Chapter 41: Divine Ability: Star Shift

But Qin Shu clearly had no intention of letting it off so easily.

“Flame Banner rises, Azure Lotus Banner appears! Wind and fire unite—Fire Escape, Wind Escape, let wind and flames spread like wildfire!”

A tempest erupted, merging with raging infernos to form an enormous azure firebird. Its hue resembled the purest furnace flame, its temperature scorching hot, its size vastly larger than Xiao Yan—the essence of its spirit unmistakable.

With razor-sharp claws of flame, the bird lunged at the black-gold horned sheep.

Unaware of the impending danger within the formation, the sheep stood helpless as the solid-like azure flames accurately grasped it by the neck and spine. The claws then transformed into a sea of blue fire, engulfing the creature entirely.

The Five Elements Formation evolved into a killing array, causing the flames surrounding the black-gold horned sheep to intensify even further.

Moments later, amidst the sheep’s pitiful bleats, its flesh vanished, leaving only its two black-gold horns standing resilient against the blaze.

These were natural-born sword materials; with minimal refinement, they could become top-tier fourth-rank magical artifacts—flying swords of extraordinary power. With additional enhancements, crafting them into low-grade spiritual artifacts would also be within reach.

Qin Shu extinguished the flames and waved his hand, summoning the black-gold horns into his storage ring.

At the center of the formation, the divine soul cyan lotus began to wilt, its roots, leaves, stem, and petals gradually dissipating into nothingness.

The essence of karma radiated throughout the entire array. The five directional flags and Qingping Sword Pill orbited around the cyan lotus, absorbing the scattered strands of Dao essence to enhance themselves.

The withered lotus leaves clung to a shred of vitality, which merged into the five directional flags.

One by one, dried-up lotus roots emerged from the earth. As they dissolved, they transformed into droplets of white liquid, sinking into Qin Shu’s sea of consciousness and being absorbed by the Nine Lives Doll.

The lotus seedpod glowed brilliantly azure. When the light dissipated, it revealed a bronze cauldron thirty centimeters in diameter, its lid adorned with eighty-one perforations arranged in a nine-by-nine grid.

A jade-green lotus seedpod, roughly the size of a large bowl, reappeared. With a burst of green light, it swiftly drilled into Qin Shu’s forehead, carrying away a petal along with it.

“Let us depart!”

A golden flash enveloped Qin Shu as he summoned Xiao Yan into his blood pact space. In an instant, both were teleported back to the secret chamber within the villa.

The room was instantly flooded with radiant gold light.

As the lotus seedpod bestowed its benefits, a torrent of fortune force surged forth.

Qin Shu, without pausing to inspect what treasures the World Will had provided, immediately focused on receiving feedback from the lotus seedpod.

Accompanied by the rolling waves of fortune force in his sea of consciousness,

the spiritual energy in the microspiritual veins beneath Yanghe Villa District seemed to encounter a powerful pump. It began converging towards Qin Shu’s secret chamber, surging with renewed vigor.

Within the chamber, the accumulating spiritual energy coalesced into a spirit mist. As this mist condensed to its limit, it gradually transformed into a pool of ethereal liquid.

The spiritual liquid enveloped him, its volume steadily increasing until the entire chamber was filled with the liquidified spiritual energy.

Qin Shu greedily absorbed the essence within the fluid.

In his lower dantian, the sea of qi continuously expanded, the true yuan cyan lotus shimmering brilliantly. In his middle dantian, the virtual pill oscillated, expanding and contracting repeatedly before finally exploding with a thunderous roar.

Qin Shu’s body jolted as the virtual pill detonated, opening up his upper sea of qi. The chaotic darkness at the boundary receded, making way for the new expansion.

In an instant, the room was drained of all liquid spiritual energy, which transformed into Karma True Yuan, filling the void left by the expansion of the upper sea of qi.

A tempestuous wind swept through the chamber as Qin Shu, like a black hole, voraciously consumed the spiritual energy.

At the site of the exploded virtual pill in the Shanzhong Point, a new one formed, even more rounded and condensed than before.

This was the principle of destruction giving rise to creation.

When the virtual pill had burst earlier, within the Muddy Pill Palace, Qin Shu’s divine sense had instantly enhanced by several folds. His spiritual awareness radiated outwards, now able to probe eight kilometers away.

By the time Qin Shu awakened, over half a month had passed.

His cultivation base had reached the mid-Core Formation stage, and a divine ability legacy flooded deep into his soul.

Stellar Transformation: When cultivated to mastery, it allowed one to alter the very stars themselves, obscuring or even rewriting celestial secrets. It could grant insights into the fundamental laws governing destiny itself.

At his current stage, having just entered the realm of divine abilities, Qin Shu could only conceal his true cultivation level, making it difficult for others to discern his capabilities.

After a wave of mystical fluctuations, the aura around him began to weaken.

From Mid Core Formation, he regressed through Initial Core Formation, all the way to Late Foundation Establishment before finally stabilizing.

“This is a bit too fast,” he thought. “This feels about right.”

Hiding one’s true cultivation was merely a minor application of Stellar Transformation. Unless someone else possessed this ability, they would perceive him as being at Late Foundation Establishment without any physical interaction.

More than half a month passed, and the golden light gradually dissipated.

The World Will’s feedback lay motionless on the ground.

Qin Shu gazed upon it—a small green glass bead, roughly the size of a thumb.

With a burst of divine sense, he drew it into his hand.

A miniature Heaven-Dome Pearl, containing an internal microcosm suitable for cultivating various spirit medicines.

“Why is it this? There’s no time-related rule here; it’s just an extra storage space,” he mused, somewhat disappointed after learning its details.

However, upon further reflection, he realized, “Wait! I can use Fortune Force to accelerate growth. As long as there’s enough spiritual energy, these spirit medicines can age as desired.”

“Heh heh!”

With that thought, a smile spread across his face.

Herbs for refining spirit pills below fifth rank were relatively easy to find; at least they wouldn’t be out of stock in the Money God Shopping Mall.

However, if one wanted to refine fifth-rank or higher spirit pills, the required medicinal ingredients became scarce—and expensive.

Naturally, fifth-rank spirit pills themselves were also pricey, being available only by special order in Nine Yong City despite their high demand.

Even in the Money God Shopping Mall, obtaining fifth-rank spirit pills would require advance booking, purchasing from local aristocratic families within Nine Yong City, or sourcing from other regions.

With this miniature heavenly cave, Qin Shu now had a stable supply chain for medicinal ingredients, ensuring self-sufficiency.

He promptly began to refine the heavenly cave.

Inside, there was an area of twelve million square kilometers shaped like a circle. At its center stood a towering mountain peak, with spiritual springs continuously gushing from the crevices between rocks. These springs flowed down the mountain, branching into rivers that spread across the land like capillaries, activating the fertile soil throughout the twelve million square kilometers.

The edge of the heavenly cave connected directly to the void, which led straight into chaos.

After being refined by Qin Shu, the heavenly cave came alive. It began transforming the power of the void into spiritual qi, creating streams of spiritual essence that flowed down from the mountain peaks.

The only drawback was its speed; transforming this microcosmic heavenly cave into a suitable environment for cultivating spirit medicine would still require another one or two years.

However, Qin Shu remained patient—after all, reaching Primordial Infant stage was still far off.

With a thought, the lotus seedpod transformed into the Karma Cauldron, appearing in his hand.

Now that he had the Karma Cauldron, the Burning Flame Furnace paled in comparison.

The interior of the Karma Cauldron operated like a self-contained universe. Each hole on its lid represented an independent yet interconnected space, significantly increasing the efficiency of pill concocting.

Moreover, when it came to simple medicinal pills like the Foundation Establishment Pill, there was no need for Qin Shu to personally oversee their creation.

Once he refined a single batch using the Karma Cauldron, with ample spiritual energy supplied, the cauldron itself could perfectly replicate the process, producing top-grade Foundation Establishment Pills without further intervention.

Eagerly, Qin Shu got to work, feeding ten sets of materials for Foundation Establishment Pills into the cauldron.

He distributed the four different ingredients into separate spaces within the cauldron, dividing his divine sense accordingly to refine them simultaneously. Once completed, he converged the results in the fifth space.

In less than a day, he had crafted a hundred perfect-quality Foundation Establishment Pills at his disposal.