73: The Chosen Ones

"This... is the exclusive training ground for the Spirit Martial Hall's Eternal First Sequence!" Lin Yuan's voice carried an irrepressible sense of wonder.

He took a greedy deep breath; the Origin Qi of heaven and earth was so dense it had turned into a liquid spiritual mist, surging into his limbs and bones like nectar! With every breath, he felt a surging torrent of spiritual power roaring through his Meridians! He tentatively reached out a finger to touch the translucent barrier—

"Boom!"

What his fingertip transmitted was actually a majestic torrent of energy as vast as a sea of stars and as violent as the roar of an ancient Dragon! The Spiritual Qi supply of this Immortal Cave was actually grafted directly onto the Ancestral Vein Dragon Ridge that supported the core of the entire Central Continent! Endless, pure Dragon Vein Spiritual Qi, like an inexhaustible ocean, was for his exclusive enjoyment!

Just then, the Chaos Jade Platform beneath his feet, engraved with the true intent of the Great Dao, suddenly lit up! Billions of profound array patterns flowed and intertwined like living things, instantly illuminating the entire Immortal Cave! The Grand Hall Master's voice, sounding as if it originated from the end of time and space, echoed in the void: "Within this space, you may control time. The maximum flow rate is twice that of the outside world, and it will not consume a single bit of your Origin."

A sharp light like electricity flashed in Lin Yuan's eyes, and his heart pounded wildly! This meant that ten precious days in the outside world would be a full twenty days of golden cultivation time here! Without hesitation, he triggered his Divine Thought and fully activated the time array!

Buzz—!

Within the barrier, ripples of time visible to the naked eye appeared in space, as if an invisible river of time was accelerating its flow here! The entire Immortal Cave was shrouded in a hazy and mysterious Veil of Time, and the gears of time began to turn with a distinct, intoxicating rhythm!

"World Meta-Embryo, I shall refine your body first!" Lin Yuan's eyes were like torches as he sat cross-legged at the core of the jade platform and took out that milky-white light orb that was constantly squirming and emitting the aura of Creation.

The moment the Meta-Embryo left his body, it actually vibrated violently, erupting with a terrifying power that tore through the void, as if it possessed sentience and wanted to break through the boundary and escape! Lin Yuan gave a cold snort, and the Chaos Law within his body erupted!

Nine Chaos Divine Chains, containing the world-shaking power of Creation, formed instantly, turning into a Chaos cage that imprisoned all things, locking the Meta-Embryo tight!

"Merge!" With a sharp shout, Lin Yuan used his supreme will to forcibly press the Meta-Embryo into the Sea of Consciousness in his brow!

Boom—!

Within the Sea of Consciousness, that thirty-thousand-meter tall divine sense tree that supported the heavens and earth sensed the intrusion of a foreign object. Billions of branches danced wildly like world-destroying divine whips, lashing out at the Meta-Embryo with a terrifying pressure meant to crush the Divine Soul!

However, billions of Law filaments suddenly extended from the surface of the Meta-Embryo, wrapping around the trunk and branches of the divine sense tree with pinpoint accuracy! A destructive energy storm erupted between the two, yet in the center of the storm, a slow and sacred symbiotic Fusion originating from the Universe's Origin began!

"Twenty days... cannot be accelerated..." Lin Yuan focused all his attention on internal observation, discerning the mysteries of the Fusion. The Meta-Embryo was replicating everything about the divine sense tree with unbelievable precision!

Every texture on the main trunk containing the Chaos Great Dao, every vein on the leaves branded with different Laws... it was identical! What shook his mind even more was that the Meta-Embryo was simultaneously generating perfect replicas of the three Origin Divine Leaves hanging at the top of the tree, which contained the Laws of Time, Devouring, and Space!

This discovery made his blood boil, as if he could already foresee an invincible future where he possessed dual incarnations and doubled his combat power!

After confirming that the Meta-Embryo Fusion was as steady as a rock, Lin Yuan turned his gaze to that floating Primordial Sword Embryo. The three-zhang-long grayish-white stone bar's rough skin was peeling off inch by inch under the washing of Chaos Qi, revealing the Chaos Origin inside that flowed incessantly like the blade of a world-opening axe, emitting the power of destruction and Creation!

Buzz—! The Ch-

-aos Heavenly Extreme Sword sensed this once-in-a-millennium opportunity. Without needing to be prompted, it broke out of his body on its own, letting out a greedy sword cry that tore through the Universe and expressed an extreme craving; the entire Immortal Cave trembled under its vibration!

"Swallow it! Complete the transformation!" Lin Yuan pointed his sword finger! The chaos heavenly extreme sword turned into a destructive stream of light, like an ancient Vicious Beast pouncing on its prey, and stabbed fiercely into the core of the sword embryo!

Boom—!!!

At the moment of collision, a Chaos storm sufficient to annihilate stars instantly swept through the entire Immortal Cave! The floor, paved with ten-thousand-year-old Dao-Enlightenment Divine Stones, shattered inch by inch like a spiderweb! The ancient scrolls on the walls, which contained the true intent of the Laws, danced wildly without wind, letting out groans of being overstrained!

On the body of the chaos heavenly extreme sword, the large patches of mottled rust that had been covered in dust for eons peeled away, revealing a supreme sword body inside where nine-colored divine light flowed, as if forged from the core of Chaos. The sword light surged, illuminating the Immortal Cave like a sacred hall at the dawn of Chaos!

"Clang—!!!"

A clear and stirring sword cry, as if it could cut through the long river of time, resounded through the nine heavens! The chaos heavenly extreme sword had completely awakened!

On the sword's body, six Chaos divine patterns, seemingly engraved by the Great Dao itself, shone brilliantly. Each divine pattern contained the power to open the heavens and earth and redefine the Universe! Just by quietly floating in the air, the surrounding space twisted and groaned like fragile glass, emitting heart-palpitating shattering hums!

[chaos heavenly extreme sword · Awakened! Grade: High Grade Spiritual Artifact (Peak)! Attack Increase: +800 Yu!]

"High Grade Peak! Finally... it's done!" Divine light exploded from Lin Yuan's eyes like a blazing sun. The moment he reached out and gripped the sword hilt—Boom! A terrifying spiritual power, as vast as a pouring galaxy and as violent as ancient dragon strength, instantly poured into his entire body!

His limbs, bones, Meridians, and even the divine sense tree in his Sea of Consciousness were vibrating and cheering wildly! Spiritual Artifacts were the exclusive treasures of Spirit Refining Realm Cultivators! Only by condensing a divine sense tree could one withstand its backlash! If an ordinary Martial Artist dared to forcibly activate one, at best their Dao foundation would shatter and they would become a cripple; at worst, their Soul would Fly Away and Spirit Scatter, never to be reborn!

Spiritual Artifacts are divided into four grades:

Low Grade Spiritual Artifact: Increases combat power by 1-9 Yu. Holding it allows an Early Stage Spirit Refining Cultivator to sweep through those of the same stage and look down on an entire region!

Medium Grade Spiritual Artifact: Increases combat power by 10-99 Yu. Holding it allows one to fight across Realms and suppress powerful enemies!

High Grade Spiritual Artifact: Increases combat power by 100-999 Yu. Once unleashed, mountains and rivers overturn, the sun and moon lose their light! Even Laws retreat before it!

Top Grade Spiritual Artifact (Legendary): Increases combat power by over a thousand Yu. These are supreme killing treasures left over from ancient times! They can cut through Laws and shatter the Void Realm! Only Feather Transformation Realm powerhouses can wield them!

And now, as soon as the chaos heavenly extreme sword awakened, it directly jumped to the Peak of the [High Grade Spiritual Artifact] Realm, with an attack bonus as high as eight hundred Yu! In terms of sharpness alone, it was already infinitely close to the threshold of that legendary [Top Grade]!

"Let's test its edge!" Battle Intent erupted like a volcano in Lin Yuan's chest as he casually swung the sword!

"Screech—!!!"

Before the sword light even arrived, a mountain Peak three hundred miles away, as towering as an ancient divine mountain, silently split down the middle like a sandcastle and collapsed with a bang! A terrifying rift ten thousand zhang long, pitch black as ink and swallowing all light, was slashed into the Void Realm, unable to close for a long time!

The entire Immortal Cave, supported by the Dragon Vein, shook violently. If not for the Ancestral Vein Dragon force protecting it, it would have long since turned to dust under the aftershocks of that casual sword strike!

"A casual strike actually has the power of a thousand Yu?!" Lin Yuan's mind was shaken! An ordinary Spirit Refining Cultivator, without the enhancement of a Spiritual Artifact, would only have a combat power of a few dozen Yu after a lifetime of hard cultivation! Yet this strike of his had already exceeded a thousand Yu of power, enough to slay a Peak Spirit Refining Cultivator with both body and Soul destroyed!

Satisfied, he withdrew the divine sword into his body, his chest filled with heroic pride! Spiritual Artifacts were the true reliance for Spirit Refining Realm Cultivators to traverse the Universe! A powerful Spiritual Artifact was enough to allow a Cultivator to cross several minor Realms and kill enemies against the odds!

And his chaos heavenly extreme sword had infinite potential! If it could continue to devour Chaos divine objects like the Primordial Sword Embryo, it would surely be able to impact that legendary [Top Grade] Realm in the future, or even... transform into a supreme Dao Artifact that only Myriad Dao Realm giants could wield!

Suppressing his agitated emotions, Lin Yuan took out that spatial law crystal that sealed a silver stream of light and was incomparably sharp. The moment the crystal touched his palm—Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle! His palm was instantly sliced open, dripping with blood!

That silver light was like billions of invisible spatial divine blades, crazily cutting and tearing at his flesh and bones. A piercing, bone-deep pain instantly spread throughout his body!

"Devouring Law, refine it for me!" Lin Yuan gritted his teeth, and the black hole that devoured all things in his Sea of Consciousness suddenly expanded like the mouth of a Taotie, greedily eating away and analyzing the endless profound mysteries of the Space Law!

At the same time, the supreme Primordial Purple Qi within his body showed its divine effect once more! The daily 100,000 evolution points arrived as scheduled, flowing with pinpoint accuracy into his data core:

Day 1: evolution points +100,000

Day 2: evolution points +100,000 (Accumulated: 200,000)

...Day 10: evolution points +100,000 (Accumulated: 1,000,000)

"Consume 1,000,000 evolution points! Cultivation Aptitude: [Peerless Talent] → [Favored Son of Heaven]!"

It was as if a Chaos star had exploded in the deepest part of his Soul! Every cell was cheering and leaping, completing the ultimate leap in life level! Every nerve was transforming and renewing, weaving a supreme network for sensing the Great Dao! Those Law Profound Truths that were once as obscure as heavenly books and as difficult as a sea of stars now became as clear and transparent as looking at the lines on one's palm, understandable at a glance!

[Cultivation Efficiency: 20x → 100x!]

[Law Comprehension Speed: 2x → 10x!]

This transformative change instantly applied to the refining of the Space Law! The spatial dao patterns that were originally like an insurmountable chasm and difficult to understand now had their essential mysteries flowing into his heart like a clear spring upon a single look!

Under the dual enhancement of the Devouring Law's violent consumption and the Heaven-Defying Comprehension Ability of his hundred-fold Aptitude, that silver crystal shrank and dimmed at a rate visible to the naked eye!

[Day 11: Space Law Mastery → 25%]

[Day 12: Space Law Mastery → 35%]

...[Day 18: Space Law Mastery → 88%]