Hengsheng appeared far away from where he assumed to be the Golden Sword Sect's private space, but he was not too far from them. He needed to wait for those black-masked attackers—including the Thunderclap Blade Sect disciples—to come, so he could strike them from behind as planned.
He quickly set up a concealment formation at the entrance of a cave he had discovered while roaming the metal forest in search of a resting place.
According to his calculations, it would take a week or two before an enemy reached this spot and attacked the Golden Sword Sect’s place. He planned to use this time to spend his system points and strengthen himself as much as possible.
If he was not mistaken, those black masks would surely bring the God Spawn with them. He also had to find a way to fight off that monster, since relying solely on his Dao Heart to destroy it took too much time. He considered creating a system to counter them specifically, but he knew too little about their origin or true nature—he only knew that Dao aura could hurt them. With no clear base idea used to build a system to oppose them directly, he resolved instead to improve his utilize Dao Heart.
After finishing his concealment formation, Hengsheng meditated inside the cave and opened his system panel to review his progress.
At that moment, he felt a surge of happiness as he saw his system points. Even though he had used them to upgrade his Spirit Core, he still had 15,000 points left to improve other things such as his abilities, skills, or maybe his human race?
He suddenly had an idea: perhaps he could upgrade his race directly through the system. Hengsheng slapped his own face in disbelief for not noticing this possibility before, and he quickly checked his idea by using the upgrade function on the [Race] section.
[Human Race Upgrade requires 10,000 SP]
[Human Race Upgrade Options]
….
….
Hengsheng raised his eyebrows. "It really works." Immediately, he decided that after upgrading his Spirit Core, he would upgrade his race.
"This is going to hurt. Yunsu-sama, please protect me—I can't use my Qi while I upgrade my core," he said.
"Meow..." Yunsu nodded as she accepted the quest, then moved her paws around as if trying to tell him something.
Hengsheng watched, trying to decode her message. "Are you unhappy?" he asked.
"Meow," she nodded and continued moving her paws.
Hengsheng finally understood: she was upset that she couldn't hunt the hateful God Spawn. "Okay, I will try to do something for you then," he promised.
"Meow." With his answer, she calmed down and lay on his lap.
Without wasting any more time, Hengsheng began his Spirit Core upgrade.
Ding!
[10,000 SP Deducted.]
[Upgrading the Quality of the Spirit Core…]
Just like last time, the process was painful. Once again, the seven-color flame appeared around his spirit core and slowly refined its quality. But unlike before—when he could only watch it burn away impurities without learning anything except its appearance—this time he possessed a Divine Sense.
Hengsheng sent his Divine Sense to observe the seven-color flame closely. As his Divine Sense approached, he sensed that it was an aura. He felt an aura it emitted similar to something, but he could not recall exactly what.
As he watched the flame burn away the impurities from his spirit core, he was amazed by its nature. At that moment, he decided to activate his Dao Heart to increase his comprehension ability. With his Dao Heart open, the aura he felt from the seven-color flame became clear. He immediately recognized the similarity: it was the Law, akin to the one inside his System World.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
The Laws and the Dao are close and similar, but now Hengsheng could separate them through his understanding of the Dao when he awakened his Dao Heart and his experience of the Laws when he created the System World.
The Law is the cosmic blueprint of the rules that govern everything—it is rigid and scientific—unlike the Dao, which is more spiritual and flexible, representing how one's spirit harmonizes with cosmic order.
The seven-color flame refining his spirit core was a manifestation of the Law of Fire and the Law of Creation. He did not know how his system could make this manifestation, but it was valuable information in itself; Since it made him understand his system's power and boundaries of what it was capable of.
Hengsheng continued to observe the seven-color flame as he tried to comprehend its nature. It burned his spirit core, but instead of damaging it, the flame refined it, making it even better.
The flame, an ever-shifting spectrum of vibrant hues—emerald, violet, scarlet, azure, gold, indigo, and ruby—enveloped his core in a purifying embrace, erasing impurities and awakening latent potential. It was not a flame of destruction but a trigger for creation.
"The Flame of Creation," Hengsheng thought, was the only name he could describe for this phenomenon. He remembered the legend of the primordial phoenix—a spirit beast that later became the ancestor of all the Phoenix Demon Clan—which also possessed the power of the Flame of Creation and passed down a degraded version of it to its descendants as the Flame of Rebirth.
As Hengsheng observed and tried to comprehend it with his Divine Sense and Dao Heart, he realized he had no clue about the creation law part; his cultivation realm did not allow him to grasp such a high-level law.
Yet, he came to understand something about the meaning of the fire. With the knowledge he had gained from Samuel's Life simulation, his understanding of science and physics was advanced enough to call him an expert.
He noticed that the flame burning his spirit core was not just simple combustion or any ordinary heat-producing method; its true nature was far deeper.
In fact, the flame was not even truly present here—though it appeared right before his eyes, it was merely an illusion. The true source of the flame existed somewhere else; the illusion before him was produced by its power, sent along a quantum pathway that bypassed all the time and space that he understood.
The true nature of the flame was the primordial state of matter. Burning was merely the process of change; the ash was simply the incomplete result of matter conversion, and the heat was the result of the matter returning to its original, unformed state.
"The Prima Materia? Quark-Gluon Plasma? Whatever it is called in the end—it is all the origin state of fire."
Hengsheng entered a state of enlightenment, his entire body being enveloped with the power of heaven and earth, an award by the Heavenly Dao, who performed its duty to encourage all beings under heaven to strive for advancement.
Hengsheng's entire body was completely enveloped by the Flame of Creation—not only was his spirit core refined, but his whole body was purified and strengthened. once someone becomes enlightened, even a dog or a cat will benefit.
Yunsu, who rested on his lap, also benefited from this process as her bloodline was further purified. Previously, she had not received any significant power-up due to her limited access to a potent bloodline to absorb, but now, refined by the flame of creation, her already strong bloodline has become even stronger and purer.
The impurity even seemed to leak from Hengsheng's skin, a testament to the impurities he had long neglected, especially after consuming massive amounts of spirit stones and natural treasures beyond anyone’s wildest imagination, courtesy of his unnatural absorption ability.
Black mucus flowed out of his skin like a river; if Hengsheng and Yunsu had still been fully conscious, he would have vomited at the awful stench. Yet the Flame of Creation, beyond imagination, does not spare even the black mucus with its refining power.
Once touched by the flame, the mucus began to transform into a transparent pure Qi mucus. If a cultivator were to discover this substance, it would be classified as a divine-grade treasure, capable of directly increasing their cultivation base—truly the perfect treasure for someone in the bottleneck. Ironically, Hengsheng will never know that this treasure, which he found to appear out of nowhere, was in fact his own waste.
After a while, the Flame of Creation slowly faded, leaving Hengsheng and Yunsu still reaping the lingering benefits. Soon after, Hengsheng opened his eyes and quickly used his Divine Sense to scan the surroundings. Finding no immediate threat, he sighed in relief, They still stayed within a dangerous place and couldn't lower their guard.
"Meow?" Yunsu meowed softly as she perched on his lap, and then Hengsheng noticed that transparent mucus, emitting an aura of divine-grade treasure, clung around his body. Confused, he wondered, "What the heck is this? Where does it come from?"
Without further questioning, he gathered all the transparent mucus with his Divine Sense afraid it might disappear, and stored it in his system space, within the System World.
"A free treasure! thank you, Heavenly Dao!"
He then gently rubbed Yunsu’s head and chin while observing himself with his Divine Sense.
He noticed that his Spirit Core was now completely upgraded, and his entire body surged with power—he felt at least twice as strong, if not more. Most importantly, in the Attainment section of his system panel, a new element appeared.