want to answer if I don't want to; it all depends on my mood," the Star Spirit said arrogantly.

Xu Jin wanted to beat someone up again.

He couldn't even handle a Star Spirit of the Star-Plucking Tower.

Was this guy lonely?

If he brought the TV dramas or some fighting shows from his previous life to this guy, this guy would probably be overjoyed.

That stuff, you could watch it all day and get addicted!

Unfortunately, he couldn't bring it!

Suddenly, Xu Jin had a thought; videos wouldn't work, but text would!

The next instant, Xu Jin had a thought and took out a blank jade tablet, directly recording the first few chapters of *Journey to the West* from his memory into the jade tablet.

Xu Jin didn't have the ability to remember everything at a glance, but he remembered the plot of *Journey to the West*.

He compiled it roughly and threw it out.

The divine recording speed was extremely fast; tens of thousands of words took only a few dozen breaths.

"Do you know how to read?"

"Nonsense, I, Lord Star, know everything from eight thousand years ago; what you know, I know, and what you don't know, I also know."

With one sentence, he was retorted again.

This guy was simply a Star Spirit that retorted people.

"There's a novel, take a look and pass the time."

"Not looking; I've long since had those managers collect storybooks. I've read every storybook in this world. What can a little brat like you bring out?" The Star Spirit retorted.

"Suit yourself!"

Xu Jin scolded, but he still saw that jade tablet go straight up to the celestial dome and disappear, and the trace of divine sense attached to it also completely lost contact with Xu Jin.

This Star Spirit, hard-mouthed, but his body was still very honest.

Xu Jin didn't care; if he had read it, that could prove another thing.

If he hadn't read it, that could also prove another thought in Xu Jin's mind.

Xu Jin had a thought and directly called up the Brilliant Star information in the Star-Plucking Secret Realm; the moment his mind sank into it, the detailed information surfaced.

【Brilliant Star: A star containing the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth nurtured by the Star-Plucking Tower; after use, one can contemplate the Great Dao for two hours. If it is a star pattern below the seventh tier, it will inevitably be completed to the seventh tier; if it is a star pattern above the seventh tier, it will inevitably leap up by one small tier.】

After reading this brief description of the Brilliant Star, Xu Jin already understood the use of the Brilliant Star.

Certainty!

The use of the Brilliant Star is certainty!

Star patterns above the seventh tier will inevitably leap up by one small tier.

This one point alone is a priceless treasure.

If there is a seventh-tier superior star pattern, using it, no matter how the contemplation effect is, the Brilliant Star will inevitably complete it and raise its rank to the eighth-tier inferior.

If it is an eighth-tier superior star pattern, it will inevitably be able to leap to the ninth-tier inferior.

Ninth-tier star pattern!

Xu Jin hadn't even heard of it.

But the Brilliant Star could create it.

So theoretically, the higher the rank of the star pattern, the better the effect of using the Brilliant Star, and the higher the value.

It is best to push a star pattern to the limit before using the Brilliant Star; that is the maximum value!

But the difficulty is that pushing this star pattern to the limit is itself an extremely difficult thing.

Then the question arises: if one wants to use the Brilliant Star this way, then before pushing a star pattern to the limit, the Brilliant Star actually has no value at all.

A piece of trash!

Holding a supreme treasure but unable to exert its use.

Xu Jin felt that regarding the use of the Brilliant Star—how to use it, when to use it—he still had to consider it carefully.

As for maximizing the value, Xu Jin didn't want to.

What you eat is what has value!

Otherwise, it's still trash in the end!

Of course, how to use it depends on whether he can pluck another Brilliant Star in the future.

But Xu Jin's harvest today was big enough: two Silver Stars, two Gold Stars, one Brilliant Star, plus the Bronze-level authority of the Star-Plucking Tower!

The next instant, Xu Jin had a thought and left the Star-Plucking Tower.

The moment he opened his eyes, the Clear Era star pattern flashed rapidly; the Grand Master, Cheng Yuexiao, had already appeared outside the window.

Seeing Xu Jin wake up, while the starlight cover isolated the inside and outside, the Grand Master, Cheng Yuexiao, suddenly asked Xu Jin eagerly, "Xu Jin, the two Gold Stars added just now, were they plucked by you?"

The Grand Master's expression was as urgent as a child wanting candy!

The next instant, when Xu Jin nodded to give an affirmative answer, the Grand Master, Cheng Yuexiao, was as excited as a child, fiercely waving his fist.

"Cultivate well these two days, you are not allowed to leave the National Dao Academy; contact me at any time if you have any problems."

After giving instructions, the star curtain dissipated, and the Grand Master disappeared into thin air.

At the same instant, Xu Jin's Star-Plucking Token vibrated three times.

What he received was an emergency military order from the Da Chen National Dao Academy, notifying all National Dao Academy disciples.

【From this moment on, the Da Chen National Dao Academy enters a state of combat readiness; all disciples who are out must return to the National Dao Academy immediately; all National Dao Academy disciples are not allowed to leave the National Dao Academy until the state of combat readiness is lifted!】

At this instant, countless people were awakened from their slumber!

And the same scene began to unfold in various Star Palaces and various countries!

(End of chapter)