Chapter 387: The Origin of the World

Looking at the Fire Spirit King and the Rampant Bear King kneeling before him, Xu Jin felt a faint sense of reflection.

Five months ago, when he first stormed into the Fifth-Rank Spirit Martial Star Domain, he was in dire straits.

Only with the cooperation of Mountain Elder Dong Zhao could he slay the Sixth-Rank late-stage alien.

For a Sixth-Rank ninth-layer peak alien, Xu Jin could only counter with a Sixth-Rank top-grade insignia—one that had been nurtured.

Just a few months ago, Sixth-Rank insignias were still a crucial strategic resource for Xu Jin.

But now, Xu Jin could casually obliterate a Sixth-Rank late-stage alien.

This Sixth-Rank ninth-layer peak Rampant Bear King, who specialized in defense, collapsed immediately after taking one of Xu Jin's Fire Cloud Divine Thunder.

Only Xu Jin's quick reaction saved him—if the second Fire Cloud Divine Thunder had struck, the brute would've been reduced to ash.

"Show me your most potent star arts."

Xu Jin sat calmly and issued orders to the two alien kings whose souls he controlled.

At his command, the two kings of the Fifth-Rank Star Domains began performing their most powerful star arts.

At first glance, it looked like a monkey show.

But these monkeys were terrifying to ordinary people!

The Fire Spirit King's star arts were all powerful, but after watching once, Xu Jin found none worthy of his attention.

Mainly because the Fire Spirit King's star arts paled in comparison to Xu Jin's own refined Great Sun Star Art.

Many other star arts had merits, but Xu Jin could already replicate them himself.

There was no need to spend vast amounts of time reverse-engineering them.

But one of the Rampant Bear King's star arts suddenly caught Xu Jin's interest.

"Do that star art again—several times. Show me every variation." Xu Jin suddenly said.

In the next instant, the Rampant Bear King roared, pounding his chest, and the ground before him violently rose into a small hill, which, under star force, instantly transformed into a cage of solidified earth and stone.

Another change—the ground erupted with countless earth spikes.

Like arrows shot from the deepest depths of the earth, they blasted upward hundreds of meters, even piercing the sound barrier.

The power was terrifying!

As the Rampant Bear King stomped again, over a hundred earth spikes surged upward, spiraled, and instantly swept across a single direction.

In an instant, a small hill hundreds of meters away was reduced to rubble.

"Hmm, impressive power."

As Xu Jin marveled, he waved his hand and ordered, "Fire Spirit King, be the target. Only defend—no attacking, no dodging. Let the Rampant Bear King test this star art's power."

Instantly, the Fire Spirit King's crimson face twisted in distress. "My lord, I've fought this beast countless times—this star art's power is still terrifying. If I take it head-on, I fear—"

In the next instant, Xu Jin cast a sidelong glare—and the Fire Spirit King snapped his mouth shut, daring not to complain further.

This man had slain the Fire Lion King with two thunder strikes and killed his Sixth-Rank eighth-layer personal guard with a single bolt of lightning.

"Heh!"

The Rampant Bear King grinned maliciously, then unleashed the same star art with full force.

The earlier variations were manageable—the Fire Spirit King held his ground.

But when the final hundreds of earth spears rained down, the Fire Spirit King nearly became a sieve.

He could only desperately shield his vital points.

Still, six or seven earth spears pierced his legs, pinning him to the ground.

"Good!"

Xu Jin praised him, then yanked out the earth spears and healed the Fire Spirit King with a low-grade Star Healing technique, while asking the Rampant Bear King, "What's the name of this star art?"

"My lord, this is the bloodline inheritance star pattern of my Rampant Bear clan—called Earth's Wrath, or Spear of Fury. Only Sixth-Rank Rampant Bears can inherit it." The Rampant Bear King said.

"Hmm, good. I want it. Fifteen drops of the Spear of Fury star pattern's inheritance blood—no problem, right?" Xu Jin said.

The Rampant Bear King froze, stammering, "My lord, this is our Rampant Bear bloodline star art—even if I give it to you, you won't be able to learn it."

"I told you to do it!

Can you do it?

If you can't, I'll find another Rampant Bear expert to do it!" Xu Jin glared, and lightning began flickering in his palm.

"I-I-I can!" the Rampant Bear King stammered in haste.

Only then did Xu Jin nod in satisfaction.

He had already obtained the inheritance blood of the Fire Elephant star pattern.

The Spear of Fury star art the Rampant Bear King just demonstrated resembled the Earth Transformation Art Xu Jin had learned long ago from a star core—but its power was far greater.

More importantly, watching the Rampant Bear King perform, Xu Jin felt this star art paired perfectly with his Earth Meta-Magnetism Star Art.

When fully activated, Earth Meta-Magnetism could forcibly drag a target down from the sky with overwhelming magnetic force.

Then, the Spear of Fury would erupt from the ground.

One pull, one strike—perfect synergy.

Perfectly matched.

So Xu Jin wanted to learn it.

Two hours later, when the Rampant Bear King handed over the fifteen drops of the Spear of Fury inheritance blood, the massive bear king's legs trembled.

But it wasn't over—Xu Jin slashed the Rampant Bear King's wrist and collected two jars of his blood to study and reverse-engineer the Spear of Fury star pattern.

As for the Rampant Bear clan's star cores, he had already acquired several—mostly Fifth and Sixth-Rank ones.

Poor bear king, when he left again, his legs were still shaking.

I have to say, this bear king was also a coward.

Because the Rampant Bear King's physical defense was extremely strong, Xu Jin's original plan had been to peel off his hide and take it back—then the Grand Master of the State could forge at least two or three Sixth-Rank top-grade defensive star artifacts.

But this brute was too cooperative.

He even brought three sets of Sixth-Rank late-stage Rampant Bear hides from his own storage.

They knew their pelts were valuable.

Now that he was so cooperative, Xu Jin decided to spare his life.

"Fire Spirit King, Rampant Bear King, starting tomorrow, humans from the mortal world will arrive. Instruct your clansmen—if they spot any, bring them here safely.

These are my friends. If they suffer even a scratch, I'll peel your hides first!" Xu Jin commanded.

The Fire Spirit King felt nothing, only cautiously replied, "Yes, my lord."

But the Rampant Bear King felt a chill run through him—he had a strong feeling this lord had a great interest in his glossy, sleek hide!

Xu Jin had already obtained all six Heavenly Star Will fragments within the Fifth-Rank Lanshan Star Domain.

Now, he only waited for the people he summoned to arrive before executing his plan.

As for himself, Xu Jin sat cross-legged and began drawing star force from the white bone fragment to enhance his Lower Star Palace's cultivation.

In the past half-day, he had already brought six of the eleven stars in his Lower Star Palace that weren't yet at peak to their zenith.

Roughly one star per hour.

Time flew during cultivation. In the blink of an eye, four hours passed—just as he was about to begin on the last star core, his cultivation abruptly halted.

The star force within the white bone fragment had been fully absorbed.

This near-instantaneous infusion-style cultivation was indeed efficient.

Currently, he still didn't know how to make the white bone fragment absorb star force—he'd tried every method.

If it could absorb star force,

That would be perfect.

After accumulating for a while, it could trigger a massive surge in Xu Jin's cultivation.

For now, he could only keep trying. If all else failed, he'd seek out a Star Official of the Worshiping Stars Sect later and see if they could find a way to activate it.

After finishing star force cultivation, Xu Jin turned his inner vision to his Upper Star Palace's Soul Spirit.

His Soul Spirit had forged thirty-six Spirit Star cores; many were only successfully forged once, initially bearing just two or three star halos, never fully cultivated.

And perhaps due to the Soul Spirit's nature,

The Pure Soul Star Patterns inscribed on them gained passive spiritual power daily—but this power only boosted the Soul Spirit's cultivation, not the Spirit Star cores'.

Previously, Xu Jin could only deliberately enhance these Spirit Star cores by consuming Three-Infused Dragon Turtle Soul Forging Pills daily, increasing halo layers.

But he hadn't reached their limits.

Yet yesterday's battle with the mysterious man's Soul Spirit projection made Xu Jin realize the importance of these Soul Spirit star cores.

They were the skeleton of the Soul Spirit—the stronger they were, the stronger the Soul Spirit's defense became.

If all thirty-six Soul Spirit star cores were fully cultivated, that strike might not have injured his Soul Spirit at all.

Even after a full day, the cracks the strike had inflicted on his Soul Spirit had not fully healed.

This was only because Xu Jin possessed the Spirit Altar Secret Technique to heal Soul Spirit wounds.

For anyone else, it would've been far worse.

In the next instant, Xu Jin gripped the white bone fragment and began channeling its vast spiritual power into his Upper Star Palace.

The moment it entered, the Soul Spirit blazed with radiant light—the immense spiritual power surged toward it.

Xu Jin frowned, sinking his consciousness deep into the Soul Spirit, using his immense willpower to forcefully direct the torrent of spiritual power toward the Spirit Star cores that hadn't yet reached their peak.

It was truly an infusion.

Perhaps due to the exceptional strength of Xu Jin's Soul Spirit, this torrent of spiritual power directly boosted the Star Cores' cultivation in a cascading manner.

Faster than enhancing the Lower Star Palace's star cores.

As the torrent flooded in, the cultivation of these Star Cores surged rapidly.

One after another, star cores rapidly expanded into ten layers of star halos.

One after another, star cores reached their peak.

Two and a half hours later, when only two-tenths of the divine soul power remained within the white residual bone, all star core cultivations in Xu Jin's Upper Star Palace reached their peak, each possessing ten layers of star halos.

Of course, this was mainly due to Xu Jin consuming at least one Dragon Turtle Soul-Forging Elixir daily over the past two months.

The remaining two-tenths of divine soul power within the white residual bone was roughly equivalent to the potency of fifteen Three-Variant Dragon Turtle Soul-Forging Elixirs; if given the chance, it could assist one or two individuals in condensing their Nascent Soul.

All thirty-six star cores in the Upper Star Palace had been cultivated to their peak, each possessing ten layers of star halos.

Xu Jin began reconsidering the inscription of star patterns.

Previously, only seventy-eight Chenghun Star Patterns had been inscribed.

But according to previous test results of inscribing Chenghun Star Patterns, the more such patterns inscribed on a single star core, the more severely the passive increase in divine soul power diminished.

Two were optimal; three dropped to less than half the power of the first; when four were inscribed, the passive increase in divine soul cultivation fell below one-third of the first.

Inscribing six had no effect at all.

This was the result Xu Jin had determined at the cost of ruining two divine soul star cores.

But it didn't matter—Xu Jin had thirty-six divine soul star cores.

Yet now, he needed to increase the number of Chenghun Star Patterns inscribed.

Following old practice, Xu Jin deliberately preserved two star cores, each bearing only one basic Chenghun Star Pattern.

In the future, if he acquired an exceptionally powerful divine soul star technique, he could use these two star cores.

Then he reserved ten star cores for future additions of divine soul star patterns; on all other star cores, he inscribed at least three Chenghun Star Patterns.

The number of Chenghun Star Patterns surged rapidly to over one hundred.

Finally, Xu Jin inscribed a fourth Chenghun Star Pattern on several star cores.

He reached exactly one hundred and eight Chenghun Star Patterns—a small personal whim of his.

The Upper, Middle, and Lower Star Palaces together contained one hundred and eight star cores.

In the future, when evolving something, one hundred and eight sounded pleasing.

After all star cores had been cultivated to their peak and the Chenghun Star Patterns increased to one hundred and eight, Xu Jin's daily passive increase in divine soul cultivation rose noticeably.

Xu Jin estimated that previously, the maximum range of Yuanling Taoguang had increased by 0. meters every two days; from now on, it would increase by 0. meters every three days.

A significant improvement!

On April 3, while Xu Jin was studying and deducing the Angry Spear Star Pattern under the coverage of the Dou Deng Domain, the celestial authority of this world suddenly trembled repeatedly, and one after another repulsive aura appeared within the Lanshan Star Domain.

Xu Jin understood this must mean Ning Yuchan, Ji Hongli, Ying Ge, and others had arrived.

The repulsive auras were the natural reaction of this star domain's celestial will.

"Yuchan, fly southwest—soon, a foreign race will come to guide you."

"Ying Ge, fly southeast—soon, a foreign race will come to guide you."

Because they had not used the Passage Space Jade Tablet, all of them had landed in different directions.

With Xu Jin controlling six-tenths of the celestial authority, he could, with a thought, detect their locations and transmit precise voice messages to them.

Half a day later, all those Xu Jin had summoned to claim their rewards had arrived, gathering fully within the Furious Bear Capital.

Xu Jin had already chosen the altar's location within the Furious Bear Capital.

"Just follow my orders."

Xu Jin instructed the group, then took out the Ancestral Star Pivot Array Plate he had seized from the messenger in the Spring Thunder Star Domain.

In the next instant, he placed six clusters of celestial and stellar will within the Ancestral Star Pivot Array Plate, had Ning Yuchan, Ji Hongli, Hou Yunzhang, Ying Ge, Yang Miaozhen, and others take their assigned positions, then inserted the seized Sacred Ancestor Golden Token into the center of the array plate.

In an instant, as a vast aura surged forth, the Ancestral Star Pivot Array Plate was activated.

Xu Jin's eyes brightened—his fully activated Mingji Star Pattern sensed an extremely familiar aura!

The aura of world origin power!

He hadn't expected it to be hidden within the Sacred Ancestor Golden Token!

Xu Jin had long wondered where the world origin power carried by these messengers was located.

Or rather, how it reached the Altar Heavenly Path!

He hadn't expected it required the Sacred Ancestor Golden Token to combine with the Ancestral Star Pivot Array Plate to emerge!

Two-tenths!

In that single moment, Xu Jin, intimately familiar with world origin power, clearly sensed that two-tenths of world origin power had just appeared.

At the very instant the great array was activated, the Ancestral Star Pivot Array Plate instantly sank into the earth, drawing immense stellar energy from the subterranean star veins, then condensing at its center into a path formed entirely of stellar energy.

It spiraled upward instantly.

The Altar Heavenly Path was complete!

(End of Chapter)