True Spirit Fruits were among the few treasures that could strengthen a True Spirit, and they could only be produced in the Origin Realm.
Even lords of major star systems across the Empire—like the Lord of Northern River, who spent his life campaigning abroad—would only get one fruit every thousand years.
It wasn't until he helped cultivate a talent like Zhao Xing for the Empire and sent him into the Origin Realm that he got upgraded to three fruits. That alone showed how precious True Spirit Fruits were.
Yet in just this short moment, Zhao Xing had already eaten ten.
In front of him, there were still around three hundred more.
No other reason—just the right connections and money!
"Normally, one True Spirit Fruit is enough to break through to the Reincarnation Realm. But my situation isn't exactly normal."
Zhao Xing downed ten in one go—and that was just the beginning.
Because in his Fate Palace, one hundred and one soul bodies were lined up along a mountain ridge.
"These one hundred and one soul bodies, the ones standing on the peak that have fused with the Earth Soul, are the main soul. The rest were created through repeated tearing of the soul after cultivating the Primordial Straw Puppet Technique."
After mastering the Primordial Straw Puppet Technique, the soul undergoes major fragmentation. The idea was to let the soul split and grow stronger individually, then fuse them all together later to enhance the True Spirit.
As imagined by Gu Tianyang, after one thousand tears, and after each soul fragment passed through the True Spirit Tribulation and reached the half-god stage, the fusion would result in a True Spirit one thousand times more powerful than a typical one.
Of course, the drawback was that the fragments, having existed independently for so long, would start to develop their own ideas.
The soul couldn't be torn lightly.
After each tear, the main soul's realm would drop, and the soul fragments had to stay in a Primordial Straw Puppet body to continue maturing.
And the materials for crafting a Primordial Straw Puppet were a whole tier above the Taixu Straw Puppet.
While Taixu models used Origin-grade divine weapon materials, Primordial Straw Puppets had to be made from Reincarnation Dao Soldier-grade materials. Only then could the soul fragments dwell long-term and level up.
Zhao Xing had learned the Primordial Straw Puppet Technique three hundred years ago, and at that time, he'd only torn his soul once.
He had no choice. He had just recovered from a major illness and was buried in debt—he didn't dare split any further.
But once he struck gold, all those debts vanished. In just sixty years, he split his soul one hundred times and gained one hundred Primordial Avatars.
Each one was high-end, crafted from Reincarnation Dao Soldier materials.
After one hundred tears, all soul fragments had reached the Life-and-Death Dao Domain Realm.
The only difference between the main soul and the fragments was that the main soul had fused with the Earth Soul—while the fragments hadn't.
The fragments didn't carry karma, nor did they reincarnate.
But in terms of combat power, they were almost indistinguishable from the main soul—and they were fully interchangeable.
However, the breakthrough had to happen simultaneously.
The technique created by Gu Tianyang demanded it all—it wanted everything at once.
So now, Zhao Xing's breakthrough into the True Spirit Realm required one hundred times the resources.
"Hurry up and eat, quit stalling!"
"Why am I at the end of the line, huh?"
"Where's the True Spirit Fruit? You didn't buy enough!"
"Six-six-six! This feels amazing!"
The one hundred plus soul fragments lined up in the Fate Palace started getting noisy.
Zhao Xing felt something strange. He could sense that the fragments were part of him—but also not quite.
It felt like having dozens of voices in your head all at once.
These fragments were created at different times, so that side effect made sense.
To suppress these effects, there were two options. First, mental suppression. If one's willpower was strong enough to unify all thoughts, then the fragments could be brought under control.
"The side effects of the Primordial Straw Puppet Technique are also what make it so powerful."
"To master this technique, one must prioritize willpower cultivation over soul strengthening and even puppet crafting."
Zhao Xing activated his Heartfield Technique to unify his will. Sure enough, the soul fragments' thoughts aligned, and the strange feeling of fragmentation disappeared.
Swish swish swish—
Ninety True Spirit Fruits flew into the Fate Palace all at once.
Each soul fragment swallowed one and began to transform.
At that moment, all soul fragments completed their transformation and reached the ordinary Reincarnation Realm.
"The main soul body."
Zhao Xing's main soul was a bit more special because he had cultivated the Reincarnation secret technique from the Reincarnation Divine Palace, gifted to him by Qing Yuzi.
He had fused the Fate Soul first, which made his main soul maintain its core presence and dominant thoughts. Naturally, it was stronger than the others.
Also, the main soul had been influenced by the Blue Flower magic power. Since Blue Flower encompassed all Dao principles, it also included the Dao of Soul and the Dao of Will.
As for the soul fragments, Zhao Xing deliberately kept them from being empowered by the Blue Flower magic power.
"Wah—"
The main soul swallowed the remaining two hundred True Spirit Fruits.
Roar—
The main soul let out a furious roar and surged upward from the lineup of souls.
Soon, its height surpassed all the other soul fragments.
"What the hell? Why is the main soul getting so huge?!"
"Hiding resources from us, huh? Tsk."
"Can you all just shut up and be quiet?"
"Sigh, didn't have the willpower to handle it and ended up with this many fragments—gonna die at this rate."
Those stray thoughts quickly quieted down. As Zhao Xing's main soul broke through, all the soul fragments were strengthened alongside it.
At that moment, Zhao Xing felt that even three hundred True Spirit Fruits weren't enough.
So, he immediately opened a purple jade vial in the valley.
"Splash~"
Five drops of golden liquid dripped onto his forehead.
The droplets passed through his body, directly sinking into the depths of his soul.
"Sea Soul Sacred Water, a natural treasure condensed from the primordial ocean. It can enhance the soul's power. A single drop costs one thousand Xuanling Ancient Coins—the equivalent of a lord's entire fortune."
"Gulp~"
The main soul swallowed all five drops. It swelled again and became even more solid.
Meanwhile, in a shrine in the corner of the valley—
A statue of Zhao Xing suddenly cracked open.
A streak of golden light shot forth and merged into the main soul body.
"Buzz~"
A faint blue light twisted into a flower and imprinted itself on Zhao Xing's forehead, with a golden silk edge encircling the blue bloom.
"The Heavenly Soul has fused."
Zhao Xing opened his eyes.
The Heavenly Soul resides in a shrine. His had always been housed in the Grand Shennong Temple of the Great Zhou.
The third stage of the soul technique "Reincarnation" from the Reincarnation Divine Palace was the fusion of the Heavenly Soul.
Now that the main soul had broken through, the "Reincarnation" secret technique also advanced.
His status panel now showed that Zhao Xing's soul realm had reached Lord level!
He had skipped both the basic and veteran stages in one leap.
"Boom-crack~"
Just as Zhao Xing was savoring the feeling of his newfound power, his soul body trembled, and he faintly heard the sound of thunder.
"The True Spirit Tribulation is approaching."
A sudden clarity surged in Zhao Xing's mind. He looked up at the starry sky overhead.
Strengthening the True Spirit—Reincarnation was one method, but not the only one.
As the True Spirit grew stronger, it would trigger a True Spirit Tribulation, sensed instinctively.
For someone like Zhao Xing, whose True Spirit immediately reached the Lord level upon breakthrough, he instantly sensed the presence of the first tribulation.
However, he couldn't predict the exact time or how it would appear.
"Hoo~"
Zhao Xing let out a long breath. Encountering the True Spirit Tribulation after entering the Reincarnation Realm was normal.
He had lingered at the Origin Realm for so long, cultivated techniques from three schools, and had such deep accumulation—it was to be expected.
"Swish~"
The Boundary-Breaking Divine Stone appeared in Zhao Xing's hand as he took it out from his storage ring.
"Origin Projection—reveal!"
At the command of his thoughts, a shadow fell over the entire valley.
The Origin Space opened, and the Black Sky Moon Tree and the Soul-Devouring Grass appeared.
However, both of these powerful emperor-level plant lives were suppressed by the Hunyuan Dao Tower.
"Emperor, are you finally going to break through?" From a corner of the valley, the Thousand Illusions Tree swayed its branches, its eye-like leaves all turning toward Zhao Xing in excitement.
"Yes. Thousand Illusions, stay put. Things are going to get intense."
"Yes, sir."
The Thousand Illusions Tree obediently lowered its branches.
With the soul reaching the Lord-level True Spirit, Zhao Xing could now control the strength of the Origin Space breakthrough.
But even after forming a True Spirit, Zhao Xing didn't dare treat the opening of his inner world lightly.
"I bought most of these treasures—eighty percent—specifically for this."
"The main piece is this Boundary-Breaking Divine Stone. Its bonus to inner world development is just too strong."
"Let's hope my preparations were enough."
A Shennong at the Reincarnation Realm could attempt to open their inner world without a realm stone—but the odds of success were abysmally low.
The realm stone, the technique, and the foundation laid in the Origin Realm were the three factors that determined the inner world's grade, size, and most importantly—the birth of a Primal Seed.
A standard configuration meant average techniques, average realm stone, and average accumulation.
In terms of realm stones, the commonly used types were Yin-Yang Stones or Five Element Stones—nothing special.
The inner world created would also be standard.
And the resulting Primal Seed wouldn't surpass Imperial-grade quality. At worst, it might only be King-grade.
A mid-tier setup meant using intermediate-level techniques, and being a great spellcaster in the Origin Realm, with realm stones like the "Rain Immortal Stone" series.
These could open a mid-tier inner world and guaranteed at least an Imperial-grade Primal Seed.
High-tier setups meant using top-shelf resources—like the "World Heart" seen in the Medicine King Realm, which could overwhelm core formations of top-tier factions.
Such techniques were usually created by top factions and required deep cultivation at the Great Divine Spellcaster Realm.
They could open top-tier inner worlds and give rise to Emperor-grade Primal Seeds.
According to all these standards, Zhao Xing felt none of them applied.
Because he had exceeded every benchmark.
His technique was "Hunyuan Realm"—the strongest mass-producing spell of the "soldier flood" path.
At the Great Divine Spellcaster Realm, he had cultivated three schools at once, and his foundation was deep enough to kill a veteran Reincarnation Realm cultivator. The realm stone he used was a Boundary-Breaking Divine Stone.
Each part of his setup was extremely rare. No amount of preparation could ever be too much.
"Splash~"
The many vials and jars in the valley opened one after another, each pouring their contents into the Origin Space.
A purple crystal gourd floated into the sky and poured out a river of spiritual liquid—sourced from the Immortal Spirit River of the Origin Heaven Palace.
A clump of golden soil sank underground, pulsing with a heartbeat-like rhythm. It came from the Yuangu Vein—one of the nine great veins of Primordial Hill.
A dark yellow leaf, brimming with immense vitality, swayed in the wind. It had fallen from the Primordial Divine Tree.
Once everything had entered the Origin Space, the Hunyuan Dao Tower at the center released stream after stream of energy, dividing the Origin Space into a grid resembling a bagua pattern.
Zhao Xing let go of the Boundary-Breaking Divine Stone in his hand.
"Pop~"
The Boundary-Breaking Divine Stone dropped and, the moment it touched the Origin Projection, four streams of chaotic mist erupted.
The Origin Space quaked, as if a storm had battered its borders. The chaotic mist surged in all directions and, in an instant, the Origin Space expanded from just 10 realm units to 100 realm units.
The rate of expansion was terrifying!
Zhao Xing nearly collapsed to the ground. His cultivation technique, the Hunyuan Realm, was automatically amplified tenfold.
This was a height he had never reached before—it felt like a person being dragged by a speeding chariot far beyond his limits, bound to crash and be torn apart.
"Ahhgh~"
His body curled and twisted, smoke rising from his skin. Even his mana circulation was thrown into instant disarray.
The Origin Space, mana, even his consciousness—everything rampaged like wild horses off their reins, utterly uncontrollable!
The divine might of the artifact surged, overwhelming and unstoppable—far beyond what a Lord-level True Spirit could command.
Thankfully, Zhao Xing didn't have just one divine artifact. The divine item gifted by the Red Star Emperor—the Hunyuan Dao Tower—began to activate.
It had remained buried at the heart of the soil, and now began to spin, releasing four controlled streams of energy.
Unlike the chaotic blasts from the Boundary-Breaking Divine Stone, these were rotating currents—disciplined, patterned.
They spiraled in the opposite direction, twisting the mist into tether-like cords that lassoed the rampaging wild horses.
The boundaries of the Origin Space began to expand in an orderly manner.
Zhao Xing's mind stabilized first. His awareness uncoiled from distortion.
Roughly one hundred and eight thousand immeasurable instants later, his mana circulation also returned to normal.
"The Great Emperor is amazing!"
Zhao Xing lay on the ground, shouting internally.
He had never expected the Boundary-Breaking Divine Stone to be this wild. After all, he had never used it in his past life.
But he hadn't expected the Great Emperor to be even more powerful—to actually tame the Divine Stone's outburst and convert an uncontrollable detonation into a controlled expansion.
"No wonder they say he forged the path to godhood when he created this thing." Zhao Xing couldn't help but marvel.
The Red Star Emperor was the God of Mechanisms. It was said that the moment he completed the Hunyuan Dao Tower, he broke through to the Divine Realm.
"Whoosh~"
The mist expansion continued. Soon, Zhao Xing's Origin Space had grown to 1,000 realm units.
"Splash~" As it reached 1,000 units, Zhao Xing heard the roar of ocean waves.
Around the Hunyuan Dao Tower and the Boundary-Breaking Divine Stone, an ocean appeared.
It was murky and thick, yet seemed to encompass all the Daos.
"Swirl~"
From the primordial ocean, clouds began to rise again.
They were misty and gray, seemingly filled with dense solid matter.
"Buzz~"
The ocean roared below, while the cloud layers churned above.
Then, at a certain moment, a towering mountain rose from the ocean, connecting sea to sky.
The first Boundary Mountain had formed!
It continued to expand, and soon, lands spread out from its base.
Some landmasses were broken apart by the floodwaters of the primordial ocean, splitting into fragmented islands.
"Hoooo~"
Suddenly, a gust of wind swept in.
Zhao Xing felt a refreshing coolness wash over him.
His consciousness moved with the wind, appearing simultaneously within the primordial ocean, the cloud layers, and inside the Boundary Mountain.
In that instant, Zhao Xing's awareness spread across the entire world.
"I am the world, and the world is me."
A wondrous sensation surged through Zhao Xing's heart.
He felt he could now simultaneously control the Hunyuan Dao Tower and the Boundary-Breaking Divine Stone.
"Primordial ocean—rise!"
"Clouds—become rain and fall!"
Yin and yang parted, and from the heart of the clouds, rain began to fall.
Spiritual rain first fell from the peak of the Boundary Mountain.
"Plop!"
The first drop of rain landed.
And in the black-and-white world, a hint of color bloomed.
From that single point, color spread outward, sweeping across the entire world in an instant. The landscape before Zhao Xing's eyes became vivid and radiant.
"From this moment on, the Origin Space has transformed into an Inner World."
The brilliance was not physical light—it was the emergence of the Dao of Life.
From this moment forward, Zhao Xing no longer possessed just an Origin Space—he had his own Inner World!
"Boundary Star—form!"
Boom!
The primordial ocean slammed against the Boundary Mountain, flinging countless shards of molten rock into the air—each one becoming a blazing lava star.
Golden points of light—countless of them—began to orbit the Boundary Mountain.
With a thought, Zhao Xing reshaped the mountain into the form of a five-fingered hand.
The Five-Finger Mountain began to emit mist, kneading and shaping the molten stars.
He directly manipulated the structure of his Inner World.
The first sun star was born.
Then came the moon star.
Followed by the five elemental stars of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.
"The first Yin-Yang Nine-Star System is complete!"
Zhao Xing looked at the star system before him, his heart full of joy.
Normally, a Shennong's Inner World was just the embryo of a small world, something like the structure of the Xuanhuang Realm.
But the embryo of his Inner World now looked more like a miniature universe.
It resembled the Inner World of Gu Luohe.
Clearly, a universe-level Dao was far more complete than a small world.
With ample spiritual materials prepared, plus the combined effect of the Boundary-Breaking Divine Stone and the Hunyuan Dao Tower, his Inner World was already taking on the traits of a miniature universe.
"What level would this Inner World count as?" Zhao Xing wasn't exactly sure.
At this moment, his Inner World had a primordial ocean, a Boundary Mountain, a boundless continent, and a clouded chaos layer continually birthing stars. The first Yin-Yang Five Elements star system had already formed.
"Now that the Inner World has stabilized—by quality, it's a universe model; by size, it's 10,000 realm units—fully comparable to an Emperor-level Inner World."
"Next comes the critical moment: the birth of the primal species."
Zhao Xing moved his consciousness across the entire world and began operating the technique Hunyuan Realm.
He initiated the four-phase evolution of the world.
"Whoosh—"
A beam of light seemed to slice through space. It emerged at the sixty-eighth immeasurable instant, so fast that Zhao Xing hadn't even noticed—the Inner World had already entered the "Origin Phase."
"It's done?"
Zhao Xing only had a faint, blurred sense that the "Primordial Phase" had ended.
"As expected of an Instantaneous Primordial—my consciousness has already filled the Inner World, and I still didn't feel how it changed."
Now Zhao Xing scoured the entire world, searching for the first primal species.
To his surprise—
The first primal species hadn't appeared in the primordial ocean, nor on the first Boundary Mountain or the boundless continent, not even in the cloud layer.
Instead, it appeared within the Yin-Yang Nine-Star system formed using the Six Flame Principles.
"I created the primordial ocean based on the theory of the Self School."
"I formed the chaos cloud based on the Heavenly Timing School."
"The boundless continent was modeled after the earth-vein structure of the Extreme Land technique."
"By using the core truths of all three schools to shape the world at its inception, I should've increased the chance of a higher-quality primal species."
"With so many prime locations available, why did it grow here?"
Zhao Xing muttered inwardly, zooming his vision in on the Yin-Yang Nine-Star system.
Coincidentally, the primal species had emerged between Venus and Mars.
"Hm?"
Zhao Xing examined it closely and felt something was off.
Originally, this should have been Earth's position within the solar system—in Six Theories of Star Extinction, it also symbolized life.
But now, the Earth he created was missing, replaced by a seed shaped like a planet.
"So this is my primal species?"
Zhao Xing blinked.
By now, the world had entered a natural evolutionary process. He didn't need to constantly guide it.
More primal species began appearing, and masses of plants emerged. At the beginning of any world, plant life always came first.
Among the first wave, seven Emperor-grade plants appeared, along with over ten thousand Sovereign-grade plant lifeforms.
"Other primal species, once they emerged, instantly absorbed power from the Boundary-Breaking Divine Stone and developed living traits. I just had to check the panel to know exactly what type they were."
"Let's see what quality this first primal species is."
Zhao Xing stared at the seed-like planet.
[Primal Species]
[Quality: Divine Grade]
[Status: Incubating]
"A Divine-grade primal species!"
Zhao Xing had vaguely guessed its grade, but when he saw the words "Divine Grade," he still couldn't contain his joy.
Yet, seeing the status still listed as "incubating" left him confused.
"After a primal species is born, as the creator of the Inner World, I should instantly understand its type and traits. Why is it still in incubation?"
"Could it be lacking energy?"
Zhao Xing activated his will and directed the remaining energy of the Boundary-Breaking Divine Stone toward it.
By now, only a sliver of the Boundary-Breaking Divine Stone remained. Zhao Xing didn't fuss about its size or weight—he simply channeled all remaining energy into the primal species. The Hunyuan Dao Tower also assisted in guiding that energy into it.
But Zhao Xing quickly discovered that the primal species… wasn't absorbing it.
"No… wait, it is… but…"
"The conversion rate is way too low. Even from the Boundary-Breaking Divine Stone, it's only absorbing one percent?"
"If you won't even take the Boundary-Breaking Divine Stone's power, what do you absorb?"
Zhao Xing was genuinely stunned.
He kept testing, and eventually reached a conclusion.
It only absorbed two types of energy: first, Blue Flower mana—but with a mere one ten-thousandth conversion rate. In other words, only one unit of power was absorbed out of every ten thousand infused.
The Boundary-Breaking Divine Stone was a little better—one percent.
Everything else? All spiritual substances—completely ineffective.
"What exactly is this primal species?" Zhao Xing pondered deeply. "If Blue Flower mana can be absorbed as nourishment, and so can the Boundary-Breaking Divine Stone, then what's the commonality between them?"