When Dijun proposed the journey to the Taiyin Star, a flicker of hesitation crossed Ling Xiao's mind. He had resolved to stay low, to remain the "unseen variable" on the Sun Star. If he left now, would he be cheating his own logic?
System, he queried mentally, does leaving the Sun Star for its twin counts as 'entering the world'?
[Host, it only counts if you trigger a world-altering choice. Loopholes will not be tolerated.]
Ling Xiao gave a mental shrug. "Eldest Brother, Second Brother... go on without me. I will remain beneath the Fusang Tree to guard our home. Someone must keep the solar fires stoked."
Dijun and Taiyi didn't push. They clapped his shoulder, their eyes bright with the prospect of exploration. "Then stay safe, Third Brother. If we find treasures on that silver rock, we'll bring back a share for you."
Ling Xiao watched them vanish—two golden arcs of light cutting through the void. A wave of warmth settled in his chest; despite his past-life cynicism, the bond of the Origin was undeniably real.
Returning to the roots of the Fusang Tree, he summoned the grey bead. It sat in his palm, ancient and silent. "For now, I'll call you the Chaos Pearl..."
Refining a treasure of this magnitude was like trying to drink the ocean. He poured his Divine Soul into the artifact, but as his consciousness pierced the first layer, he recoiled in shock.
"Good grief... three thousand restrictions?"
In the tales he remembered, Innate Supreme Treasures had forty-nine layers at most. To have three thousand was a mathematical impossibility—unless this pearl was a fragment of the primordial Chaos itself. His scalp tingled. How long would it take to master a world?
But as he broke the first seal, the subsequent layers yielded with surprising fluidity. He refined one hundred restrictions in what felt like a blink. The hazy interior of the pearl expanded into a vast, silent cosmos. He began to draw upon its Innate Qi, feeling his cultivation surge with a purity that the external Sun Star could not match.
If I stay here for a million years, he mused, a look of pure joy on his face, I'll emerge as an invincible Saint. I'll stun the entire world.
[Ding! Emergency Detection: Dijun and Taiyi are locked in a bitter battle on the Taiyin Star.]
[Choice 1: Remain steady. Stay put. Reward: Supreme Grade Innate Spirit Treasure—The Qilin Seal.]
[Choice 2: Strike out immediately. Support your kin. Reward: Supreme Grade Innate Spirit Treasure—Twelve-Grade Pure World White Lotus.]
Ling Xiao's joy vanished. "System, you're a real piece of work. Testing me the moment I settle in?"
He didn't hesitate. "I choose Option Two."
Loyalty outweighed the "Steady Path." He stowed the Chaos Pearl, ignited his solar fire, and tore through the void toward the silver orb hanging in the distance.
The Taiyin Star
The silver landscape of the Moon was a theater of destruction. Four powerful auras collided with enough force to make the entire star shudder.
"Shameless thieves! Stealing from my Taiyin Star! Today, you pay the price!"
The voice was cold, sharp as a glacier's edge.
A woman stood in the void, her blue and white gauzy robes fluttering in the lunar wind. Her face was peerlessly beautiful, but masked in a layer of frost. Beside her stood a smaller woman, her agile eyes flashing with a cunning, predatory light.
"Fellow Daoist, it is a misunderstanding!" Dijun shouted. His golden armor was cracked, stained with the ichor of divine blood. "I only wished to comprehend the Lunar Formations. I have taken nothing!"
He had been humbled. He and Taiyi had expected a wasteland; instead, they had stumbled upon the Innate Gods of the Moon, and the power gap was staggering.
"Hmph! That's what they all say," the smaller woman—the Star God Changxi—replied with a mocking tilt of her head.
"We are Sun Star Gods, not common rogues!" Taiyi snarled. The Chaos Bell hovered above him, its tolling resonance keeping the lunar frost at bay. Without the bell, they would have been frozen solid within minutes.
"Sun Star Gods?" The taller woman, Xihe, let out a soft, condescending laugh. "Such weak Sun Star Gods..."
The insult hit like a physical blow. Dijun and Taiyi's faces darkened. To be looked down upon in their first real encounter with the world was a bitter pill.
"Boom!"
The battle reignited. Xihe moved with an effortless, lethal grace, her magical power blanketing the sky. She wasn't trying to kill them—not yet—fearing the karma of slaying the Sun's sovereigns.
"Since we are both Star Gods, I will offer you a mercy," Xihe said, her voice echoing through the vacuum. "Hand over the Fusang Tree of the Sun Star, and this 'misunderstanding' is forgotten."
"You're dreaming!" Dijun roared. "The Fusang is the foundation of our clan! We will die before we surrender it!"
"Stubborn fools," Xihe sighed.
She struck with her full force. The lunar energy surged, a tidal wave of cold that shattered the brothers' physical defenses. Golden blood sprayed into the void.
"DONG!"
The sound wasn't the Chaos Bell. It was deeper, heavier—the sound of an ancient weight crushing the very air.
A massive cauldron arrived from another time and space, dropping into the field and pressing down toward the two women with the weight of the Grandmist.
Ling Xiao stood atop the cauldron, his black hair whipping in the chaotic energy, his eyes burning like twin suns.
"Who wants the Fusang Tree?" he asked, his voice low and dangerous. "Step forward and take it from me."