Besides the Nine Heavens Thunder Meteor, Li Ban also had the Flame Art.
Although it hardly felt reliable, the Flame Art could provide light, and lightning could do the same. He had to give it a try.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to focus on anything else today.
He placed the Nine Heavens Thunder Meteor on the table. 'Although I'm a bit close to the Myriad Ancient Pagoda,' he thought, 'the ambient spiritual rhinoceros here is abundant. There are plenty of Priests and spirit practitioners around, and the commotion from their cultivation is hardly minor. If I just use it briefly, it shouldn't cause much of a stir.'
If the disturbance grew too large, he would stop immediately and find a chance to test it outside later.
Li Ban sat at the table and closed his eyes, first absorbing the spiritual rhinoceros from the air.
The Star River did not appear. Taking its place was his Wizard Embryo Fragment—that patch of thin mist.
This mist was a little denser than when he had first become a Priest.
But only a little.
After observing his Wizard Embryo Fragment for a moment, Li Ban tried to stop it from absorbing the spiritual rhinoceros. Instead, he attempted to make the spiritual rhinoceros bypass the fragment and enter the deeper layers of his consciousness.
Before the Wizard Embryo Fragment manifested, he had been able to see the Star River during every cultivation session.
Li Ban focused on absorbing the spiritual rhinoceros while suppressing the fragment—clearly, his control over his wizard embryo had grown.
At first, his control was clumsy. Before the spiritual rhinoceros could bypass the fragment, it would be instinctively absorbed.
But as time passed, the suppressed fragment slowly settled down.
More of the spiritual rhinoceros bypassed the fragment, vanishing in a flash.
Li Ban's consciousness chased after the spiritual rhinoceros entering the depths of his mind, tracking its exact destination the moment it vanished.
After observing this many times, he finally noticed something.
'There is no change in power, no sudden acceleration or shift in direction.'
'So the spiritual rhinoceros isn't being diverted—it's being absorbed directly?'
Li Ban was certain his fragment wasn't absorbing the spiritual rhinoceros. That meant the only thing taking it in could be... the Star River!
'The cosmic Star River has been here the entire time. The only reason I couldn't find it was because... I couldn't see it?'
Click.
As if someone had flipped a light switch in a pitch-black room, the Star River that had appeared countless times during his cultivation abruptly materialized before his eyes.
Nebulas spun rapidly, and a boundless sea of stars and veils of light enveloped his consciousness.
Gazing at this vast stellar sea, the flow of time and the boundlessness of space were displayed clearly before him.
'So, the Star River wasn't hiding. It was right in front of me all along, but I couldn't perceive it. Only by realizing this could I see it again.'
Gazing at the cosmic Star River, Li Ban couldn't begin to imagine what kind of almighty power could command such ethereal vastness.
Having finally found the Star River, Li Ban marveled at it for a moment before turning his attention to finding the element for the Flame Art.
He tried to use the Flame Art to release fire inward.
This was a risky move that could leave him injured. However, in the Myriad Ancient Pagoda, if anything went wrong, he could immediately seek help from the Priests.
Emboldened, Li Ban began his experiment.
"Hiss!"
A tiny wisp of flame lit up within the Star River.
But it extinguished in an instant.
If his consciousness hadn't been anchored directly next to the spark, he probably wouldn't have even caught its flash.
'Is this place unsuitable for burning?'
He tried a few other spots, but the results were all the same.
The flames couldn't last for even a few seconds before vanishing from his sight.
'Maybe it can't be ignited in midair.'
Li Ban trained his intent on a planet, zooming in.
It was a dead, silent planet, completely dark.
He tried to ignite something on its surface.
Yet the flame still died out swiftly.
'Just as I thought, it's not that simple. There are actually burning stars within this Star River, which means the conditions for sustained combustion just aren't met here. Even if I managed to start a fire, it wouldn't change anything.'
Li Ban tested a few other elements.
The power of a single spirit practitioner was simply too insignificant against the backdrop of an entire universe. Even the abilities of a superior element couldn't cause the slightest ripple.
Li Ban slowly opened his eyes, his gaze finally falling upon the superior element resting before him—the Nine Heavens Thunder Meteor.
'It's not like lightning doesn't exist in the universe, so the mechanism behind sparking light and birthing life can't be that straightforward. It must trigger a long chain of subsequent reactions.'
'There's no way those Great Wizards don't know this principle. Yet, Wizard Lords who possess a Star River are still in the minority. The necessary opportunities and conditions are incredibly demanding. All I can do is try.'
Li Ban searched through the Star River.
He didn't know the specific conditions required for ignition. Fortunately, he wasn't actually trying to become a Wizard Lord on the spot; he merely wanted to test the galaxy's reaction.
Like a cosmic storm, his intent swept rapidly across the Star River.
He hunted through the Star River for a planet with conditions similar to his homeworld from his past life.
This took a bit more time.
But luckily, given the sheer volume of celestial bodies, Li Ban still managed to find a similar world.
He could only confirm the surface similarities, however; whether the core matched was impossible to determine for now.
Target confirmed, Li Ban reached out toward the Nine Heavens Thunder Meteor. The object instantly discharged a bolt of lightning, scorching his finger.
Li Ban didn't pull back. Enduring the pain, he pressed his hand firmly against the Nine Heavens Thunder Meteor.
'System, Star River, or whatever else—can this mysterious Nine Heavens Thunder Meteor bring about any change in you?'
Li Ban didn't choose to fuse with this superior element. Instead, he commanded the System—
'Absorb it!'
A meteorite manifested within the Star River without warning.
As if drawn by an immense force, it hurtled rapidly through the cosmos. The smaller meteorites and cosmic dust blocking its path were obliterated into fine powder.
Smashing through countless obstacles, it finally descended upon the planet Li Ban had chosen.
Then, it slammed heavily into the surface.
Li Ban was stunned.
Wasn't a comet striking a planet usually an apocalyptic event?
Did he get it backwards?
Or did the System get it backwards?
But before he could think any further, a massive shockwave hit him.
The blast nearly threw his consciousness out of the Star River.
Following that, an explosive mushroom cloud rose from his chosen planet, whipping up an atmospheric ripple nearly invisible to the naked eye.
A brilliant flash of light erupted before him, outpacing the atmospheric tremors to pierce Li Ban's eyes.
It felt as if his very brain had been illuminated by something.
The vast heaven and earth, the boundless universe, the dazzling galaxy—everything was swallowed by an absolute white.
Completely blinded to the Star River, Li Ban could only sense the Wizard Embryo Fragment shielding him.
It was thanks to the fragment's protection that his mind hadn't been blasted entirely blank.
But as the light grew increasingly intense, the hemispherical Wizard Embryo Fragment began to undergo a drastic transformation.
Right before his eyes, it rapidly shifted from a thin mist into dense clouds.
The clouds were thick and heavy, churning like ocean waves—impenetrable and ungraspable.
'Is this... Cloud-Hidden?'
He felt as if a balloon were expanding inside his chest. The sheer thrill sent his body into heavy, ragged gasps.
Suddenly, the cloud layer broke apart, scattering into the unknown.
Behind them, a dim patch of starlight emerged.
It was even dimmer than the starlight behind the Faceless One.
But soon enough, Li Ban's original Star River connected with this sparse starlight.
Massive amounts of radiating light effortlessly channeled more and more brilliance and heat into the newly emerged, dim starlight.
Then, even though there was no sound, Li Ban still felt as if he could hear a chain of explosions.
The newly born, dim galaxy was rapidly ignited.
Countless stars burned, exploded, or underwent even more violent reactions.
They shattered endlessly, only to converge again under their mutual physical forces.
Finally, within this small patch of the cosmos, a massive new celestial body dominated the space.
An evolution that should have taken hundreds of millions, or even billions of years, was completed in a single instant.
The colossal planet remained quiet for a moment.
Perhaps it was a mere moment, or perhaps it was countless eons.
Suddenly, it lit up like a lightbulb, glowing intensely from the inside out.
The dust on its surface ignited. Tongues of fire curled relentlessly, spewing into the void.
In a split second, a tranquil planet had transformed into a fiercely burning star.
It felt as though its core harbored enough power to obliterate the heavens and the earth.
Immensely powerful, yet extremely unstable.
All of these changes happened in the span of a single thought from Li Ban.
Yet, that heaven-shaking might was entirely blocked by the vast, outer Star River; not a single trace leaked out.
If someone were to enter Li Ban's room at that moment, they would simply see him sitting upright at the round table, an empty box resting in front of him.
A smile touched the corners of Li Ban's lips—relaxed and carefree.
His smile deepened, and a hint of disdain crept into his relaxed expression.
'If everything in this world is easily within my grasp, then everything in this world is no more than dust to me.'
'There is no need to cherish it, for it holds no value.'
Li Ban slowly stood up.
His skin emanated a faint red glow. It was as if his insides had been ignited and were burning, on the verge of breaking through the confinement of his flesh to reveal an incandescent light.
Just as Li Ban was about to leave the enclosed room, the red glow radiating from him suddenly vanished entirely.
It was as if someone had instantly shut down a reactor.
The scorching star was abruptly scattered by a gentle yet mighty force, reverting to dim starlight. Then, a layer of clouds appeared from nowhere, obscuring the sky.
However, the thick clouds didn't thin back into mist. They stabilized, quietly churning within Li Ban's consciousness.
The unbridled smile faded from Li Ban's face. He sat back down and blinked.
After the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, he suddenly sprang up, hit his head against the crossbeam, and dropped back down to the floor.
Propping himself up against the table, he swayed dizzily and nearly collapsed.
"Holy crap!" Recalling his recent experience, Li Ban was filled with shock and lingering fear. "I nearly derailed completely!"
In that brief instant, his strength had surged all the way from a Spirit Awakening Priest to a Sun Priest.
But his state of mind had snapped in the face of that abruptly skyrocketing power.
Li Ban could still remember exactly how he had felt.
He felt as if he could dominate the world on a whim. Yet, right on the heels of that brief joy was a profound emptiness and boredom—one that made him want to casually raise his hand and destroy the world before his eyes.
Thinking about it now, a Solar Priest couldn't actually destroy the Wizard World while it was protected by the Wizard Lords, but wiping out all of Yanzhou wouldn't have been a problem.
Fortunately, right before he made a move, a rational and gentle force suppressed his strength back down to Cloud-Hidden. At the same time, it soothed the massive sense of loss that came with his regressing power.
Otherwise, he'd be feeling far more than just a little lingering fear right now.
Staring at his hands, Li Ban muttered, "Now I have to figure out a way to explain why I advanced to Cloud-Hidden overnight..."