Lord of the Rending Stars

The Zhuochen Cauldron hangs quietly in the center of the hall. The dense, star-like marks on its body are faintly visible in the dark blue halo, like an ancient divine object that has been sleeping for countless years, seemingly waiting for something.

Qingyang sat cross-legged in front of the cauldron, the three beings sharing a common consciousness and a unified mind.

Five halos floated silently before them: the deep blue Time-Space Gold, the blazing Void Divine Crystal, the bone-chilling Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Jade Marrow, the heavy Chaos Primordial Soil, and a "Time-Space Source Crystal" brought out from the Kunwu Secret Realm.

This is the most extravagant furnace opening in Qingyang's five-thousand-year history of weapon forging.

The five main and auxiliary materials were each so valuable that even an invincible king would squander his entire fortune. What he needed to do was to melt them together in one furnace and forge a palace.

Qingyang did not rush into action. He closed his eyes for three days, immersing his consciousness in the virtual universe, and rehearsed every step of the refining process dozens of times. From the order of material melting, temperature control, the beginning and end of the secret runes, to the timing of the law resonance and the nodes of energy circulation, every detail was repeatedly considered, modified, and perfected.

On the third day, Qingyang opened his eyes.

"Let's begin."

As soon as he finished speaking, the Zhuochen Cauldron trembled slightly, and the dark blue halo at the center of the cauldron suddenly expanded, like a flower bud that had been dormant for ten thousand years, slowly blooming at this moment.

Qingyang raised his hand, and the Time-Space Flowing Gold flew into the cauldron first. This was the most difficult main ingredient to refine. It was born in the mining area with the most violent time-space turbulence, and its interior contained the surging power of the beginning of the universe. Ordinary furnace fire could not touch its essence at all.

But the Zhuochen Cauldron is different. The dark blue halo at the center of the cauldron envelops the flowing gold of time and space. There is no violent burning, but rather a gentle permeation and assimilation like a tide.

Fine cracks began to appear on the surface of the Time-Space Flowing Gold. Under the guidance of the Zhuochen Cauldron, it actively shed the "time-space corrosion" accumulated over millions of years on the outer layer, revealing the purest origin inside.

A century has passed quietly like flowing water in the deep blue glow of the Zhuochen Ding.

Qingyang remained seated before the cauldron, his divine power guiding each transformation of the Time-Space Flowing Gold like a thread. His aura resonated with the Zhuochen Cauldron and with the slowly unfolding Time-Space Flowing Gold within it.

In the hundredth year, the Time-Space Gold softened completely. The ore, originally the size of a fist, had now transformed into a three-meter-diameter dark blue liquid mass, with countless streams of light flowing across its surface, like a long river of time compressed to its limit.

Without pausing, Qingyang successively added the three auxiliary materials—Void Divine Crystal, Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Jade Marrow, and Chaos Primordial Soil—into the cauldron.

The addition of each material triggered a violent tremor of the laws. The blazing intensity of the Void Divine Crystal and the icy chill of the Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Jade Marrow collided within the Zhuochen Cauldron. The weight of the Chaotic Primordial Earth attempted to suppress everything, but was constantly pushed aside by the torrent of Time-Space Flowing Gold.

Four distinct forces fought, entangled, and tore each other apart within the cauldron, each collision causing the Zhuochen Cauldron to emit a deep hum.

Qingyang's expression remained unchanged. His consciousness simultaneously manipulated four divine powers, like four invisible reins, each pulling on the laws governing the four materials, intending to guide them to find the "node" where they could coexist.

This was the most important lesson he learned from the five failed attempts at weapon crafting by the Venerable Guyi: true weapon crafting is about resonance, not conquest.

Two hundred years...

Three hundred years...

Four hundred years...

For four hundred years, the collision of laws within the Zhuochen Cauldron never ceased. Qingyang consumed a massive amount of divine power, but fortunately, the Youtian Kunpeng, with its colossal divine body spanning four million kilometers, continuously supplied him with divine power.

Without this clone with two thousand times the genetic level, the human original's divine body with only a hundred times the genetic level would have exhausted its divine power one hundred and fifty years ago.

"I see!"

"In the four hundred and fifty years," Qingyang suddenly said softly.

Qingyang understood why the four materials had been unable to fuse in the Zhuochen Cauldron for four hundred and fifty years: they lacked a "container," a container sufficient to contain the four distinctly different attributes of flowing time and space, blazing void, icy jade marrow, and heavy primordial earth.

Qingyang raised his hand, and the Time-Space Origin Crystal, which had been floating beside him, finally flew into the cauldron.

The moment the Spacetime Origin Crystal entered the cauldron, the four forces that had been entangled for four hundred and fifty years simultaneously paused. Then, like rivers that had found their home, they surged toward the crystal, slowly flowing into it along the natural patterns on its surface.

The Zhuochen Cauldron trembled violently, and the dense, star-patterned markings on its body suddenly lit up, as if an ancient formation that had been dormant for countless years had been activated at this moment.

A deep blue aura surged, enveloping the entire Jiazi Nine Peaks Workshop.

"Oh no, the commotion is a bit too loud," Qingyang said, somewhat surprised.

Outside, above the human holy city, a dark blue pillar of light, one kilometer in diameter, shot into the sky, within which the faint outline of a palace could be seen slowly taking shape.

This strange phenomenon alarmed almost all beings above the Immortal level in the Holy City.

The Chaos Venerable stood in the void, gazing towards the direction of the Nine Peaks of Jia, his eyes as deep and unfathomable as an abyss.

"A palace-type treasure... judging from the commotion, it shouldn't be an ordinary item."

Venerable Peng Gong appeared beside him at some point, a rare hint of solemnity appearing on his smiling face. "I have been refining artifacts for millions of epochs, and have forged palace-type treasures hundreds of times. It is only a handful of times that such a phenomenon has occurred."

"Because his path is different from ours." The voice of the Ancient God Venerable came from the other side, his eyes full of satisfaction. "Qingyang uses the ancient lightning pattern system as a reference and follows... the path of resonance."

"The Way of Resonance?" The Chaos Venerable was slightly taken aback, then understood. "Other weapon refiners 'forge' palaces, while he 'guides' the palaces to be born on their own?"

The Ancient God Venerable nodded, "That's right. This wasn't taught to him by me; he must have figured it out himself through failures."

The three cosmic overlords remained silent for a moment before turning their gazes back to the Nine Peaks of Jia.

In the six hundredth year, the tremors of the laws within the Zhuochen Cauldron finally subsided. Guided by the Spacetime Origin Crystal, the four forces found a delicate balance, flowing and cycling naturally like the changing seasons and the ebb and flow of the tides.

Qingyang began engraving the secret runes, without using any existing rune diagrams, but merely referring to the ancient thunder rune system. What he was engraving was his complete understanding of the laws of spacetime.

The Time Shadow Beast's true form possesses an innate affinity for the laws of time and space; the Wandering Heaven Kunpeng's avatar has a unique understanding of the laws of lightning and time; and the human race's true form has accumulated five thousand years of experience and lessons in weapon crafting.

All of this transformed into streams of secret patterns, flowing from Qingyang's fingertips, like streams flowing into the sea, and disappearing into the palace that was taking shape.

The secret patterns spread across the palace's surface, like vines growing or blood vessels expanding. Without striving for perfect symmetry or elaborate ornamentation, the patterns extended, branched, and converged naturally, ultimately weaving a network of laws that covered the entire palace.

In the seven hundredth year, the main structure of the palace took shape. It was a miniature palace, no bigger than the palm of your hand, entirely a deep blue, like a frozen tear of time.

However, unlike the "Return to the Void Palace" of Venerable Guyi, each stream of light in this palace faintly reveals purple arcs of electricity as thin as hair. That is the understanding of the Law of Thunder by the Kunpeng clone of Youtian, which Qingyang imprinted into the depths of the law veins of the palace in the form of secret patterns.

In the eight hundredth year, Qingyang began the final step: "opening the door." The essence of palace-type treasures is a "realm," and a realm must have a door. This door is a window through which the internal laws and secret patterns of the palace resonate with the external universe. The way the door is opened determines the quality of a palace.

The gate of Guixu Palace faces the front, and is simple and unadorned, bearing only the two characters "Guixu".

But Qingyang is not opening just one door. He is opening a door in each of the eight directions of the palace. These eight doors correspond to eight fundamental laws, eight resonances, and eight possibilities.

Although Qingyang had not fully comprehended all eight lower-level laws of metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, thunder, light, and energy, he had opened two doors with the laws of thunder and fire that he had already comprehended, which was enough to support the foundation of this palace.

As for the remaining six doors, Qingyang did not insist, but simply reserved six "empty spaces" within the palace's legal framework. They are currently ajar, but in the future, when he comprehends more of the laws, these six doors will open on their own.

Two solid doors and six illusory doors. When the solid doors open, the corresponding power of the laws surges in like a tide, resonating with the internal energy channels of the palace. Although the illusory doors are not truly open, faint fluctuations of the laws seep out from them, foreshadowing infinite possibilities for the future.

Qingyang gazed at the miniature palace floating above the Zhuochen Cauldron and gently exhaled.

"It's done," Qingyang said softly.

The Zhuochen Cauldron emitted a clear, melodious hum, and the deep blue halo at its core receded like a tide, revealing a miniature palace suspended above the cauldron's mouth.

The palace, no bigger than a palm, was entirely a deep blue, and its body was blank. However, when Qingyang reached out and touched it, two ancient characters automatically appeared on the front of the palace:

"Time Realm"

Qingyang stared at the two words, remained silent for a moment, and then nodded gently.

The Palace of Time is bounded by time, its domain by space, its bones by lightning, and its soul by fire. This is the first palace he has crafted, but it will certainly not be the last.

Qingyang sat cross-legged before the Zhuochen Cauldron, the Time Realm Palace silently floating in his palm. The palace, no bigger than a palm, seemed as heavy as billions of stars in his hand, the weight of his eight hundred years of hard work.

"Superior quality," Qingyang murmured to himself.

Qingyang originally thought that the first palace treasure could reach the middle grade, which was the limit, after all, palaces are more than ten times more complicated than weapons and armor. However, the structure of eight resonances and two real and six virtual elements pushed the quality to the top grade.

"It's a bit better than Venerable Guyi's 'Guixu Palace'," Qingyang shook his head, not showing much joy.

Qingyang knew that this success was half due to the assistance of the Zhuochen Cauldron and half due to the concerted efforts of the three bodies. If it were only the human body, it would have failed more than five hundred years ago due to the depletion of divine power.