337 The germinating fragment.

Little Gray descended slightly after Yao Jun muttered his rhetorical question, the air at their previous altitude was so thin that even they would start to experience some trouble with it if they spent a prolonged period of time there. He then flapped his wings and shot into the distance, there was nothing at their current location so there was a need for them to leave the area to look for a place where Yao Jun could restore his condition at least a bit, especially his fractured soul.

But was Yao Jun such a patient person that he would quietly wait for them to reach such a place before he started with his business? The answer to that was a resounding no, he was already beckoning Ba-Shei over by the time Little Gray started to descend.

"Ba-Shei, can I trouble you to absorb some of the surrounding Qi and channel it into me? I need to kickstart my body cultivation and

check out the state of my dantian."

At the moment, Yao Jun couldn't feel the Qi floating around in the surrounding air since his God Gate had shattered. But he still had his body cultivation, and while he mainly used the Blood Ocean's Hunger to condense other living beings' bodies into pure energy for the technique, he had also dabbled in the standard body cultivation technique of his universe. And that cultivation technique relied on absorbing the surrounding Qi, so he figured that he should be able to sense the surrounding Qi again if he just shook his body out of its shook state.

Ba-Shei was a bit hesitant, it sounded simple to just channel the surrounding Qi into others, but if you didn't get the fine control down then your own Qi could slip in just as easily. And at that time you had to make sure that you didn't accidentally harm the other person with your Qi, or worse, have their body become accustomed to your Qi so that it became unable to absorb other Qi.

The second option really only applied to people who had yet to start cultivating and thus didn't have any Qi in their dantian, but wasn't Yao Jun in such a state right now? But Ba-Shei threw aside his hesitation and sat down behind Yao Jun, his lord had put his faith in him so he would just have to rise to meet those expectations.

Yao Jun quickly felt the familiar sensation of Qi rushing through his body, but it only felt familiar to his mind, his body was actually sending out warning signals in response to detecting the foreign energy. But those warning signals were splendidly ignored as Yao Jun gathered up the Qi with his Monarch Essence and guided it towards one of the acupuncture points he had carved in the past.

The body cultivation of his universe focused on opening the body's 361 acupuncture points while also carving 361 new ones, completing both steps meant that you would have reached the Godking realm. Yao Jun couldn't really be said to focus much on body cultivation so he only had 31 opened and carved, but that was enough for what he was trying to do right now.

He prodded the self-made acupuncture point in a crude manner, unleashing the Qi that was caged up by his Monarch Essence. The Qi flooded into the acupuncture point and intermingled with both the Qi and Monarch Essence that was present in it. The Qi that had been somewhat dormant in there after the loss of the God Gate started to seep out, as if the acupuncture point had been unclogged, and Yao Jun then dragged that Qi over to another acupuncture point.

He repeated the process for 6 of his acupuncture point before the surrounding air grew a bit clearer, but also heavier at the same time. The presence of the dense Qi that floated around him became clearer to him as the acupuncture points in his body started to wake up again, reminding his body and mind of that oh-so-important energy that they craved.

And with his body once again able to sense the surrounding Qi, a process that had unknowingly taken nearly two hours, Yao Jun could wave his hand at Ba-Shei to signal that he could stop channelling Qi into him. He allowed his acupuncture points to absorb the surrounding Qi, waking up the last few remaining ones while diverting the Qi to the base of his abdomen, the location of his dantian.

"I see, seems like things are going down the most unfavourable path."

It was a mutter that Yao Jun couldn't help but mutter as he inspected his dantian, or rather, his lack of one. He was born on a planet located within a Hollow Waste, a location where the laws of the universe didn't work properly. His particular Hollow Waste was one where people happened to be born with special abilities, which would become their basis for strengthening in the future.

And now, as he looked at the empty spot where his dantian should be, it seemed like the price for being born with such a special power was that you wouldn't be able to cultivate Qi using any normal means. He made the Qi move around the area a bit to see if anything happened, but there was no change so he had to face the facts.

"That certainly is an annoying roadblock."

He muttered softly to himself, but that didn't mean that he let it get to his head. It was just cutting off one path, it just meant that he would have to take a different path from now on, it certainly wasn't enough to stop him. He relinquished his control over the Qi that he had just absorbed so that ht it would seep out of his body, and he was just about to open his eyes when he spotted an unnatural sight.

The Qi that he had given up on didn't seep out of his body to return to its natural habitat, it instead started to slowly meander up through his veins. It moved like a fish hooked onto a line, bouncing around within his veins as it congregated towards his heart. And when it finally reached his heart, it lept out from it and floated towards the nine jagged fragments that remained of his God Gate.

One by one, the various strands of Qi sank into the smallest fragment, vanishing without a sound or trace. The unexpected scene immediately drew Yao Jun's full attention, who beckoned for Ba-Shei to channel more Qi into him.

He took advantage of the Qi that Ba-Shei channelled into him, merging it with the Qi he himself was also able to draw in, and pushed it all towards the jagged fragments. All the Qi sank into the smallest fragment once more, but this time Yao Jun made sure to pay extremely close attention to it.

It wasn't actually the Qi sinking into the fragment, it would be more apt to say that the fragment was swallowing the Qi, eating it up like a hungry child. And it was ever-so-faint, but Yao Jun felt a sensation akin to a drop of water sinking into the ocean. It was pitifully weak, but it was there nonetheless.

He immediately drew in more Qi, and had Ba-Shei send in more Qi, but this time he also mixed in some of his Monarch Essence. And just like previously, that tiny fragment gobbled it all up without hesitation, even the Monarch Essence was swallowed. And since the Monarch Essence was connected to him, the sensation from earlier became much more distinct.

The fragment seemed to contain a vast ocean, or perhaps it was more apt to be called a massive basin with how empty it felt. And all the Qi it absorbed turned into drops that became part of this ocean, slowly filling up the basin. And it truly was slowly, the three rounds of energy that it had just swallowed only amounted to what would be equal to six piddly drops.

To fill up an entire ocean with nothing but drop after drop, just how long would such an act take? But even if it sounded like an act that would take years, the thought to not do it never crossed Yao Jun's mind. The state of these fragments was directly tied to the state of his family and his companions, he couldn't ignore a single thing about them.

That was especially true when it came to a strange situation like this one. The fragment felt like it was germinating something, it wanted the basin to be filled so that it could sprout. But what exactly was it germinating, what sort of thing could possibly be born from the shattered fragment of an Origin Heart? Yao Jun didn't know, but he was determined to find out, he felt that he had to find out. And as his determination only hardened, the voice of Little Gray reached his ears.

"Milord, I've detected an energy-rich area on that floating island over there, the energy carries a strong bloody scent so I believe that it should be beneficial to your body cultivation technique. But three other people have already reached the area, how do you wish us to proceed?"

Yao Jun opened his eyes and turned his gaze towards the island that Sirius was pointing towards for Little Gray, a circular patch of land that looked like it had just been scooped up from the earth and thrown into the sky. Yao Jun didn't know how strong the three people were, he couldn't stretch out his senses that far any longer after all.

But since Little Gray had worded it as he did, he was making it clear that the three people weren't so strong that they couldn't take them on. And so, it wasn't something that Yao Jun had to spend a lot of time thinking about, his gaze drifting towards Sirius.

"Can you handle them?"

It was such a simple question, but it still sent slight shivers down the spines of Little Gray and the others. There had been so many times they wanted to fight for him and help him, but Yao Jun simply continued to bear it all on his own, always fighting on his own. But now he asked for their help, and it left them ecstatic.

"It will be as you command!"

It wasn't exactly the proper answer to his question, but Sirius was too excited to really think about that. He and the two others were really only thinking about a single thing right now. Their god had finally made his decision and decided that he desired the universe itself, and it fell to them to present it to him. And that island would be exactly where they started, it and the three people on it would be their very first offering.