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Ninth rank in Artifact Refining. This had been the key to Yaoguang's ability to turn the tables in one fell swoop. Through the trade, he had successfully acquired all the spoils on the battlefield. Whether the high-rank battle armors or the divine weapons carried by Lei Ting and the others, every single one was, without exception, among the pinnacle creations of this world. Each began at a baseline of tens of billions of Chixing coins. The costlier ones reached into the hundreds of billions, even several hundred billion. Furthermore, every member of the Chixing imperial family wore a protective dharma artifact. Because their souls had been directly extracted by the Five Emperors Soul Refining Furnace, their dharma artifacts had never been activated, leaving them completely undamaged as Yaoguang's spoils. Relying on the immense harvest yielded by this trade, experience on the [Merchant] branch skyrocketed. Yaoguang then poured it all without hesitation into the [Artifact Refining] branch, directly elevating it to a level comparable to the ninth rank of the [Martial Path]. However... The artifact refining system was distinctly different from the body refining system. It possessed only three tiers: Artifact Refining Apprentice, Artifact Refiner, and Senior Artifact Refiner. Across these three tiers, because Senior Artifact Refiner was not yet perfected, it had yielded only two Dao Fruits so far. One was the Artifact Refining Heart. When handling finished dharma artifacts, it allowed for far better analysis of their internal structure. The other was the Artifact Refining Soul. It enhanced the resonance between cultivator and dharma artifact, making one's essence, qi, and spirit vastly more compatible with the artifact's spirituality. Relying on the rich experience of a Senior Artifact Refiner and the talents granted by the two Dao Fruits, he had managed to achieve that final counter-kill against Leng Tianfeng—refining the Five Emperors Soul Refining Furnace a step ahead just as Leng Tianfeng was turning into its artifact spirit. After lingering on the [Artifact Refining] branch for a moment, Yaoguang's gaze returned to the [Martial Path] branch. "A Treasure Weapon." What did a Treasure Weapon signify?! The Jiang family had once intended to use this Treasure Weapon to buy this entire world from the Artifact Sect. Even if that was partly because the Jiang family had sufficient connections and foundation of their own, it still illustrated just how exorbitantly precious a Treasure Weapon was. It was essentially equivalent to an entire world. Thus, upon obtaining this Treasure Weapon, Yaoguang's [Merchant] experience saw another massive surge. This time, he did not funnel the experience into [Artifact Refining], but poured every bit of it into the growth of the [Martial Path] branch. The effect was immediate. The progress in this rank skyrocketed directly from its original 1% to 81%. Yet... It was not 81% in the conventional Star Lord stage, but rather the second form of a Star Lord. "Falling Star, Sky Star, Primary Star." Yaoguang murmured the three terms under his breath. Star Lord! It could be divided into three stages: the early stage of merging into one with a celestial body; the middle stage of evolving an astral force field through one's life force field; and the late stage of increasing one's own mass to transform into an astral demon god. Yet the foundation of these three stages was further categorized into three forms: Falling Star, Sky Star, and Primary Star. Yaoguang understood them in his own way: Falling Star meant meteor, Sky Star meant satellite, and Primary Star meant planet. When one cultivated to the peak of Star Lord, their might would be demonstrated by using their own power to shake celestial bodies—a meteor a hundred kilometers across, a satellite a thousand kilometers across, or a planet ten thousand kilometers across. After digesting this for a moment, even Yaoguang could not help but inhale a sharp breath. "I used to think that withstanding a nuclear blast at the Star Lord stage was already astonishingly formidable, but who would have thought that a peak Star Lord could..." Within this information, he clearly "saw" a Star Lord soar into space and use his life force field to drive a meteor over a hundred kilometers in diameter crashing down from high above the heavens, annihilating every living thing on a star. World extinction! This was true extinction! Such combat power... No living being could withstand it. Even if all the powerhouses, living beings, and technological weaponry of the entire Artifact Nurturing Realm were bound together, facing such an entity would lead only to death. "Phew!" Yaoguang let out a long breath. "Star Lord!" He repeated the word. In theory, even in the first form of Star Lord—the Falling Star rank—one could still choose to derive an astral force field and condense a demon god true body. However, for such a Star Lord... There would be no possibility of advancing further in the future. Only by attaining the second form—the Sky Star rank—could one achieve the ultimate breakthrough, raising a celestial star to hang in the nine heavens and stepping into the next great realm. To some extent, the three forms represented three tiers of foundational depth. After pondering briefly, he understood. "It's just like university students: graduates from third-rate colleges, first-class universities, and top-tier institutions will obviously have entirely different futures." Gathering his thoughts, Yaoguang closed his eyes in the transport vehicle to rest and recuperate. *** A day later, Yaoguang returned to Mount Yuhuang Villa. No word had come from Chixing yet. Yaoguang paid it no mind. He was confident that as long as the people of Xuelong possessed a shred of sense, they would know what to do and what not to do. After resting another day at Mount Yuhuang Villa, his injuries had recovered slightly. Once he returned to Longyou Stream, the secluded spot he used for cultivation, he brought out the Five Emperors Soul Refining Furnace once more. "Let's talk," Yaoguang said. Leng Tianfeng's figure immediately projected out from the Five Emperors Soul Refining Furnace. Though it was merely a phantom that resembled holographic projection technology, the fluctuations of divine mind radiating from him were completely real. "You..." The moment Leng Tianfeng saw Yaoguang, he sensed something. "Your memories have returned?" Yaoguang glanced at him without answering, saying only, "Tell me about the Moon Demon Empire, the Divine City Expeditionary Army, your Sixth Fleet, and what a Soul-Commanding Envoy actually is." As he spoke, he sent a ripple through the Five Emperors Soul Refining Furnace, causing Leng Tianfeng to shudder violently. Leng Tianfeng felt as if he had been stripped bare, leaving not a single secret hidden. "Don't hide anything. I can now tell whether your words are true or false directly from your emotional fluctuations," Yaoguang said. Feeling his own practically uncontainable divine mind fluctuations, Leng Tianfeng let out a bitter smile. "Is this truly necessary? Even if you haven't fully recovered, I cannot believe that anyone other than our own kind—whether a local native or some so-called Artifact Sect disciple—could possibly grow so quickly." "Answer my questions," Yaoguang said. Leng Tianfeng shook his head. "The Divine City Expeditionary Army is a force dispatched by the cities under the Moon Demon Empire specifically to conquer other worlds. Every envoy with any rank bears a restriction left by the central control—the Moon God. We cannot reveal too much, or else... triggering the restriction means certain death." With that, he directly exposed an exquisitely profound, ethereal restriction deep within his Origin Spirit. Yaoguang sensed it briefly and realized that this restriction was far too intricate for his current self to unravel. In fact, let alone unraveling it, he could not even make sense of it. After a moment of contemplation, Yaoguang did not force the matter. He said equivocally, "Perhaps we truly share the same origin. In that case, I won't force you. Tell me what you are permitted to say." Then he added, "Don't think of deceiving me. I will sense it." Leng Tianfeng nodded. "I also believe that if you can recover your memories, with the Moon God Court present, there will be room to resolve our misunderstandings." Pausing to organize his words, he began, "The initial form of a lifeform of the Moon Demon Empire is formless and immaterial, like a sheet of blank, transparent paper. Only through continuous contact with other living beings can we record information and develop diverse... personalities?" Hearing this, Yaoguang vaguely caught onto something. "Although our personalities become complete after that initial inscription, if we wish to grow further in the future, we must interact with all kinds of living beings. Therefore... we travel to various worlds, merging into the native creatures, replacing them, learning from them, becoming them... until... we can no longer draw further spiritual resonance from them, at which point we depart... We call this act Descent." He glanced at Yaoguang. "Depending on our 'talent,' the more times we descend, the more thoroughly we replace and learn, and the richer the life experiences of that entity, the faster our growth will be... However, living beings with rich experiences often lead legendary lives; their status, standing, and influence are considerable, and their mental will is usually quite powerful. Such Descents carry inherent danger. If we encounter truly extraordinary beings... our Descent can fail..." "What happens if it fails?" "Death," Leng Tianfeng said solemnly. "Our consciousness is devoured in reverse, turned into nourishment for their growth." At that, as if remembering something, he added, "The divine path system in the Cangwu Realm, where the Artifact Sect resides, was actually undeveloped. Three hundred years ago, a member of our Moon Demon Empire failed their Descent into Cangwu and was devoured in reverse. Only then did they deduce the divine path lineage based on our cultivation system, leading to its great flourish and the rapid rise of related systems." "What related systems?" Yaoguang asked. "We enter the bodies of living beings to experience their lives and generate soul resonance in the process, enabling our own growth, but that is not how we fight." Leng Tianfeng said, "Only beings formed of flesh and blood can produce rich emotions; other creatures are dull and numb in feeling, making them poor choices for us. Yet... while a body of flesh and blood possesses rich emotions, it is exceedingly fragile. Polishing it bit by bit is tedious and time-consuming. Therefore, our true combat power relies on external objects and forces... which is to say, what the natives of this world call technology." Speaking of this, a trace of pride surfaced in his voice. "Every citizen of the Moon Demon Empire possesses their own battle armor, and many have even forged their own starships. The attacks unleashed through these armors and starships were something not even the top cultivators of the Artifact Sect could withstand. In the early stages of the war, we slaughtered countless supreme cultivators of Cangwu." Hearing this, Yaoguang's heart stirred. "In the early stages of the war? In other words, your current situation is not nearly as smooth as you claim." As soon as these words left his mouth, Leng Tianfeng's emotions fluctuated violently. "I want the truth," Yaoguang added flatly. Leng Tianfeng hastily tried to rein in his emotions, but despite several attempts, he could not entirely conceal the fluctuations. In the end... He could only say, "The cultivators of Cangwu learned very quickly." He opened his mouth and said, "Very soon, based on our starships' energy circulation models, those cultivators ignited the true essence within their bodies with their Natal True Fire, triggering nuclear fusion, and then bound it with powerful divine sense to form a controllable fusion power source. Some powerful cultivators unleashed radiance comparable to a star once the energy within them fused... There were even those who collapsed their Golden Cores into black holes, warping space-time to perform hyperspace jumps and strike at the empire's home territory..." As he spoke, his emotions flickered unsteadily. "More than ten years ago, we lost contact with the main fleet. As for the exact state of the war right now... we simply do not know."