Chapter 445: The Might of High Heaven — The Vastness of the Abyssal Void |
"There's a rule like that?" Many nearby were surprised.
"It's been quite a while since any outside force joined High Heaven. It's perfectly normal that you don't know." The middle-aged man's expression was inscrutable. "And besides this Star Seed, Bronze Heaven also has two Star Amber-grade Star Seeds."
"This rule was recently brought up again — likely the Upper Three Heavens deliberately circulated it, to save some fool from touching a hot stove and getting punished."
"It really does exist."
By the time the middle-aged man finished, someone had already verified it.
Quite a few nodded in agreement. "Makes sense. They just joined. If people immediately piled on with challenges, it'd be a bit like bullying. Especially since Bronze Heaven is from an outer realm — their cultivation system hasn't caught up yet. They're naturally at a disadvantage."
Not many among them were Divine Dawn-grade themselves. The benefits wouldn't come their way regardless, so their perspective was reasonably objective.
"I heard from a friend in the Office of Rites that this Bronze Heaven apparently only has one Morning Star." Someone suddenly spoke up, eyes on a blurry virtual screen.
"Just one? In that case, Bronze Heaven's overall strength — aside from their Heaven Lord — is probably far weaker than even Xuanwu Heaven."
"I heard that Dust Star Sea isn't simple at all. Its coverage is enormous — the largest of any outer realm. Eight Radiant Moons once coexisted there, and Buddha Land's Immeasurable Buddha nearly died there..."
The discussion went on for a while before their attention was drawn to the matter of the Immeasurable Buddha's grave wounding.
.........
Jiang Yue exited the hall, summoned a rainbow bridge, and arrived deep within Eternal Dragon Heaven in the blink of an eye.
He knew the place well, proceeding directly to a palace and pushing through its doors.
Someone was already waiting. A tall, slender young man came forward, asking without preamble, "Senior Brother Jiang, how did it go?"
"Seventy-nine people accepted that exploration task, but the reports were all scattered fragments — nothing useful." Jiang Yue shook his head. Seeing the disappointment on the young man's face, he added:
"Junior Brother Zhong Yue, that is a 'Guixu Abyss' after all. The risk is considerable. Trying to get useful intelligence through this approach is genuinely unlikely."
"Sigh..." Zhong Yue shook his head with furrowed brow. "I know that perfectly well. But if I make too big a scene, I'll draw others' attention."
"In the method for metamorphosing into an Empyrean God, the 'Guixu Soil' is only a minor component. But someone might still connect the dots and realize I'm aiming for the Empyrean God metamorphosis."
"In our Eternal Dragon Heaven, aside from our Master, only Junior Brother Song and I are Moon Seeds. Even the Upper Three Heavens can't match that. If they learn I'm also pursuing the Empyrean God metamorphosis, the Upper Three Heavens will certainly not sit idle."
"The Upper Three Heavens..." Jiang Yue stroked his big beard and gave a cold snort. "That Daoist Lord position has been monopolized by the Upper Three Heavens for too long. It's high time one of us Outer Heavens took the seat."
Zhong Yue paced back and forth, tapping his fingertips together. "The Daoist Lord stands above all factions and has never deliberately suppressed us. But the Upper Three Heavens won't relinquish their hold easily."
"Without reaching Empyrean God, there's no touching the Daoist Lord's position. And even if I do, that's merely the beginning — I'd still have to compete with the other Empyrean Gods."
"You're young. You have time." Jiang Yue tried to reassure him.
Zhong Yue sighed helplessly. "If it were only about the Daoist Lord's position, I wouldn't mind lying low. But the Sovereign of the Purple Zenith has suddenly resurfaced. Though a Chosen has already been born, that Taixuan Hong is as good as dead sooner or later."
"The situation with this Spirit of the Vast Sun is special — jointly controlled by all Five Pillars. Once a new Chosen is born, they definitely won't allow the position to change hands easily. If I miss that selection window, it would be too great a loss..."
"The Sovereign of the Purple Zenith..." Jiang Yue fell silent, and had to concede. "You're right. That is indeed a rare opportunity."
"I can't wait any longer. Even if there's some risk, I have to try." Zhong Yue said abruptly, seeming to have made up his mind. "I'll go myself."
Jiang Yue's brow furrowed, as if wanting to dissuade him, but in the end he said nothing.
Zhong Yue calculated for a while, then suddenly changed the subject. "By the way, has Bronze Heaven arrived?"
"Yes, they arrived today." Jiang Yue nodded. "I happened to run into Qi You bringing their Star Seed for registration at the Yingyuan Office when I went to check on task status."
"Oh?" Zhong Yue seemed somewhat interested. "How are they?"
Jiang Yue shook his head. "I looked into it. Three Star Seeds — two Star Amber, one Divine Dawn. Only a single Morning Star."
"The Divine Dawn one is named Su Chen. Seems to have focused purely on his main profession — reached 7th-Tier at twenty-seven."
"I see. Can't count on them, then." Zhong Yue sighed with disappointment. "As things stand, among the six Outer Heavens, only our Eternal Dragon Heaven can even remotely contend with the Upper Three. As for the other five — clay chickens and pottery dogs..."
"Bronze Heaven's overall strength may be unremarkable, but the Dust Star Sea they come from is anything but ordinary..." Jiang Yue's eyes glinted.
"Oh, what's the situation?" Zhong Yue seemed to perk up with interest.
.........
"Thank you, Senior Brother." Su Chen watched Qi You step onto the rainbow bridge and leave Bronze Heaven. Behind him, Chu Lingyuan's voice was already calling out, "How did it go? No problems?"
Su Chen turned. His senior's face showed no small amount of worry. "Nothing happened. Just registration, that's all."
"Oh, one more thing." Su Chen said. "Senior Brother Qi You mentioned that since our Bronze Heaven just joined High Heaven, the existing Star Seeds — me, Old Wei, and Shen Yi'an — aren't allowed to be challenged. Our Chosen status won't be changed."
He'd inquired about this from Qi You on his way back.
"Won't be changed?" Chu Lingyuan breathed a long sigh of relief. "It seems High Heaven is fairly considerate."
But a moment later, another thought surfaced — even if Su Chen and the others were shielded from challenges and smoothly advanced to Morning Star, that protection lasted only one generation. The next generation wouldn't enjoy such preferential treatment.
'But I'll probably have perished long before then...' Chu Lingyuan pushed aside his thoughts and said, "Your quarters have been arranged. Each palace here can be outfitted with various configurations — training environment enhancements and the like."
"Zhou Yunyang." Chu Lingyuan summoned an old acquaintance and had him escort Su Chen to his quarters.
"Martial Uncle Su." Zhou Yunyang greeted him warmly, though seeing Su Chen inevitably brought back memories of his Black Buddha "disciple."
A flicker of something odd crossed Su Chen's face as well. After He Peiting had been exposed, Zhou Yunyang had visited to apologize.
After all, it was Zhou Yunyang who'd brought He Peiting to meet Su Chen. Su Chen naturally didn't blame him, and the man had been profusely grateful for quite some time.
Walking along, they could see the sect members who'd come along bustling about. Some had already left, taken to tour various parts of High Heaven and handle liaison procedures.
High Heaven was enormous. Resource allocation, exchanges with other Heavens, and various other affairs all required dedicated personnel.
"High Heaven truly lives up to its reputation as a top-tier power in the Abyssal Void..." Zhou Yunyang continued marveling along the way. "Did you know? Even the currently weakest Xuanwu Heaven has five Morning Stars, four Star Seeds — all Divine Dawn-grade. Tsk..."
"And apparently, there are all sorts of resources that directly facilitate class acquisition, and even items that can directly boost profession development progress. It's staggering..." Zhou Yunyang chattered on, sharing information he'd just learned.
Su Chen simply listened. He'd known all this since his time in the Flare Realm.
"Here we are. This is your residence."
Before long, Zhou Yunyang brought him to a halt before a palace — silver walls, minimalist in appearance, surrounded by uniform structures that all looked identical.
Currently, the entirety of Bronze Heaven had palaces constructed only in its central zone. This was already the core of the core.
"Thank you, Deacon Zhou." Su Chen said.
"Don't mention it... There's a control hub inside. You can adjust things however you like." Zhou Yunyang waited until Su Chen entered the palace before taking his leave.
The interior was spacious and bare. Su Chen looked around, then called up the control hub. As he experimented, the environment inside the hall shifted repeatedly.
"Why does this feel just like the Cultivation Sanctum?"
Su Chen muttered for a while, and finding nothing novel, lost interest in further exploration.
He settled on a spacious forest environment similar to the Cultivation Sanctum, then sat cross-legged, producing his token and projecting the virtual screen.
Next, he took out a Faith Soul Crystal and placed it on the token. A line of text appeared on the virtual screen — [Decompose Faith Soul Crystal?]
Su Chen confirmed.
In an instant, the void rippled faintly. Symbols surged from the token, while the Faith Soul Crystal in his hand gradually dissolved into a torrent of particles that flowed into the token.
His Spirit Essence balance, previously showing "0," changed to "100."
"In this High Heaven, if you want convenience and speed, Spirit Essence is indispensable."
Su Chen clicked his tongue. The distances between High Heaven's nine Heavens were considerable. Some areas could be traversed by flying physically, others required switching to flight vehicles — a single round trip could easily take hours at minimum.
But the rainbow bridge could reach any destination in an instant. The trade-off was Spirit Essence consumption.
"As for my resource allotment..." Su Chen tapped the flashing "Resources" sub-page.
[Divine Dawn-grade 7th-Tier Star Seed annual resource supply and advancement reward have not been claimed. Claim now?]
"Annual supply?" Su Chen examined it closely. This included one hundred portions of "Seven-Turn Essence Potion," which required inputting attribute specifications.
"These specially formulated high-grade potions should be even more potent than the Sacred Cauldron Sect's, right?"
There were also one hundred and ten portions of Faith Essence — ten as the Divine Dawn Star Seed's annual allotment, and one hundred as an advancement reward.
"One hundred portions just for becoming a Star Seed, plus ten Faith Essence annually. Wealthy and overbearing indeed." Su Chen marveled.
Outside the registration hall earlier, he'd noticed most people flew there physically. Only a minority used the rainbow bridge.
Even though each use cost only one Spirit Essence, not everyone could afford it. A Star Seed's annual allotment of one thousand Spirit Essence was considerable.
As for other advancement rewards...
"One special plant seed, one star beast cub, one set of high-grade custom armor..."
Su Chen scanned through them. The advancement rewards weren't meager at all. He mulled over each one. "Judging by these specialties, they seem to come from different Heavens."
The special plant seed, for instance, came from Sangwu Heaven. Its uses were significant — it could be grafted parasitically onto one's body based on one's traits, and once mature, could externally supply energy, assist in combat, and serve other purposes like tracking and concealment.
The star beast cub came from Eternal Dragon Heaven. Some powerful void star beasts, once fully grown, were no weaker than Morning Stars. The high-grade custom armor came from Xuanwu Heaven.
Some items were quite novel; others he didn't particularly care about. Beyond the fixed resources, everything else had to be personally selected.
Apart from Faith Essence, the fixed resources were mostly 7th-Tier supplies. But Su Chen wasn't about to let them sit idle. After choosing to claim them, someone would deliver them shortly.
"As for the other things I want..."
Su Chen studied the interface, found the search bar, and tentatively typed in "Morning Star Embers."
The page jumped instantly, spawning several main pages — some with introductions, others with detailed explanations of how Morning Star Embers were formed.
Su Chen scrolled through several pages before finding what he wanted. His eyelid twitched. "They actually sell these. But the price..."
[Morning Star Embers (Private Seller): 2,000 portions of Faith Essence]
He rubbed his eyes to confirm he wasn't seeing things. "That expensive?"
He tapped for details, and understanding dawned.
[Morning Star Embers (Private Seller), asking price 2,000 portions of Faith Essence. Refined using the latest "Xuanji Method." In life, the original was a peak-tier Morning Star who had tempered twelve strands of Morning Fire. Specialties included physical, lethal, burst-type Holy Classes...]
There were even images. These Morning Star Embers had reddened to the point of turning gold — clearly different from the ones he'd previously obtained.
Below that were the words "Contact Seller."
"A peak-tier Morning Star with twelve strands of Morning Fire... hiss..." Su Chen drew a sharp breath. That was only a single step from Radiant Moon. And they were selling it?
In the Dust Star Sea, Morning Star Embers formed through extreme chance — their numbers vanishingly rare. But here in High Heaven...
"This seems perfect for the World-Slaying Manifestation, but that price..."
His brow twitched. He went back a page and scrolled further. There were quite a few Morning Star Embers for sale — from both private sellers and High Heaven's official listings.
"Basically, one strand of Morning Fire corresponds to about one hundred Faith Essence. The more combat-oriented Holy Classes it specialized in, the higher the price. Refining method also affects pricing..." Su Chen gradually discerned the pattern.
"But top-tier embers command a premium of their own."
Normally, refining Morning Star Embers was an extremely tedious process, and the amount of professional power one could extract was random.
He didn't know whether the Abyssal Void had methods to simplify this process or directionally extract the residual professional power within, but the refining method clearly mattered a great deal.
"I wonder how many strands of Morning Fire that fellow I killed had..." Su Chen searched a while longer, then modified his search terms, adding the word "forging."
The results dropped dramatically.
[Morning Star Embers (Private Seller), asking price 320 portions of Faith Essence. In life, the original was a lower-tier Morning Star who had tempered three strands of Morning Fire. Specialties included physical, forging-type Holy Classes...]
"Three hundred fifty... two hundred seventy... four hundred thirty..." Su Chen scrolled, growing increasingly numb. "These are really expensive."
[Spend 1 Spirit Essence for wide-area search?]
A prompt suddenly popped up. Su Chen blinked, only then realizing that in his numbed scrolling, he'd gone through every Morning Star Embers listing tagged with the "forging" keyword.
"Wide-area search? And it costs Spirit Essence too?" Su Chen was curious. He selected confirm.
In an instant, all the pages burst open, transforming into a much larger virtual screen. Amid swirling starlight, a flood of new listings appeared.
[Morning Star Embers (Independent Seller), asking price 150 Faith Essence. In life, the original was a lower-tier Morning Star who had tempered one strand of Morning Fire. Specialty: forging-type Holy Class...
Note: Purchase requires an additional 10% Faith Essence as shipping fee. Estimated wait time: approximately three months.]
Su Chen's expression shifted. "This wide-area search covers the entire Abyssal Void?"