Starry Sky Professional

Space travel is long and tedious, especially once the initial novelty fades away.

After Fang Xing grew weary of the monotonous view outside the cabin window, he returned to his quarters and chose to enter seclusion.

Although he called it seclusion, in reality, he simply lay there casually, his consciousness reaching through the Gate of the Heavens to connect with another 'himself' in another place.

The Cultivation World.

In an underground camp.

"This secret technique is truly miraculous, allowing communication between my main self and my avatar, even across two different worlds..."

The avatar, with sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes, suddenly opened his eyes.

He was currently lying in a blood pool that was eerie and wicked, a sight that would send chills down anyone's spine.

"However, it feels like the major merit goes to the 'Gate of the Heavens'... as if it were a super signal tower connecting the avatar and the main self? So, really, it's the golden finger that's doing the heavy lifting?"

Fang Xing got up, climbing out of the blood pool, and pointed casually.

A surge of magical power erupted, transforming into a simple object-manipulating technique to bring a silver sphere over.

The nano-suit immediately adhered to his body, forming a silver-white robe.

"This avatar technique is impressive. It's a pity I can only create one guardian. Otherwise, I'd have ten or eight avatars, and then I'd truly be invincible..."

He shook his head slightly, a hint of regret in his expression.

After all, the name of this secret technique was 'Heavenly Mother Wei De Golden Lotus Twin Guardian Original.' If he wanted another avatar, he'd likely have to reforge this secret art in the Great Sun Furnace to deduce something like the 'Three-Born Guardian Original.'

"Still, one is sufficient for now."

Fang Xing picked up a 'Spirit Measuring Talisman.' This body of his had already been assessed as possessing a golden element heavenly spiritual root!

The reason for re-examining it was naturally due to practicing the blood sacrifice secret art of the Myriad Laws Adept, daily refining and enhancing his spiritual roots after cultivating magical power.

By today, all materials had been completely consumed.

After slightly infusing some magical power, the spirit measuring talisman transformed into a brilliant light, landing upon his body.

Almost instantly, a golden radiance appeared, shooting straight up over Fang Xing's head, reaching a height of over one foot!

In fact, it exceeded one foot, measuring one foot and three to four inches!

“The spiritual measuring talisman categorizes spiritual root aptitude by the color and intensity of spiritual power. I have only one color, marking it as a single-attribute heavenly spiritual root, even surpassing the standard heavenly spiritual root... yet somehow, it seems not to have reached a certain threshold.”

Originally, Fang Xing thought that after the blood sacrifice of those cloned bodies, his spiritual root aptitude would take another leap forward.

However, the reality proved he was overly optimistic. Although indeed a bit stronger than a heavenly spiritual root, it seemed only marginally so.

“Is it insufficient materials? Or perhaps the absence of some innate essence?”

Fang Xing found this quite intriguing and wished to explore it further.

“The materials are definitely sufficient, even throughout the entire cultivation world, no one possesses resources better than mine... At most, they sacrifice their blood relatives, but I sacrificed ‘myself’, leaving no risk of rejection, nor any karmic debt...”

As for whether cultivators can achieve ‘cloning’?

In Fang Xing's understanding, it's practically impossible.

In this world of cultivators, most specialize in combat prowess and are decent in healing, but biological research is another story.

At least, as far as Fang Xing knew, for Foundation Establishment and Core Formation cultivators, regrowing severed limbs is not a difficult task.

But to create a body from nothing, or from just a drop of blood?

That likely requires a legendary elixir capable of reviving the dead and regrowing flesh from bones!

Such an elixir would likely not be in a low-tier cultivator's possession, more likely it serves as a lifeline for a high-level cultivator!

Why would anyone trade it for a body with heavenly spiritual roots?

For a cultivator beyond the Nascent Soul stage, what is a heavenly spiritual root compared to one's life?

If they wanted to possess a heavenly spiritual root, they could simply search within their domain or among their sect disciples, then take over through out-of-body possession.

Even for those demonic powers proficient in killing and refining demonic artifacts, teaching them cloning would be like asking them to fathom a completely foreign domain.

After all, if Nascent Soul cultivators could clone themselves from a drop of flesh, why wouldn't those True Lords of the orthodox and demonic paths prepare a drop of their own flesh as a vessel, instead of seeking to possess their sect's promising disciple after their mystical bodies were damaged?

It's beyond doubt that possessing oneself would involve no rejection, making it the most optimal choice.

The only explanation is that it's simply not feasible!

“For cultivators below the Nascent Soul stage, either through serendipitous opportunities or with the aid of rare natural treasures, they can perform individual experiments… But the cost and effort make it disproportionate to the results.”

“As for those above the Nascent Soul stage, or even the mythical immortals… perhaps they can easily manipulate creation, bestowing numerous heavenly spiritual roots as if through cloning… But for them, it's no longer of any consequence.”

“They have more convenient means to grant spiritual roots directly to mortals… For an immortal capable of creating endless heavenly spiritual roots, crafting a spiritual root superior to heavenly ones should be trivial, shouldn’t it?”

“So, when at the lower levels, there is no one with better resources than me.”

“Could this be the ultimate extent my spiritual roots can reach?”

With this thought, Fang Xing stopped pondering further.

After tidying up the blood pool and incubation chamber, he moved to a quiet meditation chamber to begin cultivating his spiritual energy.

“To become a cultivator from an ordinary person, one only needs to use spiritual roots to sense the spiritual energy in the void and draw it into the body...”

Fang Xing was long past being a first-level Qi cultivator.

From his very first session of cultivation, he felt an incessant flow of metal-attribute spiritual energy entering his body with a fierce urgency.

Thus, advancing from Qi Cultivation Level One, to Level Two, to Level Three… became as simple as eating and drinking.

A brief session of meditation today saw him smoothly break through to the fourth level of Qi Cultivation!

There was no hint of the usual bottleneck at all.

“Given that I have a special spiritual root more robust than even heavenly spiritual roots, such rapid progress in cultivation is quite normal...”

Fang Xing pulled out a piece of pale gold jade slip, examining it carefully.

His current cultivation method, named ‘Transforming Gold Art,’ is a rather ordinary gold-attribute cultivation technique, once recorded by the Master of Myriad Laws. Its sole advantage is its completeness, with explanations from Qi Cultivation Level One up to the perfect Foundation Establishment, even on how to break through to the Core Formation stage.

However, its power and the supplemental magical abilities are merely average, devoid of any specialized sword techniques.

Upon thinking this, Fang Xing felt a bit frustrated.

“The Master of Myriad Laws had mixed spiritual roots, primarily cultivating the ‘Primordial Chaos Art,’ which is unsuitable for my heavenly spiritual roots…”

“I recall when I, along with Old Ghost Long and Su Ye, went to hunt the Azure Rock Bull, there was also a true disciple of the Qingxuan Sect: his swordsmanship was extremely fierce, clearly practicing a gold-attribute sword art… Unfortunately, due to the need to maintain appearances back then, and the fact that cultivation items were essentially useless to me, I only took Old Ghost Long's storage pouch as a token gesture… That young man’s sword art, if it exists, should be with Su Ye...”

Fang Xing quietly noted this matter in his mind.

Cultivators with a metallic spiritual root are naturally suited for combat, particularly in the path of a sword cultivator!

Thus, he still wanted to acquire a high-quality sword cultivation technique, at least up to the Nascent Soul stage.

However, there was no rush for this; he could plan slowly after establishing his foundation.

Besides, although he had many magical artifacts, only a few were usable at the moment.

The most precious among them was a treasure hairpin he named the "Flying Phoenix Hairpin," but it was certainly unusable for now.

He also had a "Myriad Transformation Cauldron," a significant fortuitous encounter from the Master of Myriad Laws, which he was still exploring.

The Azure Rainbow Sword, though a second-tier spiritual artifact, was already damaged and still more suitable for his original self's use.

Apart from that, he had various flying swords at the magical artifact level.

Fang Xing casually picked an upper-grade flying sword to use for now.

Although it was generally more suitable for his current mid-stage Qi Refining strength to use a middle-grade flying sword, possibly due to his metallic heavenly spiritual root, he found that his energy consumption was low and recovery was quick when controlling a sword.

Therefore, even at the fourth level of Qi Refining, he could barely handle using an upper-grade flying sword.

“Apart from this, I should change my cultivation environment... Now that I am a cultivator, practicing in a place with a spiritual vein would speed up my progress...”

Fang Xing was already contemplating the matter of establishing his foundation.

Heavenly spiritual root cultivators typically face no bottlenecks before forming a golden core, so he most likely wouldn't need a Foundation Establishment Pill.

Of course, if given the opportunity, taking one would still be advisable for safety.

“My body's hidden flaw is that its natural lifespan is slightly shorter...”

This was a drawback of the cloning technology, equivalent to Fang Xing having already aged over a decade.

Even without rushing the growth, it was so even with the appearance remaining as a child.

“But that's not an issue, as establishing the foundation would extend my lifespan by two cycles... The mere loss of ten to twenty years of life would be compensated at that time.”

Fang Xing slightly raised his hand, channeling his spiritual power to condense the water vapor into a water mirror.

Cultivators excel particularly in magic related to their own spiritual root attributes, but they can comprehend a bit of the other five elements as well.

In the reflection of the mirror appeared a youthful figure in silver attire, with sword-like brows and starry eyes, lips as red as cherries, and pearly white teeth. There was an indescribable heroic spirit about him.

“This body doesn’t seem to have any problems. A rogue cultivator, perhaps?”

Fang Xing pondered for a moment. As cultivators with Heavenly Spiritual Roots are prospective Nascent Soul Elders, they would be well-protected in an established cultivation ground and unlikely to venture into desolate lands.

Such important figures, once disappeared, would definitely alarm their sects to search for them, mobilizing even Nascent Soul elders.

No word of any significant person going missing had emerged from the myriad law secret realm, and the master of myriad laws had no related memories either.

Thus, it was quite probable that this person was a rogue cultivator.

“If their background is clear, they could join a Core Formation sect after leaving here... Gaining resources without much effort on their part, they could ascend quickly...”

Why a Core Formation sect though?

Naturally, because Nascent Soul sects have Nascent Soul immortals capable of soul possession!

While Core Formation sects have only Core Formation cultivators, not every one of them is a genius like the master of myriad laws!

Thinking of the master of myriad laws, Fang Xing’s expression grew serious.

He knew that this person had a secondary soul still residing in the secret realm and had set up monitoring early on.

So far, everything in the secret realm seemed normal, with no unusual appearances.

‘Ghost cultivators can’t stray far from their transformation grounds... and even if the master of myriad laws succeeded in possession, how would they deal with their exhausted life force?’

Recalling the memories of the master of myriad laws, Fang Xing felt that this person’s final ‘Ghost Infant Technique’ was still quite flawed.

If this person were to take action themselves, the likely outcome after possession would not be favorable and could very well transform into some half-human, half-ghost aberration!

After mulling over these thoughts, Fang Xing stood up, subconsciously glancing at the attribute panel but not finding it.

“Sigh...”

He sighed deeply, knowing this detail ever since the start of the possession.

The attribute panel could only be viewed by the original self.

“Could it be... that this is the great power of the golden finger, the one and only across all realms?!”

Fang Xing mused to himself.

]

(End of Chapter)