Chapter 766: Star Monarch
"A planet."
The answer he provided astonished everyone.
Upon hearing the resources required to advance to the Eighth-stage, everyone's initial thought gravitated toward some exceptionally rare spiritual material, or a formula composed of a series of such materials.
For, based on historical precedent, it was known that certain spiritual materials or elixirs could indeed aid cultivators in achieving breakthroughs.
Given this path dependence, such a conjecture was entirely natural.
Of course, a planet, as uttered by Bai Mo, could also be considered an exceedingly rare material, from a certain perspective.
Within the Solar System, one might only appear, on average, every few billion kilometers.
And should one venture into regions where matter is even sparser, it might be impossible to locate a celestial body that meets the criteria within a radius of tens or even hundreds of billions of kilometers.
For this universe, after all, was truly vast to a despairing degree.
"Why a planet? Nothing else?"
"Are there restrictions on the type of planet?"
"And its size? Does it need to be larger than Earth?"
"..."
They posed a myriad of questions, yet no one harbored doubts regarding the veracity of Bai Mo's statements, for such outlandish claims could hardly deceive anyone of consequence.
...
"To 'catch stars and seize the moon,' one must possess corresponding mass-energy. Without it, what you grasp is merely a 'star in a mirror, a moon in water.' Only by forging the mass of a planet into your very being, allowing your True Immortal physique to rival the scale of a celestial body, can other techniques truly find their application." RA, so nobes
"To attempt the feats of an elephant with the body of an ant, even if successful, would be akin to an ordinary person perpetually treading a tightrope..."
"..."
Confronted with their inquiries, Bai Mo offered this explanation.
"So, in essence, one of the crucial requirements for entering the Eighth-stage is to refine sufficient matter, imbuing one's body with a mass comparable to that of a planet?"
"For once one possesses enough mass-energy, every casual gesture, every lift of a hand, will unleash cataclysmic, world-shattering techniques..."
Yun Jie offered a concise summary of Bai Mo's intent.
"The universe is so vast, and I only take a single bite?"
"A bite that devours an entire planet?"
"..."
"If that's the case, then Earth is already gone?" Someone quickly grasped this realization.
Given that the crux of breaking through to the Eighth-stage lay in devouring the mass of an entire planet, then Earth, the very first world Bai Mo brought under his sway, was likely the most opportune target.
"You couldn't have...?" Ji Er Ke Fu's gaze fixed on Bai Mo, filled with suspicion.
At this moment, he recalled a period from over a century ago: not long after their collective migration from Earth to the Moon, there had been a decade when Earth was shrouded by a black veil.
Reflecting on it now, he suspected that very decade had been Bai Mo's time to "digest" Earth.
Even if not every soul within the Federation yearned for their mother Earth, there would always be those who held it in cherished memory.
The "Terra" in the new nation's name, "Divine Terra Empire," referred precisely to Earth.
However, this so-called Divine Terra Empire exhibited no discernible holiness, nor did it actually control Terra (Earth); its highly decentralized system of noble fleet-commanders made it even less akin to an empire in the traditional sense.
"You are welcome to return and see for yourselves anytime, to check if Earth remains," Bai Mo's reply was quite intriguing.
He did not offer a particularly definitive answer.
Yet, everyone understood full well that a return to Earth was an impossibility for them.
To go back was utterly out of the question; their existence was barely sustained by their nomadic life in the void of outer space.
"The 'refining' you speak of, surely it's not a digestion like eating something into one's stomach, but rather a far more advanced form of absorption, yes?"
Bahamut, who had only just managed to redeem himself from the Land of White, naturally understood that Earth had not vanished entirely.
However, Earth, as a planetary concept, though seemingly not entirely gone, had in truth been utterly transformed from within to without by the Holy Progenitors, reshaped into a form unrecognizable to any old Earth-native citizen of the Federation.
One could even contend that today's Earth, save for the word "sphere" in its name, bore not the slightest resemblance to a sphere.
The world inhabited by the Holy Progenitors now, in fact, somewhat mirrored the Federation, which had effectively transformed into interstellar nomads.
The Holy Progenitors, in fact, dwelled within artificial cities composed of Earth's matter—essentially, individual residential districts suspended within the vacuum of space.
However, unlike those of the Federation, a substantial number of these floating metropolises remained stationary.
As for the mobile segments of these aerial cities, their design bore a striking resemblance to the Federation's grand flagship vessels; at their core, they all served the same function—colonization ships.
Under the system's directives, the Holy Progenitors commenced their exploration of other cosmic directions a decade prior.
With the exception of Alpha Centauri, the Federation's chosen destination, which was deliberately left vacant, the tendrils of the Holy Progenitors' "flagship vessels" extended in every other conceivable direction.
...
"A True Immortal who wields the power of a star—I have given them the name 'Star Monarch'." He disregarded his 'students'' complex sentiments regarding Earth and simply continued his address.
"Star Monarch? So you're the only one, bestowing such a grand title upon yourself...?"
"So he enjoys this sort of thing as well?"
"In another one or two millennia, will our honorifics become as impossibly long as 'One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones, Grand Pure One Residing in the Fiery Red Celestial Immortal Ascending to the Grand Purity Realm, Formed by Profound Qi, Sun God Treasure Lord, Daoist Venerable of Morality, Primal Chaos Emperor God'?" After hearing the Star Monarch concept, Xuanwu, whose imagination had run rampant, recalled the name of a certain mythological figure he had once read about in a book back on Earth.
...
"Since devouring planets can elevate one to a Star Monarch, then might we, in due course, consider devouring stars?"
Immediately, someone extrapolated, their thoughts turning to other celestial bodies in the cosmos.
For in the boundless expanse of space, there was, after all, no scarcity of colossal celestial bodies.
These celestial bodies possessed a mass unimaginable to ordinary mortals; if they could truly be refined and absorbed, it would grant power infinitely greater than merely devouring a planet.
"With the abilities of the Seventh-stage, digesting an entire planet is already an exceedingly arduous feat. Only in the late Seventh-stage, after reaching level seventy-eight, would one possess sufficient power to sustain the Transformation-into-star array. As for stars? That's merely 'a snake trying to swallow an elephant'—greed beyond one's capacity."
"Transformation-into-star array? Is that the black veil that shrouded Earth back then?" Ji Er Ke Fu sought to confirm his conjecture.
"This is a sample of the Transformation-into-star array." Bai Mo clenched his right hand in the void, and over a dozen pieces of peculiar black matter materialized. Then, as if endowed with sight, they slowly and leisurely drifted automatically into the hands of the assembled True Immortals.
Advancing to the Eighth-stage necessitated refining an oceanic quantity of matter as its foundational basis, yet the Federation's reserves of idle material were, at most, barely sufficient for two individuals.
However, there were more than a dozen True Immortals present in this very room.
The "plastic" camaraderie among the True Immortals instantly thinned considerably.
With 'many monks and little porridge,' they would, in the end, have no choice but to pursue a path of external plunder.
"When you reach the Eighth-stage and prepare to advance to the Ninth-stage, perhaps then you can set your sights on the stars," Bai Mo remarked, his gaze pointedly shifting towards the Sun.
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