As an innate divine ability born from the awakening of the Five Elements Celestial Physique, the Five-Colored Celestial Light perfectly displayed the power of the physique. First, as Qi Ping's innate attack, the light itself possessed extremely strong spiritual impact and destructive power. Combined with extreme speed, it was already a terrifying killer move.
The two traits, Generation and Extinction, elevated this divine ability to a terrifying level. The Extinction trait decomposed the target into nothingness at the fundamental level! For almost all beings in the cultivation world, whether they were flesh-and-blood or special lifeforms, almost all fell within the evolutionary range of the five elements. For example, the special attributes of Wind and Thunder were derivative attributes of the Wood element. Furthermore, almost everything—spiritual energy, physical bodies, weapons, treasures, and even manuals and spells themselves—existed within the five elements.
More importantly, Qi Ping had deep understanding and comprehension of these things. This meant that against such existences, Qi Ping only needed to use the Five-Colored Celestial Light to easily decompose them into nothingness! Even if an opponent had a foundation equal to Qi Ping's, as long as they couldn't escape the five-element power, their flesh, treasures, and spells could still be decomposed! Although the difficulty would increase against higher-level power, it would still be very hard to resist completely; it was only a matter of time. If the opponent didn't have a divine ability of the same level to block it, defeating Qi Ping would be harder than climbing to heaven.
'The Extinction trait should also be useful for blocking an opponent's spells. As long as I can destroy the spells at their essence, I can cause the power to collapse. It's a top-tier life-saving method as well.'
In an instant, Qi Ping thought of the many uses of the light. All the attack spells and divine abilities he had seen seemed to pale in comparison to this Five-Colored Celestial Light. Especially in attack, this decomposition trait could be used on any high-level power. Compared to brute force, it was much easier to achieve destruction at the essence and weak points.
'But compared to the Generation trait, Extinction is still slightly inferior.'
Between the trait of turning everything to nothingness and the trait of Generation, Qi Ping still preferred the latter! The former was indeed powerful in attack and destruction, but the Generation trait offered many more ingenious possibilities: Derived Myriad Things!
This was the biggest puzzle and difficulty on his current path of cultivation, and the thing he most wanted to pursue! In his view, he was no longer tied to any specific cultivation system. Whether it was the Druid path or the path of a cultivator, they were just manifestations of this world's power rules. The mysterious power of a Druid was born from the Great Dao itself, as was cultivation. In the end, it was all about the application of the essence of power.
Although he was still far from the end of these two paths—with all sorts of mysterious knowledge and power waiting to be sensed—it didn't stop him from judging the power he had comprehended and having his own understanding. In Qi Ping's heart, those who only knew how to follow manuals without their own comprehension and spirit of exploration were ultimately just puppets. Whether it was a simple Progenitor-Vassal method trap, a flaw in the foundation, or a cultivation error—any problem would be enough to bring disaster to such people.
Of course, this didn't mean Qi Ping looked down on them. Reaching that step already made them geniuses; he couldn't belittle them just because of his own advantages. But while others could be like that, Qi Ping could not! He wasn't them. The advantages and foundation he had accumulated were things they didn't have. If he had come this far and still couldn't understand the essence of power to truly control what he possessed, he would be too incompetent and foolish.
Especially since Qi Ping already felt that this world was not simple. Since he had first stepped into the cultivation world, he had known about the trap of Progenitor-Vassal methods. Once one practiced a Vassal method, no matter how powerful it was, they would lose the ability to resist instantly under the control of the Progenitor method, even becoming food and resources. This was common even in the Foundation Establishment stage.
If low-level cultivators were like this, what about higher-level ones? Qi Ping had an answer. In the many manuals and spells he had read and tried, the higher the grade, the more traps there were—and they were more sophisticated and harder to find! This meant things were getting more dangerous. At least up to the Void Refinement stage, this was true. What about even higher? Because high-level manuals were scarce, the higher one went, the harder it was to find reference objects to judge if a manual had hidden dangers. Obtaining one manual was already a massive fortune; getting a second was a dream.
Without enough reference objects and experience, a Soul Transformation cultivator trying to figure out the truth and safety of a Void Refinement manual was impossible unless they were like Qi Ping—someone who had researched and created many manuals and could detect the risks. Because of manuals, there were many once-in-a-millennium geniuses in the records whose hard work and cultivation all became resources for others. According to this model, Qi Ping was fairly certain that it remained the same as one went higher.
There might even be old monsters specifically targeting the cultivation system, or the entire path of immortal cultivation might be a scam. Qi Ping couldn't judge the truth of these things, but thinking about it made him feel a trace of discomfort. This was why he had always practiced his own self-created manuals until now. Only this could absolutely guarantee he wouldn't become a lamb raised by someone else.
But now, Qi Ping saw a new possibility in the Generation trait of the Five-Colored Celestial Light! Originally, he had thought that if there was a problem with the Druid or cultivator systems, he could rely on his current foundation to let his scattered true spirits of consciousness manually craft spiritual roots or practice Druid powers from scratch. But now, with the support of the Five-Colored Celestial Light, he could utilize the essence of the world's rules to create more things. For example, spiritual roots, special constitutions, cultivation resources...
As long as he could do this, starting over wouldn't be hard. He could even walk a third path outside of Druidry and Cultivation. This was why Qi Ping currently supported the development of various cultivation systems in the Nine Domains; they were all explorations for his future path.
'While the Five-Colored Celestial Light can't restore a damaged body or soul out of thin air—it can only restore them based on the original foundation or restore what was annihilated by the Extinction trait, so its actual use has limits... But as long as I continuously annihilate and restore flesh, spiritual roots, or some special constitution, I can thoroughly understand the way they are born and destroyed through endless research. Once I fully understand their birth and destruction, it won't be hard to derive and create spiritual roots and constitutions using limited conditions. Deriving myriad things is too difficult and takes too much time, but for now, I only need to research the path I want to take—a system and road that can guarantee absolute safety. On this system's path, I will be the only Ancestor.'
At this thought, Qi Ping's conviction grew even firmer. He had already planned to walk this path; now, with the appearance of this divine ability, the road had become much easier, and his research and trial capabilities had been enhanced by several levels.
Of course, Qi Ping would not give up on the Druid or Immortal paths. Both currently gave him massive help and were his greatest hopes for longevity. And the end of these paths might not be a trap; they might truly be the broad road. Qi Ping chose to research a third system just as a precaution. With his current strength, researching a Golden Core or Nascent Soul-level power wasn't hard and wouldn't delay his cultivation much; instead, it could provide a final safety net for him.
Blindly rushing into cultivation could easily lead to falling into a trap without knowing it. For the life-cherishing Qi Ping, he would never be so reckless, especially since he still had a very long lifespan and didn't have to worry about running out of time. Even if the third system went unused, it could serve as a reference to break through the true limits and mysteries of longevity when he reached the end of the other two paths. So from any angle, research into a third system was necessary.
'But right now, I don't have much of a lead on how to build the third system. So for now, I'll focus on analyzing the essence of my current two systems. Starting from the lowest levels of power, I'll use the Five-Colored Celestial Light to find the most fundamental things... This is the confidence that even if only a sliver of my consciousness remains, I can use the simplest resources to manually craft myself back into a Qi Refinement, Foundation Establishment, or even higher-level cultivator.'
'Additionally, I have to see how the cultivators of the Nine Domains do. I'll see if they can provide better ideas for my third system.'
A single person's power is limited. But as long as he could harness the power of the countless cultivators on the Star-Sea Continent, finding a new path would be much easier. For instance, the stellar system the Shennong Daoist took was a good lead and could be one of the research directions. Qi Ping felt that with more research, he would naturally find the path he wanted to take.
The birth of the Five Elements Celestial Physique and the awakening of the Five-Colored Celestial Light caused Qi Ping's combat power to surge. This was the first time he had obtained a divine ability that could truly be called his signature move, perfectly expressing the concept of the five elements generating myriad things. Its potential was incredibly high. At least within Qi Ping's knowledge, he had never seen anyone awaken a similar ability. Furthermore, this ability directly opened up his future path of research.
Qi Ping's mood was excellent. After greeting those outside who came to congratulate him, he returned to the cave dwelling to continue his cultivation.
'The Demon Race crisis is imminent. Research into the new path can wait until the crisis has passed and I've set up policies and rewards for the people below to try. For now, I must raise my strength as quickly as possible to survive this crisis.'
With his next steps determined, Qi Ping put all his effort into cultivation. Now that his talent had surged, his primary goal was to use the advantages of the Celestial Physique and the ancestral vein to reach the Soul Transformation stage as quickly as possible. This would allow his combat power to increase by another level!
'Goal: Soul Transformation!'
As Qi Ping began to cultivate with full effort, the special spiritual energy of the Seven-Colored Ancestral Vein began to pour frantically into his body. Under the refinement of his manual and the Celestial Physique, it quickly turned into cultivation. The conversion speed directly exceeded his past knowledge!
Moreover, Qi Ping was surprised to find that the Celestial Physique had an extremely high adaptability for cultivation growth. Normally, going from the middle to the late Nascent Soul stage would require the body to spend a vast amount of time accumulating and transforming; otherwise, blindly refining spiritual power would only result in the foundation collapsing and the Dao-path being destroyed. But now, Qi Ping felt that restriction had vanished! No matter how much spiritual power he refined, the Celestial Physique was like a bottomless pit, never reaching its limit.
With the spiritual energy supply from the core of the Rank 6 peak-grade ancestral vein, Qi Ping's cultivation was skyrocketing.
'Too exaggerated!' Qi Ping marveled. He had never felt such an exaggerated improvement. 'Is this the benefit of high talent?'
He felt better than he ever had. Thus, his timing for Soul Transformation was likely coming soon, possibly even before the foreign races arrived. With the extinction crisis looming, Qi Ping would not waste any time. To avoid affecting his own cultivation while ensuring the Azure Dragon egg hatched properly, he immediately controlled his Treant Clone to appear there. The clone would guide the ancestral vein's power into the egg.
Whether it was because of the awakening of the Celestial Physique or not, the Azure Dragon egg actually began to hatch shortly after Qi Ping's awakening. A crack appeared on the shell, which was as tough as a Rank 6 treasure! The moment that crack appeared, the pressure of a Rank 7 divine beast bloodline soared into the sky!
And this scene once again stunned the people who hadn't even recovered from the previous shock...