Chapter 62: Chapter 62 (Inspiration capsule Extra Chapter)
"What, an artifact!"
"Σ(⊙▽⊙"a!"
"Holy shit (‵o′)!" Ethan barely kept himself from shouting aloud.
For years, the system had rewarded him with rare herbs, top-tier elixirs, the odd spiritual weapon. But this—this was another level entirely.
He stared at the palm-sized clock, still marvelling at its weight.
He was no stranger to rare treasures. Even the renowned Empyrean artifacts—those creations that stood a rank above heavenly-tier treasures—were seldom seen in the world. And a true artifact, a divine weapon? That was something out of legend.
People claimed they existed, but for ten thousand years in the Skyreach Territory, not so much as a glimpse had been recorded.
His hands trembled slightly.
Even the most ancient hidden families only retained a single Empyrean weapon, passed down and worshipped for centuries like a guardian deity.
Above that? Only whispers and rumors in ancient texts.
He quickly pricked his finger, letting a bead of essence blood drop onto the Chaos Clock. It was absorbed instantly; Ethan’s consciousness extended a strand of mental energy into it, imprinting his soul to complete the recognition.
A subtle change swept through his veins. The artifact became drastically lighter; what moments ago felt as though it would drag his arm clean off, now rested in his palm as comfortable as a small stone. He turned it in the sunlight, marveling at the structure.
The bell was deep red, its surface covered in a dense web of lines—some curled, some sharp, some forming patterns like primordial runes from a lost language. On each curve, golden light flowed, pulsing with the slow, eternal rhythm of a beating heart. If Ethan concentrated, he could sense titanic power coiled inside, slumbering, ancient, unfathomable.
He ran his fingers reverently over the carvings. The longer he looked, the more he felt the weight of ages. The bell hummed with potential, but when Ethan tried to will it to life, nothing happened. He felt a barrier—a deep hunger within the artifact for something he lacked.
Just as the system had said when he’d checked its details.
Only those with divine power can truly activate the Chaos Clock.
Divine power—Ethan mulled the term.
The so-called divine power was the transformed essence of spiritual energy, usually only obtainable by spiritual cultivators after passing through their tribulation. The first great crossing transformed spiritual power, making it fundamentally different.
But that wasn’t all. Above the tribulation realm was the Mahayana realm, a territory of monsters and old monsters, few and far between.
Nine stages, each one a near death, the edge of eternity—and at the end, if one survived all nine stages, everything in the body was remade. Soul, spiritual energy, body—all undergo this baptized. Only then was spiritual energy reborn into true divine power.
Reaching that stage meant stepping into the Supreme Realm, where a cultivator stood above all beings, capable of sundering mountains, reversing the rivers, and writing their will across the heavens.
Ethan’s mind burned with restless questions.
"If divine power is the evolution of spiritual force for spiritual cultivators," he wondered, "then what of body cultivators like me? Can we also condense divine power?"
He spent a moment in silent thought. He knew the core of a body cultivator’s strength stemmed from the body itself, drawn from the blood and marrow—Qi and blood. If such a transformation existed for physical power, it must come from the ultimate boiling of Qi and blood, fused with will and spirit until something new emerged.
But nobody had left clear teachings. It felt like looking at a wall with a single window, so small you could only glimpse a blue sky beyond. He’d have to find his own answers, someday.
His awe gradually shifted to healthy paranoia.
"Every man is not guilty, but he is guilty of carrying a jade!" he muttered. With a sweeping glance, Ethan hurriedly stored the Chaos Clock back into his system’s inventory.
He forced himself to relax, forcing away the tremor in his hand. Not a soul in the Skyreach Territory, to his knowledge, had seen such a treasure.
As long as he kept it quiet and didn’t flaunt it, nobody would believe he had a real artifact. At most, they’d see it as a well-made antique.
But Ethan’s heart beat faster at the possibilities.
Even unawakened, he could tell the bell was immensely tough. Even mighty cultivators, even the Empress herself, would find it impossible to batter through if he hunkered inside. Against Mahayana realm dangers, maybe even the mysterious Supreme realm, the bell would never break, though the shockwaves might still bruise him within, if Supreme realm cultivator kept attacking it.
But that all meant nothing if word got out. If anyone suspected, not just greedy rivals but armies would come for his head.
Until the day came he could wield the Chaos Clock truly, he would never let on. Only fools paraded their fortunes in the wide world.
He calmed his mind. Slipping the artifact into storage, Ethan let out a long breath and scrolled through the newly unlocked system feature: the world map.
A dizzy spell hit him. Memories surged in a flood—his old life from a world of frantic gaming, those fog-of-war covered maps, secret corners, and glowing icons that mapped mysterious lands.
On the map, he saw the Azure Origin Dao Sect, its peaks and valleys sketched in intricate detail. Surrounding cities and sect territories were neatly marked.
All the rest—a sea of darkness, a bleach-gray fog of war, with only vague shapes beneath. Roads to nowhere, uncharted forests, the barest shadows of mountain chains and distant rivers.
He zoomed the map out, surprised at the scale. This world wasn’t as impossibly vast as he’d once daydreamed. The revealed area was a 500-mile radius around the sect. Everything outside was shrouded, but the terrain still showed through, partially obscured in swirling mist.
Then his eyes snagged on a detail—a series of fishing rod icons scattered across the visible region.
Curious, he tapped the nearest one.
[Fishing point marking: Only at these points can task rewards be earned. Other locations are invalid.]
He stroked his chin.
The Azure Origin Dao Sect was a sprawling land of lakes, rivers, and hidden pools, but only three places on the map bore the coveted symbol: the familiar Serene Mirror Lake.
The second: a small, winding pool set in the valley east of the Sealing Demon Cave, nestled near a minor peak.
and, on the lower left corner, near the border of revealed territory—a lake he knew better than some faces in the sect.
Echo Lake.
A/N:
Extra Chapters
100 power stones - 1 Extra Chapters
200 power stones - 2 Extra Chapters
Capsule - 1 Extra Chapters
Massage Chair - 3 Extra Chapters
Luxury Car - 5 Extra Chapters
Magic Castle - 15 Extra Chapters
....
Thanks for the Inspiration capsule: @Achillios