A World Worth Protecting

The megaphone had been a longtime companion of Wang Baole. He had it when he was at the Ethereal Dao College. The megaphone had been a tremendous aid numerous times in the past, and he had refined and upgraded it repeatedly. In the end, it had been the lack of suitable materials that had ended his repeated upgrades. He had refined it until it could no longer be refined.

Wang Baole held onto the megaphone and stared at it for a very long time. After some thought, he set it aside and began rummaging through his storage bag again. He pulled out three flying swords in the end. They were each of a different color. The blades showed the classic signs of being refined under the Divine Eye civilization’s Dharmic Armament system. Even though they were sharp, ninth grade weapons, they were nevertheless merely Dharmic treasures at the Nascent Soul realm.

They had been severely damaged, but after Wang Baole had arrived at the Divine Eye civilization, he had used them as practice targets when learning the Dharmic Armament system of the Divine Eye civilization and had repaired them.

Then, there were the five ancient copper coins as well. They had been of some help to him too, but they were simply dead weight now. Wang Baole had kept them because of their unique appearance. Now that he had taken them out again, he took the chance to take another good look at them. He was about to set them aside again when he suddenly let out a sound that was colored with suspicion.

Something isn’t quite right with these coins. Wang Baole froze momentarily. He brought the coins closer to his eyes and examined them carefully. He could no longer recall the details of how he had gotten these coins. They seemed to have come from the storage bag of some inner sect disciple’s body that he had discovered in the Vast Expanse Dao Palace ruins, but he wasn’t sure. He hadn’t spotted anything strange about them in the past, but now, as a perfected Spirit Immortal realm cultivator, he could see that there was something special about these coins.

Especially… the material that the coins were made of.

Galactic Stone Dust? Wang Baole’s eyes widened gradually. He hadn’t come across such a material when he had been in the Divine Eye civilization, but he had seen it being sold in the market that was owned by the Xie family. He knew that this was a precious material required for the crafting of Eternal Stars. It was worth a fortune and was rare. If one were to calculate its cost based on standard Federation measurements in grams, one gram of Galactic Stone Dust would cost at least hundreds of thousands of Red Crystals!

The price of Galactic Stone Dust increased exponentially after the first ten grams. Wang Baole had a feel of the weight of the five coins in his hand. He believed that they weighed more than five hundred grams.

Wang Baole was worried that he might have made a mistake. He suppressed the intense excitement bubbling inside him, rubbed his eyes hastily, and inspected the coins carefully again. Finally, his eyes widened, and his breathing grew uneven.

I was right! Heavens, I didn’t know that I was this rich! Wang Baole almost leaped into the air out of excitement. He looked around instinctively before slipping the coins carefully into his storage bag. He then patted the storage bag and sighed a long sigh.

It’s not safe keeping these coins on me. It’s a pity that I can’t move around easily now. If I could… I would hide these coins with my true form. Wang Baole was still bubbling with excitement. He wasn’t sure how he had gotten his hands on the coins at the moment, but he now knew their value. He was extremely curious about the true origins of the coins.

They were crafted from such costly material, so there must be some other use for them! Wang Baole was struck with a sudden thought. There might be other priceless treasures in his stash, treasures whose worth he hadn’t been able to discern in the past. He opened his storage bag and started inspecting each item inside carefully.

Unfortunately, the coins were the exception to the rule. Wang Baole didn’t manage to find anything else as precious as the coins after rummaging through his storage bag.

He sighed, then his eyes fell on the flying swords and his megaphone. He had some materials that he could use to refine artifacts in his storage bag, but not a lot. He could only refine one Dharmic Artifact. After some thought, Wang Baole decided to set the flying swords aside and picked the megaphone up.

You’re it! At Wang Baole’s current level of cultivation, with his skill at refining Dharmic Artifacts, and at his current location, it would hardly be any trouble for him to refine the megaphone. He was only going to switch the materials that had gone into the megaphone with something else and imprint a new set of inscriptions onto it.

Because of Wang Baole’s Eternal Star Fire, the megaphone gained the unexpected elemental ability of fire. In order to strengthen this ability to its fullest, Wang Baole swallowed the megaphone and housed it in the Eternal Star Fire that was burning inside him.

The Eternal Star Fire inside his body had been a product of Little Wu’s cultivation technique. This was the most powerful aid that Wang Baole currently had when it came to refining artifacts.

He nourished the megaphone with his Eternal Star Fire carefully. Then, Wang Baole took another look at his storage bag. The storage ring rested inside, and another incredible treasure was lying inside the storage ring.

It was… the Galaxy Bow!

I can’t seem to work this bow, though. What a pity. Wang Baole shook his head with regret. After the lightning chase had ended, he had tried the bow on his journey back. No matter how hard he had pulled, the bowstring just wouldn’t budge. Based on Wang Baole’s assessment, he would have to at least be at the Planet realm before he could work the bow.

I still have my intrinsic scabbard and the mosquitoes inside it… not to mention the scabbard’s hex-like strands. However, the scabbard is kept with my true form. Wang Baole shook his head. He decided not to think about his Dharmic treasures and instead started considering the divine powers he possessed.

First, there’s the Demonic Eye Art… It has the power to bind my enemies and pose a threat to a Planet realm cultivator. If I were to stage a sneak attack successfully, I could slay a Planet realm cultivator with the Demonic Eye Art. It can also absorb the spirit energy of my enemies. The more enemies I cut down, the more powerful I become! After some deliberation, Wang Baole decided that the Demonic Eye Art would be his primary divine power in battle.

Next is the Supernova… It’s not as powerful as the other divine powers and is little more than brute force. It’s not as energy-efficient and therefore expends more cultivation. But in the event where there are no other better moves to make, the Supernova… would be a formidable attack with incredible damage if I were to expend all the cultivation that I have!

Then comes the Dark Art. I should avoid using that. As for the Dao Scripture… I should avoid using that as well. Wang Baole thought of what had happened the last time he had recited the Dao Scripture and shuddered faintly.

I just have a few other divine powers and spells, like the Ethereal Dao College’s Cloud Finger as well as the Flash Arc and the Electromagnetic Pulse from the Lightning Domain…

He was lost in memory for a moment. Then, he raised his right hand. A lightning arc appeared under one of his fingernails and began wriggling under his nails. It had started as a Core Formation realm level spell, slowly advanced to the Soul Conduit realm, and finally reached the Spirit Immortal realm. At that juncture, the lightning arc had taken on a different color. It was now a crimson color!

The increase in the lightning arc’s strength and the change in its color were all the result of Wang Baole refining and upgrading the cultivation technique. With his current level of cultivation, upgrading such simple spells barely took a moment and hardly posed a challenge to him.

It seems powerful enough. Wang Baole had a feel of the damage the lightning arc was capable of. He raised his right hand and snapped his fingers. Countless crimson lightning bolts appeared instantly in the waves of heat that rose around him. They gathered and formed a sphere of lightning in his palm.

He could sense the power it held. Should it explode, its blast would extend a hundred feet into the distance. The sphere of lightning would transform into an electromagnetic storm. The damage unleashed might not rival the sea of lightning that the wishing bottle had brought upon him as a consequence of his accidental wish, but it would suffice if he wanted to slay a perfected Spirit Immortal realm cultivator.

“If I can’t kill him in one blow, I’ll get him with the next. If two blows don’t work, I’ll just hit him with ten!” Wang Baole muttered. He waved his hand and sent the sphere of lightning away. Mist appeared over his fingers next. It gathered swiftly and transformed into the shape of a finger. An incredible wave of power that far surpassed that of the electromagnetic storm exuded from the finger. It seemed as if someone had just released a seal that had been placed over the finger, and waves of intense power surged from it!

Wang Baole jerked when he sensed the aura, and doubt and shock flickered in his eyes after he examined the aura carefully.

The Cloud Finger might be a divine power that the Ethereal Dao College is renowned for, but it’s actually not that powerful. It seems to be more powerful than the Supernova when unleashed at my current level of cultivation, though. Why is that so? Wang Baole’s breathing quickened after he sensed the waves of spirit energy released from his Cloud Finger. There was only one way to explain this!

The Ethereal Dao College’s cultivation techniques… aren’t as simple as they appear to be! After a moment of contemplation, Wang Baole decided that he was going to question the patriarch of the Ethereal Dao College in detail when he returned to the Federation. He needed to know if the patriarch had invented these cultivation techniques or if he had recovered them from some ancient ruins.

With that thought in mind, Wang Baole began to try out the various divine powers that he had mastered since he had begun his journey of cultivation. He realized that the Cloud Finger was an exception to the rule. The other divine powers didn’t unleash extraordinary damage. Some were like the Supernova, where he had to expend considerable energy in exchange for a powerful attack.

Simply put, these divine powers weren’t sufficiently refined and hence couldn’t unleash the full power of a Spirit Immortal realm cultivator. For every 10% of cultivation he expended, he would only be able to inflict 12% damage on his enemy. In comparison, he would be able to inflict 18% to 19% damage with the Cloud Finger.

It’s a pity that the divine powers other than the Demonic Eye Art that I got in the Dark Dream have excessively powerful Dark Art auras. I’ll also need to be at the Planet realm before I can attempt to master them. Wang Baole shook his head. His eyes flashed a short moment later.

I still have an intrinsic gift, though. Its effects might be limited elsewhere, but I should be able to optimize such effects in the Graveyard of Stars!

This intrinsic gift is… an ability that I acquired when I got my Stellar Nascent Soul… the ability to amplify my power through surrounding planets!

The bigger the planet, the more powerful I am. Similarly, the closer I am to the planet, the more powerful I get too. In fact, I become stronger with more planets around me! The thought of that was a great boost to Wang Baole’s confidence. He became more assured of his chances in the Graveyard of Stars. As he was about to deliberate further on his plans, alarm flashed across his face suddenly. He snapped his head up and stared into the distant cosmos.

With the aid of the Eye of the Eternal Star, he managed to sense a powerful wave of spirit energy coming from that direction. It dazzled with the brilliance of an Eternal Star, its blinding light flaring up suddenly and casting its brilliance across half of the Divine Eye civilization.

At the border of the Divine Eye civilization and the edge of this sea of light, two figures gradually materialized!

One was a young man with an arrogant look on his face. The other was… an old man dressed in golden robes!

The old man was like the sun. As his form materialized into a distinct shape, he seemed to sense something. The old man glanced at the Eternal Star that Wang Baole was on.

White noise exploded in Wang Baole’s mind when the old man’s eyes fell upon him. The Eternal Star that he was on erupted instantly, erecting a successful defense against the old man’s powerful gaze. It didn’t stop Wang Baole from shuddering at the unexpected look. His cultivation became unstable.

An Eternal Star realm cultivator!