The Vast Heaven Pavilion contained two types of power.

One was star power that poured through its ceiling, and the other was pure spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth.

While Nie Tian focused solely on refining his spiritual power core, he didn’t even need to use any of his spirit stones.

He simply spread his hands to gather spiritual power with the method he had learned from that magical land he had been to.

WHOOSH!

Vast spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth poured into his palms from all directions, forming spiritual energy balls.

Then, Nie Tian channeled the spiritual energy into his spiritual sea in his dantian region, to refine his spiritual power core over and over.

“The spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth in Fragmentary Star City is richer than that in the magical land where those titans are buried. The Vast Heaven Pavilion, however, gathers spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth from the whole city, which makes the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth here even richer. If people were to practice nothing but pure spiritual power here, it wouldn’t matter if they didn’t have any spirit stones or spirit jades with them.

“Come to think of it, when I first broke through into the Worldly realm, my spiritual cores came to form, along with my true soul. My pure spiritual power core was indeed the first to take form. After that were my flame power, wood power, and star power cores...”

The more he thought about it, the wiser he felt Mo Heng’s advice was.

He thought he should have discovered and practiced cultivation by this law long ago, refining his pure spiritual power core first.

The reason why he had deviated from the right path was because he had gained that Nine Stars Flower, those leaves from a Godspirit Tree, and that flame spark.

However, Mo Heng had showed up and set him straight. Things had indeed worked out after he put him on the right path again.

Two weeks passed.

With the help of the copious amount of spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth in the Vast Heaven Pavilion, Nie Tian finally refined his pure spiritual power core to its limit.

Liquidized spiritual power could be seen flowing within the semi-transparent sphere like streams.

At that time, no matter how hard he tried to channel more spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth into his pure spiritual power core, there would be no change at all.

That was when he realized that he didn’t need to spend any time or energy on his spiritual core anymore.

On this day, Zhu Yun came over, and returned the Star Behemoth bone to him.

Zhu Yun looked rather exhausted and withered, her pale-gray hair messy, as if she hadn’t cleaned herself up for a long time.

“I talked to Wei Lai just now. Fifty thousand contribution points have been added to your Star Medallion for letting us examine this Star Behemoth bone.” With these words, Zhu Yun sighed. “But after trying every method I could think of, I still couldn’t carve it with any spell formations.

“It seems that I don’t have what it takes to forge this thing into a weapon for you.

“Every time I carved a spell formation onto it, the Star Behemoth’s Bloodline Crystal Chains would wipe it out immediately. This thing is an integral whole, which can be viewed as a part of a living Star Behemoth. Even if I were able to carve it with spell formations, that might break its original balance.”

Zhu Yun seemed rather frustrated.

“Sorry for putting you through all the trouble,” Nie Tian said gratefully.

Zhu Yun nodded and left.

Nie Tian, however, didn’t feel particularly disappointed, since he would be able to use it in battle as long as he had enough flesh power.

This thing was still going to be his most destructive weapon.

He had a feeling that as his bloodline upgraded, and his understanding of his unique bloodline grew deeper and deeper, he would eventually solve all of the mysteries of this thing.

After this, he continued to practice cultivation wholeheartedly in the Vast Heaven Pavilion.

Time flew. Half a year passed before he knew it. With the help of the Nine Stars Flower, the flame spark, and the leaves of the Godspirit Tree, he had finally refined his star power, flame power, and wood power to the limit as well.

It would take a regular cultivator several years to finish this process, but the three Earth Cultivated grade treasures greatly reduced the time required for him.

At this moment, the refinement of his spiritual sea had reached the point where he was ready for his next breakthrough. However, the refinement of his true soul was miles behind.

In order to make a breakthrough in cultivation, he would have to strengthen both his spiritual sea and sea of awareness. If the refinement of his true soul lagged behind, he still wouldn’t be able to reach his next breakthrough.

The reason why he had been able to make consecutive breakthroughs before was because he had a stockpiled a large number of soul crystals.

Those soul crystals had significantly improved the speed at which he refined his true soul.

However, since he had run out of them long ago, he could only refine his true soul bit by bit at a much slower speed.

Brow furrowed, Nie Tian sighed.

 “The refinement of souls has always been a crucial factor that stops human Qi warriors from making rapid breakthroughs in cultivation. Spirit stones and spiritual materials of various attributes are easy to find. Soul crystals that can help with soul refinement are much rarer.” 

His expression flickered as he reached this point in his train of thought. 

“However…  In the magical land where those titans are buried, there’s a grand spell formation of flame dragon skeletons, which can help me refine discarnate souls, getting rid of their impurities and leaving nothing but pure soul power. Even though the spell formation can’t gather soul power from its surroundings by itself, the Spirit Pearl has already reaped a large number of discarnate souls. If I can use it to refine some of the discarnate souls within the Spirit Pearl, it’ll probably be very helpful for the strengthening of my true soul!”

In order to go to that magical land, Nie Tian would have to rely on the Flame Dragon Armor to rip open a spatial rift.

However, this was Fragmentary Star City, where countless powerful experts were gathered. If he were to create a spatial rift, someone was bound to find out.

If that happened, the Flame Dragon Armor’s secret would be brought to light.

“I can’t do that here, in the Vast Heaven Pavilion. It has to be in realms like the Realm of Split Void, where I have total control.”

RING! RING!

All of a sudden, sharp rings came from the Sound Stone Mo Heng had given him.

Nie Tian took it out and sent a wisp of his soul awareness into it.

There was only one message within the Sound Stone, which had come from the grand elder, Mo Heng. “Open the gate.”

Nie Tian hurriedly opened the gate. As soon as he did, Mo Heng’s figure flashed through into the establishment.

After coming to a stop in front of Nie Tian, Mo Heng took a deep look at him and said, “From the look of it, you’ve already solved the problem that’s been bothering you.”

Nie Tian clasped his hands. “Thank you very much for pointing me in the right direction, grand elder!” 

Mo Heng received his salute calmly, and said, “Did Wei Lai tell you that we’d have a mission for you?”

Nie Tian nodded.

Mo Heng pondered briefly before saying, “I think it’s about time I told you about that mission. If you finish it, not only will it earn you five hundred thousand contribution points, but it’ll also help you learn more about that Star Behemoth bone.”

“What’s the mission?” Nie Tian asked curiously.

“Go to that floating dimension,” Mo Heng explained, “the one with two parallel continents that you entered by accident years ago. That floating dimension doesn’t stay in one location. Instead, it’s constantly on the move. In ancient times, the bottom continent was a super-large-scale realm.

“As you know, a Star Behemoth is sleeping in the depths of its black sea.

“Our sect made a deal with it, according to which we help hide that dimension from humans and outsiders. If there were any intruders, it would be our responsibility to expel them.

“In return, our sect is allowed to send our disciples to undertake trials there every century to search for spiritual materials, including the remains of Ancientbeasts.

“That Star Behemoth is lying in dormancy, since it has lost most of its power, but once it awakes, it’ll shake heaven and earth. However, if it awakes, it’ll need to consume a terrifying amount of resources, causing many realms to vanish, or be reduced to deal realms. That’ll make many powerful races, including humans, insecure and uneasy.

“Perhaps God domain human experts will work with tenth grade outsider grand monarchs to deal with it.

“So it won’t end its dormancy unless absolutely necessary.

“However, just recently, a group of eighth grade Demons, Fiends, and Phantasms have paid an unwanted visit to that continent under the leadership of a ninth grade grand patriarch. They’re searching and poking around, as if they know there’s something in the depths of that black sea.

“Since that Star Behemoth is still in a dormant state, it secretly informed us of the situation and asked us to take care of those unwanted visitors for it. It doesn’t want to end its dormancy because of a bunch of puny insects. It knows that once it awakes, the floating continent it has rested in for many years may fall apart.”

After explaining the context to Nie Tian, Mo Heng continued, “So you’re being given the mission to kill or expel those outsiders on that floating continent. Also, find and destroy any entrance they used to enter it.

“Considering that they have only one ninth grade grand patriarch, you and your subordinates should be able to take care of them. If you can’t, send word to us and we’ll make other arrangements.”

Nie Tian pondered briefly before asking, “But how am I supposed to enter that floating continent?”

“Put coordinates for that floating continent into your teleportation portal in the Realm of Split Void, then you’ll be able to teleport there directly,” Mo Heng said. “If you’ve decided to go on this mission, I’ll have Kan Zhisheng help you connect that teleportation portal to the one we set up on the floating continent many years ago.”

“Okay, I accept the mission,” Nie Tian said.

Mo Heng nodded. “Alright, you may go make arrangements with your subordinates. I’ll take care of other things for you. After you finish this mission, you can also take this opportunity to ask that Star Behemoth about that bone you have. Its understanding of it must far exceed ours.”

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