Chapter 257: Senior Brother

Outside the main tower of the Dai Chen Star-Taking Tower, in the quiet chamber, Grand Master Cheng Yuexiao entered only after seeing Xu Jin awaken.

After a thirty-minute nap, Xu Jin felt refreshed from within to without.

I've slept well!

Maintaining peak condition during continuous combat is essential.

"Grand Master, you may begin establishing a fixed star-gate for the third-rank Purple Wind Star Domain."

Xu Jin's first words filled Grand Master Cheng Yuexiao with delight.

He rubbed his hands and paced back and forth inside the quiet chamber.

Completely conquering two third-rank star domains? In the past, this was a thought too bold to even entertain.

But now, with Xu Jin's arrival, it has become effortless.

The importance of third-rank star domains may be incomprehensible to someone at Cheng Yuexiao's position.

Consider this: the most vital output of third-rank star domains is third- and fourth-rank Star Jade Tablets.

In the current world, on the Star River Battlefield, the greatest consumption is of third- and fourth-rank insignias.

One of the primary constraints on training insignia masters is raw material.

Top insignia masters are nurtured by feeding them thousands, even tens of thousands, of Star Jade Tablets.

If Dai Chen can secure vast quantities of low-cost third-rank Star Jade Tablets, it can train far more third- and fourth-rank insignia masters.

Then, it will produce massive quantities of third- and fourth-rank insignias.

In the myriad conflict missions of the current world, on the Star River Battlefield, these insignias will allow more elite soldiers to survive.

Among these Dai Chen elites who have endured life-and-death trials, some may break through to become fourth-, fifth-, or even a few sixth-rank powerhouses.

A virtuous cycle.

The entire Dai Chen will enter a positive, self-reinforcing cycle.

It won't take long.

Just three to five years of this positive cycle will bring earth-shattering changes to Dai Chen's national strength.

And this is merely one benefit of conquering two third-rank star domains.

Why is the Sunlight Star Palace so powerful?

Why is the Azure Star Palace stronger than the Pacify Misfortune Star Palace?

Because the Sunlight Star Palace has already conquered two known third-rank star domains, while the Azure Star Palace has conquered one.

Now, Dai Chen has finally filled this gap.

Grand Master's inner excitement far surpassed the emotion visible on his face.

"What are your plans next?"

After a moment's thought, Grand Master Cheng Yuexiao did not assign a mission, but asked for Xu Jin's own thoughts.

Xu Jin had already earned sufficient merit.

Even if he now declared he intended to sleep for days, Cheng Yuexiao would support him!

"Grand Master, I'll go as reinforcement to several other star domains. If they haven't captured the Star Domain King, I'll take it myself and claim another piece of Celestial and Stellar Will along the way."

"If they've already captured it, I'll help them eliminate a few fourth-rank powerhouses before leaving."

"If time permits, I'd like to visit a fourth-rank star domain," Xu Jin said.

"Good!"

Grand Master Cheng Yuexiao readily agreed, "First, go to those third-rank star domains. As for fourth-rank ones, I'll have Kou Jing, the Senior Academician, prepare several fifth- and sixth-rank insignias for you, just in case."

"By the time you emerge from the third-rank domains, the timing will be right."

After speaking, Cheng Yuexiao paused and added, "Do you have any other ideas or requests? Speak now—I'll prepare them."

"This…"

After thinking, Xu Jin said, "Grand Master, the Crimson Scale Heart and Thunder Feather Heart I obtained earlier have significantly boosted my combat power."

If possible, please help me select one or two star domain markers that may contain Fire or Thunder Celestial Will. If time allows, I'd like to make a trip there."

"After this great battle, I'm about to break through. I fear I won't have time to enter third-rank star domains again."

"Understood. I'll study this carefully and prepare everything for you."

Half a quarter-hour later, Xu Jin took the dozen fourth-rank superior insignias given by the Grand Master and stepped into another star-gate.

The third-rank star domain: Blooming Flowers.

The assault team for this domain was led by Meng Qingqiu.

The entire team primarily cultivated Wind and Fire star arts.

But the Blooming Flowers star domain is a Wood Spirit domain, somewhat difficult to handle.

When Xu Jin entered, Grand Master had provided him with several detoxifying elixirs.

The domain is saturated with toxic mists and poisonous herbs.

Yet Fire star arts are its natural counter.

Xu Jin, now entering third-rank star domains, was already thoroughly familiar with the process.

He landed in a dense forest.

The instant he touched ground, he felt something strange—dozens of ink-green vines, as if alive, surged toward him in wild entanglement.

Xu Jin merely stomped his foot, and flames erupted.

Within an instant, a ten-meter radius was reduced to bare earth.

Vines from all directions recoiled as if terrified.

Watching this, Xu Jin frowned.

He sensed Meng Qingqiu and the others had entered a particularly difficult third-rank star domain.

The next moment, Xu Jin leapt into the air and, within fifteen minutes, captured a third-rank Star Refining ninth-layer Wood Spirit who had perfectly camouflaged himself as a tree.

After warming his dream, Xu Jin gained a basic understanding of the Blooming Flowers domain.

It was a tribal society dominated by female rulers.

The tribal monarch was the Blooming Flower Queen, who held absolute control over the entire domain.

She was revered by her people as the Blooming Flower Goddess.

She had repeatedly demonstrated divine miracles.

She could make storms vanish instantly, and summon dark clouds to shield the land from scorching heat.

This intelligence made Xu Jin deeply wary.

But the final piece of intelligence turned his wariness into concern.

According to the captive, he was over forty years old.

Since his grandfather's generation, the Blooming Flower Queen had already existed.

This instantly triggered a terrifying possibility in Xu Jin's mind.

How many Blooming Flower Hearts had the Blooming Flower Queen, ruling for nearly a century, accumulated?

Xu Jin had only just begun studying this.

The rules for acquiring Celestial and Stellar Will were still in the theoretical stage.

But based on prior knowledge, the Blooming Flower Queen had at least two Blooming Flower Hearts.

At most, she might possess three or even four.

Xu Jin himself, in the third-rank Purple Wind Star Domain, only gained minor, localized weather-altering divine abilities after acquiring three Thunder Feather Hearts.

So how many does the Blooming Flower Queen have?

Xu Jin believed arriving first at the Blooming Flowers domain was correct.

If true, Meng Qingqiu's team was in grave danger.

Because if the Blooming Flower Queen had truly assimilated three or more Blooming Flower Hearts, then Meng Qingqiu's team's location would be clear.

She could dispatch large elite forces to ambush them directly.

This was confirmed half an hour later.

While flying toward the Blooming Flower tribe, Xu Jin encountered heavy ambushes from elite forces.

Over a hundred third-rank mid- to late-stage Wood Spirits, alongside four fourth-rank Star Condensation early- to mid-stage Wood Spirits, waited for him along his path.

As Xu Jin drew near, he launched a surprise attack.

Such a force posed no real threat to Xu Jin.

But for Meng Qingqiu's five, it might be fatal.

If any one of them were surrounded by such power,

the chance of death was high.

One and a half hours after entering the Blooming Flowers domain, Xu Jin arrived alone at the Blooming Flower tribe.

When Xu Jin arrived, dark clouds filled the sky, thick with moisture.

Without a word, the Blooming Flower Queen—as if expecting him—sent over thirty fourth-rank Wood Spirits rushing out of the tribe to attack him the moment he appeared.

At the same instant, torrential rain poured from the heavens.

Rain fell in sheets.

It drastically weakened the power of Xu Jin's Fire star arts.

Even the Celestial Starfire generated by a seventh-rank high-grade Fire Source was diminished by over thirty to forty percent.

The Celestial Starfire that once effortlessly killed fourth-rank peak cultivators could now only kill fourth-rank Star Condensation early-stage Wood Spirits.

It could only severely wound fourth-rank mid- to late-stage Wood Spirits.

In the next instant, thunder cracked above him, and the wind and rain grew denser and fiercer, centered on Xu Jin.

As if water had been poured down.

At this moment, the fire-elemental stellar force in heaven and earth had thinned to an extreme.

Even if he could summon Stellar Celestial Fire or even Brilliant Ultimate Fire, his own stellar energy consumption would surge several-fold, making it utterly unsustainable.

This truly taught him a lesson!

Fortunately, his specialization wasn't too severe.

On a high platform in the Flourishing Tribe, the Flourishing Queen—her hair pure white, yet her skin as youthful as a maiden's—dressed in full regalia, gazed at Xu Jin with a blank expression.

On the platform, no wind entered, no rain penetrated.

One by one, masters of the Flourishing Clan rose from all directions, charging toward Xu Jin.

Just the fourth-rank experts Xu Jin could see numbered over sixty.

Watching Xu Jin's flames suppressed by the weather, the Flourishing Queen's face was filled with cold smirks.

Modern humans are truly foolish—do they really think sending a fire cultivator to suppress the wood spirits will help?

She had countless methods.

In the same instant, Xu Jin also sensed the strongest aura ahead through the Mingji Star Pattern.

There was only one aura at the peak of fourth-rank ninth layer.

Before this, Xu Jin had encountered several beings at the peak of fourth-rank ninth layer, but none matched the Flourishing Queen's aura. Her presence felt like the ultimate of ultimates.

In the next instant, Xu Jin no longer hesitated.

The Fish-Curtain Golden Bell instantly glowed; his ten fingers flicked rapidly, and lightning serpents darted.

This time, he unleashed Nine Meridian Divine Thunder!

In just a fleeting moment, he cleared a path before him.

His Thunder Wings emerged behind him, flashing twice in rapid succession, and Xu Jin broke through the blockade of the Wood Spirit masters, appearing a hundred meters before the Flourishing Queen.

Dark green vines erupted skyward from beneath the Flourishing Queen's feet; at the very moment Xu Jin rushed closer, they wrapped around her like silkworms spinning cocoons, layer upon layer.

The Wood Spirit masters Xu Jin had just outrun behind him all screamed in frenzy and charged at him.

In the next instant, a vast surge of spiritual soul energy rose.

Spiritual Soul Art: Startling Dream!

In the same instant, brilliant violet Brilliant Ultimate Fire surged from Xu Jin's fingertips.

The rain instantly vaporized into extreme moisture, filling the sky with thick white mist.

Amid the mist, parts of the vines shielding the Flourishing Queen were instantly incinerated to ash by Brilliant Ultimate Fire; others began dissolving.

This was because the Flourishing Queen had been struck by the Spiritual Soul Art.

In the next instant, violet thunder crashed down.

It directly reduced the exposed Flourishing Queen to charred ash.

Instantly, the rain ceased and clouds scattered; the dark sky gave way to a blazing sun.

But there was no collapse as expected.

Across the entire Flourishing Star Domain, from fourth-rank masters down to second-rank Foundation Establishment Wood Spirits—even those at the Mist-Feasting realm—fiercely attacked Xu Jin in rage, even if they couldn't land a blow, they shot arrows at him.

Poison arrows.

Without the weather's interference, Xu Jin didn't even need to summon Stellar Celestial Fire to swiftly clear the field.

During the clearing, a deep green radiance rose from the Flourishing Queen's corpse.

The moment it appeared, the remaining fourth-rank Wood Spirit masters went mad with desire.

But Xu Jin seized it first.

The battle ended fifteen minutes later.

It ended because Xu Jin had slaughtered every fourth- and third-rank master in the Flourishing Tribe.

Exhausted from stellar energy depletion, Xu Jin had no choice but to swallow a Three-Refined Four-Mystic Star-Recovery Pill to restore his stellar power.

This was the most difficult star domain he had faced so far.

Thinking of rescuing Meng Qingqiu and the others, Xu Jin quickly swept the battlefield.

He gathered five fourth-rank upper Wood Spirit cores, at least twenty fourth-rank middle Wood Spirit cores.

But his greatest gain was the Wood Spirit core from within the Flourishing Queen herself—and there were two of them!

One from the Middle Star Palace, one from the Lower Star Palace.

Placing them in the Can Dou Platform, he immediately received a prompt.

【Fourth-Rank Upper Wood Spirit: Gain Protection, Middle-Level Wood Source, Middle-Level Wood Form, Middle-Level Star Healing】

【Fourth-Rank Upper Wood Spirit: Gain Protection, Middle-Level Wood Source, Middle-Level Wood Form, Middle-Level Poison Vines】

This bounty filled Xu Jin with astonishment.

But the difficulty was also the greatest.

Xu Jin felt that even a fourth-rank peak expert entering this third-rank Flourishing Star Domain would be overwhelmed—let alone a fifth-rank Star Gathering expert.

The Flourishing Queen was too powerful.

Xu Jin had been forced to use Brilliant Ultimate Fire.

But a queen who had ruled a third-rank star domain for nearly a century was nearly a semi-divine being—such depth and capability was only natural.

Then, Xu Jin had a thought: Rescue them!

He must rescue them as soon as possible.

Under these circumstances, Meng Qingqiu and the others were in extreme danger.

But Xu Jin did not know their location.

Fortunately, Xu Jin had a shortcut.

Finding a safe spot, Xu Jin spent a full half-hour refining the newly acquired deep green Flourishing Heart.

The moment he refined it, he knew what it was.

Middle-Level Flourishing Heart.

A middle-level manifestation of Heavenly Will.

And in total quantity, it was even stronger than the Middle-Level Thunder Feather Heart he had obtained.

Thus, this Middle-Level Flourishing Heart was likely synthesized from four Initial-Level Flourishing Hearts.

The moment of synthesis, Xu Jin sensed three points of extreme rejection from the Heavenly Will.

Yes—only three remained!

That meant only three disciples had penetrated the Flourishing Star Domain.

Two had already perished.

Half an hour later, the first person Xu Jin rescued was Meng Qingqiu.

Meng Qingqiu had held out in a cave, utterly hopeless, convinced she would die.

Yet she had unexpectedly found salvation.

The one who saved her was Xu Jin.

"Senior Brother!"

When she saw Xu Jin, Meng Qingqiu staggered and collapsed into his arms.

Between life and death lies great terror!

Meng Qingqiu was no exception.

This was her first experience of such mortal peril.

Half an hour later, Xu Jin rescued two other disciples from the Guodao Academy—one lightly wounded, one severely injured, one arm gone, his body streaked with colors from poisoning.

Heavy losses.

An hour later, Xu Jin returned to the Flourishing Tribe and looted thoroughly.

The spoils were astonishing.

Over ten thousand third-rank Star Jade Tablets and over a thousand fourth-rank Star Jade Tablets directly converted into over 1, 00 threads of fourth-rank stellar light in his Can Dou Platform.

He also collected over a hundred fifth-rank Star Jade Tablets.

And several kilometers of thousand-year Jade Vines—excellent material for artifact forging.

Six hours after entering the Flourishing Star Domain, Xu Jin departed with the severely wounded disciple.

He left ten fourth-rank Talismans for Meng Qingqiu and the other survivor.

The Flourishing Queen was dead; the Heavenly Will had been taken by Xu Jin; most of the fourth-rank elites had been slaughtered by him.

Their safety had greatly increased—they could now slowly hunt down third- and fourth-rank alien races and gather resources.

As for conquering this star domain?

Forget it for now.

The Flourishing Queen's imprint ran too deep; for Chen Guo to install a new ruler here would be extremely difficult.

Even sending in a dozen more disciples wouldn't work.

Unless a master like Xu Jin stayed for ten days or half a month, exterminating all fourth-rank experts and then elevating a new leader from the third-rank younger generation.

The Grand National Master was also deeply shocked by Meng Qingqiu and the others' ordeal.

He hadn't expected a third-rank star domain to be this powerful.

This was exceedingly rare.

Xu Jin then rested in his meditation chamber for a full half-hour before fully recovering.

The consumption within the Flowering Star Region was greater than the combined consumption of the first two star regions.

Half an hour later, Xu Jin stepped into the fourth star region.

The assault leader of this star region was Yuan Feiqing; its name was Fire Bamboo Star Region, a fire-element star region.

This star region was normal enough.

From the intelligence obtained from the prisoners Xu Jin captured, he could already judge it to be normal.

The king of this star region had only ascended thirty years ago.

There was no surprise.

It took Xu Jin just over four hours to successfully complete the Grand Master's assigned task.

He slew the King of Fire Bamboo and the Fire Bamboo Prince, obtained two low-grade Fire Bamboo Hearts, and one fourth-rank Fire Spirit bearing a mid-grade Fire Source and a low-grade Fire Image.

The Star Arena's starlight increased by roughly five hundred strands; he acquired only a few dozen fifth-rank Star Jade Tablets.

Yuan Feiqing and the others who attacked the third-rank Fire Bamboo Star Region had good fortune—no one died, only two suffered minor injuries.

As Xu Jin was refining the Fire Bamboo Hearts, he quickly located and assembled them, and delivered to them the fourth-rank insignia the Grand Master had ordered him to bring.

Whether they could fully conquer this third-rank star region depended entirely on Yuan Feiqing and his team's ability.

The fifth third-rank star region Xu Jin invaded was Stone Forest Star Region, led by Yan Chen.

This third-rank star region yielded the least.

Only one low-grade Earth-element Stone Forest Heart and one fourth-rank Earth Spirit Core bearing a mid-grade Earth Source were acquired.

Other gains were similar to those of the third-rank Fire Bamboo Star Region.

The greatest gain was probably Yan Chen's heartfelt address of "Big Brother."

When Xu Jin found them, the three of them had gathered together and were locked in a desperate battle against over a hundred elite fighters from the Stone Forest Star Region.

Though they were not yet in immediate danger of death, if the fight continued, they would surely die.

By the time Xu Jin departed the third-rank Stone Forest Star Region, the Battle of Lou Gong had already lasted over thirty hours.

That was two and a half days.

Within the Star Marshal's Secret Realm, the four major power players of the realm had arrived early, waiting for the Star Spirit to announce the latest rankings and points.

But the atmosphere was utterly oppressive!

(End of Chapter)