A few days pa.s.sed...
After consuming 13 spirit jades, Nie Tian eventually entered the middle Heaven stage in the forbidden region to the east of Ash City.
As he did, a brand new vortex of spiritual power came to shape within his spiritual sea.
Advancing to a new cultivation stage meant many changes.
First of all, he would be able to allow more energy into his five vortexes of spiritual power, and he would be able to further expand and refine his spiritual sea.
Then, he would be able to further his cultivation of flame power, wood power, and star power.
That aside, he would also be able to continue to temper his physical body now that his cultivation had entered a new stage.
Thanks to the breakthrough in his cultivation, not only were his various types of spiritual power greatly enhanced, but the rotation of the vortexes within his spiritual sea also sped up significantly.
After entering the middle Heaven stage, Nie Tian didn’t rush into other things, but instead took a few more days to steady his cultivation base and resume a calm state of mind.
Afterwards, he went on to condense stardew, one drop after another, using large amounts of Star Stones, and add them to the lake of stardew in his spiritual sea.
Soon, a week pa.s.sed...
On this night, Nie Tian was still condensing stardew when he suddenly caught sight of a streak of glorious light soaring through the starlit sky.
The streak of light seemed so close to him that it was as if it were right above his head.
Without the slightest delay, he focused his attention as he gazed up at the das.h.i.+ng streak of light. Simultaneously, following the profound methods stipulated by Starfall, he summoned his psychic power and star power and had them resonate with each other.
The streak of light seemed extremely thin, and the meteor in its head seemed quite small as well.
As he cast the mysterious technique and focused his psychic awareness on the streak of light this time, he finally captured the path it was moving in!
As a profound connection was established between him and the streak of light, star power rushed out of his spiritual sea like a devastating flood rus.h.i.+ng out of an opened floodgate.
At the same time, both his star power and the wisp of his psychic awareness he had used to lock onto the streak of light ran low at an amazing speed.
Even though it was only a small meteor and he was only attempting to use Starfall to slightly bend its path, the consumption seemed to be getting out of hand.
Furthermore, as his vortex of star power spun at a speed several times faster than usual, Nie Tian started to experience a splitting pain in his mind.
With all of his strength, he stabilized his mind and attempted to slightly alter the falling star’s path.
SHEW!
To his surprise, he succeeded this time, as the falling star deviated slightly from its original track towards the direction he attempted to channel it.
However, in such a short time, he had consumed more than half of his psychic power and star power.
BOOM!
The streak of light plummeted to the earth in a location more than five kilometers from where he was standing, but he could only sense a slight tremor from the ground under his feet.
This meant the meteor must be very small in size. Otherwise, considering how close he was to the crash site, the land and mountains around him should have been shaking violently and unceasingly.
Nie Tian let out a long sigh as he tried to calm himself. That was when he suddenly realized that he was covered in sweat and felt somewhat dizzy.
After a few deep breaths, the dizziness went away. Yet, his heart was still racing.
As a wisp of Nie Tian’s psychic awareness flew into the first fragmentary star mark on his chest, he saw with great clarity that the ancient magical symbols that had recorded Starfall and its profound mysteries were gradually disappearing.
“Starfall!” A shudder ran through his body as he immediately realized that, at this point, he had finally mastered all of the three magics recorded in the first fragmentary star mark!
Also at that moment, he came to understand why his previous attempts had failed.
It hadn’t been because he didn’t have a deep understanding of Starfall, or that he didn’t focus his attention, or that he didn’t try hard enough.
Rather, his repeated failures had been because the amount of star power within him wasn’t enough to allow him to cast such a consuming magic!
Even though it was a very small meteor, it required a terrifyingly substantial amount of psychic power and star power to channel it and alter its direction.
Back then, he hadn’t entered the middle Heaven stage, so the amount of star power he had acc.u.mulated had been fairly limited.
Later, the breakthrough in his cultivation had allowed him to condense more stardew and continue to gather more star power in his spiritual sea.
Over the past few days, he had been cultivating with Star Stones, and the star power in his lake of stardew had risen to at least twice the amount he had possessed before he made the breakthrough.
The increase in his star power and the fact that it was a extremely small meteor contributed to his successful casting of Starfall.
All the meteors he had encountered before had been too large for him. Considering his cultivation base and the amount of his star power he had possessed back then, it was only natural that he hadn’t been able to alter the path they moved in, much less channel them towards a certain location.
“It was such a small meteor, and I merely altered its track a bit. Yet, I used up almost all of my psychic power and star power!”
“This magic is clearly not something I can use freely or apply in battle for the time being!”
The truth became increasingly clear to Nie Tian.
Of the three magics recorded in the first part of the Fragmentary Star Incantation, Nie Tian was already able to exercise Starstrike and Stars.h.i.+ft.
However, it was a whole other case with Starfall. Considering his current cultivation base and strength, he definitely couldn’t use it in a confrontation.
From what he could tell, perhaps only when he entered the Worldly realm or the Profound realm would he be able to cast it skillfully and use it to channel meteors to bombard his enemies.
If he wanted to channel enormous meteors from outer s.p.a.ce, he might need to advance to an even higher cultivation base and possess star power as immense as the sea.
“Fortunately, I’ve finally mastered all three profound magics recorded in the first fragmentary star mark.” As Nie Tian watched the ancient symbols within the first fragmentary star mark vanish bit by bit, joy rose from the bottom of his heart, knowing that he wouldn’t have to remain in hiding and worry about his true ident.i.ty being revealed anymore.
He opened his lapels and looked down at his chest, discovering that the originally tattoo-like fragmentary star mark was fading away. Moments later, it disappeared completely, as if it had seeped into his flesh and merged with him.
Meanwhile, the fragmentary star mark he hadn’t been able to learn was still clearly showing.
“Does this mean that I’ve fully refined the mark?” With these thoughts, he suddenly experienced a burning sensation from the fragmentary star mark that had already merged with his flesh.
He immediately examined that area with a wisp of psychic awareness, and found that lines of brand new magical symbols had appeared within the refined fragmentary star mark.
After a brief glance at the magical symbols, Nie Tian managed to brand them deeply in his mind and make them a part of his soul.
Shortly afterwards, the magical symbols gradually vanished.
He went over the magical symbols he had imprinted in his memory, and discovered that they actually recorded the secret method of sealing spatial rifts, and that in order to do that, he would have to mobilize all three fragmentary star marks, as well as the mysterious power of the starry river.
He would be the spellcaster. All he needed to do would be to follow the secret method as he released the three fragmentary star marks and controlled them with his soul to seal the opened spatial rifts.
At that moment, he also suddenly sensed the existence of the third fragmentary star mark.
It was as if the third fragmentary star mark was now reflected in his mind, enabling him to sense its precise location.
He didn’t achieve that with his Heaven Eyes. It seemed that all he needed to do was form a thought in his mind, and immediately afterwards he would learn the location of the third fragmentary star mark.
“Ning Yang! That’s the fragmentary star mark on Ning Yang!” That was when Nie Tian came to realize that mysterious connections existed between the three fragmentary star marks.
The reason he hadn’t discovered those connections before was because he hadn’t fully refined the first fragmentary star mark back then. Now that it had become a part of him, he could learn the location of the third fragmentary star mark, and thus capture Ning Yang’s location and movements with great precision. “He’s close to the crash site of that small meteor!”
After determining Ning Yang’s location, Nie Tian didn’t rush into action. Instead, he took out some Star Stones and used them to restore the star power he had consumed.
Then, he fished out a few medicinal pills that could replenish his psychic power and stuffed them down his throat.
Only after almost a whole day did he finally recover the star power and psychic power he had consumed.
By the time he got up and arrived at the meteor’s crash site, Ning Yang was already gone. With a brief examination, he found that Ning Yang was searching for ways to refine his fragmentary star mark in a location 50 kilometers away now.
However, at that moment, Nie Tian suddenly felt a burning sensation from the fragmentary star mark on his chest while standing by the edge of the crater, which was only the size of a well.
For some reason, he had a feeling that something deep beneath the crater was attracting his fragmentary star mark.
“What’s going on?” Eyes filled with confusion and curiosity, Nie Tian gazed into the crater as he commanded one of his Heaven Eyes to probe into the depths of the earth.