Seventy-Fourth Illustration: The Heavenly Emperor Enters Seclusion

Sangsang smiled. “You’re right, I don’t believe in so-called conventions. Since the ultimate goal of cultivation is to master the Laws, does being older and having a less active soul really mean you’re cut off from the Laws? It just means your sensitivity is weaker, not that it’s gone. If they’re given long lifespans and never give up on themselves, always persisting, perhaps someone will break convention and achieve the Profound level one day.”

After the banquet ended and everyone chose their houses and moved out, the Heavenly Dao Star began its upgrade. Jun Shi and Xiao Lang moved into the capital of the residential star, taking charge of the entire logistics team.

Meanwhile, several members of the Heavenly Dao group were brought back to the dormitory by Sangsang. The interior space of the mulberry tree house had been expanded into an estate, complete with a small forest and a lake. The forest was Greenbud’s playground, the lake the little Dragon Lord’s pool. A few houses nestled against the mountains and by the water, providing both privacy and closeness. Yet the Heavenly Emperor insisted on squeezing into Sangsang’s house, occupying her sleep-study machine.

With cold indifference, Sangsang tossed the Heavenly Emperor and the sleep-study machine out together. “If you like it so much, take it and roll. Little Gold has already prepared a more advanced one.”

The Heavenly Emperor landed on his back, the sleep-study machine bumping a knot on his forehead. He cried out in mock misery, but when the tightly shut door proved immune to his pitiful act, he changed tactics, clinging to the door and knocking rapidly. “Sangsang, Sangsang, open up! I’m about to go into seclusion and break through. Don’t you want to see with your own eyes how a star core is condensed? You’re at the peak of the Heavenly level too. Let me blaze the trail for you and give you some experience—”

Greenbud swung down from the tree and landed on Ye Xiu’s back, wrapping one arm around his neck and swiping his face with the other. “Always so shameless.”

Ye Xiu didn’t look up from his book. “You’re getting older. Stop sneaking onto my bed starting today.”

Greenbud quickly rubbed against Ye Xiu’s face. “Xiu, Xiu, Xiu, I’m still little. I’m scared to be alone!”

The little Dragon Lord ran over, tail thumping. “Scaredy-tree. So childish.”

Greenbud bared his teeth. “You can’t even control your tail. Who’s more childish?”

The little Dragon Lord retorted smugly, “I’m doing it on purpose. Sangsang says my tail is cute.”

White Thorn, carrying a bag and hugging the big yellow duck smart nanny, was heading outside. Poplar chased after. “Where are you going?”

White Thorn looked up. “I’ve grown up. I’m moving out with Seabuckthorn.” The big yellow duck quacked, “If you get lonely, you can invite Uncle Tom to be your roommate, quack.”

Poplar’s brow twitched. “Where are you moving?”

White Thorn’s cheeks flushed, eyes sparkling. “Little Gold gave me access to the laboratory. I want to study hard and treat the lab as my home, living up to the cultivation of the God of the Net.” The big yellow duck added, “My young master is the number one disciple of the God of the Net, quack, certified!”

Poplar pulled him back. “You can talk when you’ve passed your basic knowledge classes.”

The Heavenly Emperor was still calling out. “Sangsang, can you really bear to let me break through alone where you can’t see me? What if something goes wrong?”

Little Gold tapped his fingers. “Condensing a star core is the most dangerous thing below the Profound level. Having you by his side helps him the most. Without you, he can’t condense the strongest star core.”

Sangsang understood that Little Gold meant the Heavenly Emperor needed the origin of time and space within her, while she needed him as a conduit for transmitting the Laws of time and space. With a dark expression, she opened the door. The Heavenly Emperor slipped in through the crack, and she couldn’t help but slap him with a palm of ice and fire. She really couldn’t stand how he took things for granted.

The pool was filled with nutrient fluid, the bottom lined with energy crystals. Sangsang and the Heavenly Emperor each took a side, one above and one below, their foreheads touching. Spiritual energy intertwined, absorbing each other’s Laws through their soul contract.

In the Heavenly Emperor’s sea of consciousness, there were only two stars: time-space and devouring, with the latter already at the fifth stage. Time-space, like Sangsang’s, was at the third stage, though the Heavenly Emperor’s was denser and more solid, and his rune arrays much more concise than hers. Though only third stage, he could firmly suppress the fifth-stage devouring.

“Sangsang, you have so many stars, and they’re so pretty.”

The Heavenly Emperor’s voice sounded in Sangsang’s mind—a direct transmission of thought, reaching her soul.

“Shut up and focus.”

“I am focused. Besides, I didn’t speak out loud.”

“Stop thinking about nonsense.”

“Is complimenting your stars nonsense?”

“If you keep it up, I’m going back online.”

“All right.”

The Heavenly Emperor finally quieted down, but Sangsang found herself unable to calm her mind.

“Your devouring’s already at fifth stage. Just how many things have you randomly eaten along the way? Are you planning to use devouring to condense your star core?”

“I just casually absorbed some energy. Uncle Cain wouldn’t let me eat people, so I plan to cultivate twin star cores. Use time-space to control devouring, and devouring to support time-space. I don’t have your talent for affinity with all the Laws, but my cultivation speed’s no slower than yours.”

“Your cultivation speed has always been faster than mine!”

“That’s only because the Laws in the Milky Way are so weak. Here, you can absorb a ton of Laws at any time. Little Gold said if I don’t work harder, you’ll soon surpass me. Sure enough, now the combined mass of your Law stars could burst my sea of consciousness. I’m the strongest man in the galaxy, I have to stand in front to protect you.”

“Who asked you to protect me?”

“You and Little Gold, of course—and the others from Heavenly Dao, I suppose.”

“Speaking of which, Little Gold is now the breadwinner who can work and earn money, so he can’t do whatever he wants online. Sometimes he seems a bit down.”

“It’s all right, Little Gold’s tough. Back then he couldn’t even break through the weakest firewall in Sin City, but he became the God of the Net in the end. By the way, your time-space star is pretty mixed, not as pretty as your own origin.”

“That’s because I can only observe the time-space origin from afar, I can’t touch it.”

“That’s why we’re a perfect match—your origin only I can use, and my Laws you can perceive and take as you please. Will you condense a star core with me?”

“I’m planning to take the path of myriad Laws of time-space. After the selection round, I’ll go study in the time-space micro world. Maybe I can use the time-space origin directly to condense my star core.”

The Heavenly Emperor began to focus and cultivate in preparation for breaking through to the Star level.

It was time for class again. Sangsang shrank the entire nutrient pool, including the Heavenly Emperor inside, and stored it in her own domain to carry with her. Back in her room, she saw Little Gold was not in his cradle, nor was he in the flowerbed on the balcony. After a bath and changing into her school uniform, she entered the living room to find no food on the table. As she stood there, trying to remember if Little Gold had mentioned going out, she heard voices outside. Stepping out, she found Tom and Poplar setting breakfast in the little garden.

Little Gold, seeing the door open, flew over from White Thorn’s head. “Sangsang, White Thorn’s gone to upgrade. Ling Xiao asked Sena to take away and purify the genes. It’ll be a few days before they bring him back.”

“All right, make yourselves at home. I’m off to Professor Yaslan’s class. I’ll be back this evening. If you need me, contact me by terminal.” Sangsang grabbed some steamed buns and fried dough to take with her, waved goodbye, and hurried toward the training room’s teleportation gate. “The Heavenly Emperor is in seclusion, so no need to prepare his portion.”

Tom looked at the Sangsang who appeared and disappeared in a hurry, then checked the time. “Does she really have classes from now until evening? Is Sangsang always this busy?”

“She used to be even busier—at most five hours of rest a day. Only after passing the physical assessment did she get more than ten hours of free time.” Little Gold was busy too; his main body was working on the star net, leaving only a trace of data behind to keep the mech toy running.

Tom took off his apron. “With Sangsang working so hard, we can’t slack off either. The Academy of Divinity is no easy place to get into.”

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