Chapter Twenty-Five: The Golden Light Star Domain

Two months later, the immortal vessel *Shenxian* appeared within the Golden Light Star Region. Previously, in the Crystalline Sun Star Region, Tang Yi had obtained a massive piece of Blazing Gold Stone that had even miraculously birthed a spiritual consciousness. It had to be said that Tang Yi’s luck was simply off the charts.

"Could the Three Stones Star Region, the Freezing Ice Star Region, the Crystalline Sun Star Region, the Withered Wood Star Region, and the Golden Light Star Region be the respective territories of the Five Elements, capable of giving birth to the Five Elements Immortal Spirits?" Hovering cloaked in the void of the Golden Light Star Region, inside the control room of the *Shenxian*, Tang Yi watched the two immortal spirits—one large and one small—frolicking together, and could not help but ponder.

The larger of these two immortal spirits was the Ice Spirit, while the smaller one was the newly acquired Blazing Gold Stone. However, this little immortal spirit was far too small. Its entire body was glowing a brilliant, fiery red, and from time to time, wisps of golden flames flickered across its form. It resembled a human infant only a few months old and was exceptionally adorable. Yet, it possessed only instinctual reactions at this stage, liable to accidentally set things ablaze at any moment. It was quite unlike the Ice Spirit, which had devoured numerous celestial immortals and Great Monad Golden Immortals, absorbing their immortal arts and spells to cultivate to the realm of Nine-Heaven Mystic Immortals. The Ice Spirit also retained a vast amount of knowledge regarding the Immortal World—though somewhat outdated, it still far surpassed Tang Yi's understanding of the current Immortal World.

On the day Tang Yi acquired the Blazing Gold Stone, its spirit had transformed into this very appearance. The Fire Spirit's physical form was slightly smaller than that of the Ice Spirit, consisting of an extremely pure, gold-emitting Blazing Gold Stone. Like the Ice Spirit, it had been concealed within a five-meter-square block of ordinary Blazing Gold Stone. Upon seeing the Fire Spirit manifest, Tang Yi casually declared, "Little fellow, let's call you Fire Spirit." The tiny Fire Spirit babbled a cheerful agreement. Tang Yi then turned to the other: "Ice Spirit, look, this little guy is called Fire Spirit. Why don't you just change your name to Water Spirit? How about that?"

The Ice Spirit immediately protested, whining, "Wuwu, I'm a pure-blooded man! How can I be called Water Spirit, that girlish name? Ice Spirit sounds so much cooler!"

"Oh? So you even have a gender now? I never knew!" Tang Yi retorted. The Ice Spirit fell silent.

The Golden Light Star Region was a territory where most planets were composed of various metallic ores, with massive peaks of pure metal thrusting above the surface. Bathed in the sunlight, they shone with a dazzling golden radiance, which was how the region earned its name.

Although the mass of metal here was astronomical, the vast majority of it consisted of ordinary metals. No one in the Immortal World would expend tremendous effort to transport ordinary metals from here to prosperous star regions; the cost would far outweigh the gains. Consequently, only scavengers frequented this place. But for Tang Yi, this was practically paradise.

Currently, the hull of the *Shenxian* was constructed mostly from Universal Stone, which Tang Yi considered a colossal waste. Therefore, he immediately had the vessel run an optimal optimization algorithm for the allocation of various known materials.

With the results in hand, Tang Yi began large-scale mining operations across the various planets. As he mined, he continuously modified and upgraded the *Shenxian*.

Time flew, and three years vanished in the blink of an eye. The modification of the *Shenxian* was now complete. The vessel resembled an upgraded version of the *Jete*, or more accurately, a third-generation starship. It could even be utilized as a mother ship, lacking only the primary artificial intelligence core of *Jete*. *Jete* itself could be considered an anomaly—born from a computer operating system program originally developed by Tang Yi, it had somehow developed artificial intelligence and human-like sentience. Although the computer system currently running on the *Shenxian* was identical to the one on the original *Jete* starship—and had been repeatedly optimized and upgraded by Tang Yi—it had yet to spawn another *Jete*, remaining strictly a computer system.

The exterior of the *Shenxian* had not been downsized; fully deployed, it stood over ten thousand meters tall with a diameter of nearly six thousand meters. Thanks to the newly improved arrays devised by Tang Yi, the internal space felt even more vast and open. Over the past three years, Tang Yi had mined and gathered massive quantities of ordinary metals, along with several rare specialty metals, yet he had still failed to discover any trace of the rumored Gold Spirit.

"Wuwu! Big Brother Tang, it's been three years already. How much longer are you going to stay here? This place is so boring," the Ice Spirit complained, tossing aside the game controller in its hands and looking at Tang Yi.

"Yiyaya!" Nearby, the Fire Spirit chimed in, floating and bouncing directly into Tang Yi's arms. Yes, the Fire Spirit walked by floating.

"Whoa, little guy, you almost scorched my clothes again." As Tang Yi embraced the Fire Spirit, a layer of blue light barrier rose across the surface of his clothes to insulate against the golden flames radiating from the spirit. On two previous occasions, Tang Yi's clothes and eyebrows had been completely burned off, causing the Ice Spirit rolling on the floor to laugh uncontrollably.

"Let's look for another two or three days. If we still can't find it, we'll head to the Withered Wood Star Region. I hear the withered wood fruits there are exceptionally delicious," Tang Yi said, swallowing a mouthful of saliva.

"Wuwu, alright then!" Bored, the Ice Spirit picked up the game controller again and started playing *Super Mario*. Among the vast array of games aboard the *Shenxian*—which included hyper-realistic environments generated by virtual incubation chambers—the Ice Spirit harbored a unique fondness for *Super Mario*. According to the Ice Spirit, ultra-realistic virtual environments were utterly weak; only *Super Mario* was a true game, though *Contra* was acceptable as well.

After nuzzling in Tang Yi's arms for a while, the Fire Spirit hopped off to the side, crawling into a small virtual gaming capsule to play a fighting game. This compact virtual capsule was actually an Immortal Master Generation Two device that Tang Yi had recently cobbled together specifically for educating the little Fire Spirit.

"Warning, warning! Special substance detected. Special substance detected." Just as Tang Yi was also beginning to feel a wave of boredom, the *Shenxian* suddenly blared an alarm.

"Alright, good stuff! You two, come along." Tang Yi snapped his fingers, and the three of them instantly materialized inside a small fighter craft. The hangar bay door on one side of the *Shenxian* opened wide, and the craft darted out into the void.

"Haha, Ice Spirit, head to the left! Little Fire Spirit, go to the right! Encircle this fellow from three sides and don't let it escape; you're about to get a new playmate," Tang Yi shouted, piloting the small craft in pursuit of a small humanoid figure that looked just like a Transformer.

"Wuwu! Taste my Frozen Heaven and Earth!" The Ice Spirit swept both hands outward, unleashing a direct torrent of icy wind and swirling snow straight at the metallic figure, causing it to stumble left and right.

"Yiyaya! Hoo... hoo...!" The little Fire Spirit puffed out massive plumes of golden-red flames one after another, roasting the metallic figure until it drifted erratically through the air and shrieked in bizarre tones.

That was not all. Tang Yi projected tractor beams from the spacecraft to suppress the target's acceleration. However, the little metallic figure proved remarkably stubborn; whenever it was on the verge of being captured by them, it would unleash a sudden burst of power, violently surging in speed. Yet, with every such burst, its physical form would shrink by a notch. Having started the chase over half a day ago at the size of a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old youth, it had now been reduced to the stature of a young child of seven or eight.

"Haha, you can't run away now!" Tang Yi finally locked the entity down tightly using a trinity of tractor beams. The Ice Spirit instantly encased the left side of the figure in thick ice, while the little Fire Spirit's blazing flames melted the other side.

"Clang, clang! You, you, you are bad, bad people—ganging up on someone small!" the metallic figure protested.

"Heh, a stutterer as well! Ice Spirit, I'll leave it to you. Time to head home," Tang Yi chuckled.

One month later, the *Shenxian* arrived at the Withered Wood Star Region.

Inside the Azure Sea Sect, within the intensive training grounds, the disciples scattered across all sides were resting.

"Hey, let me ask you all—after nearly a year of intensive training specifically tailored for the Divine Weapon Star barriers, why do these barriers give me such a strangely familiar feeling, yet I can't quite put my finger on what it is?" Hua Shaojie asked the other four individuals seated around a stone table.

"Mm, I have a similar sensation. Do any of you?" Zhang Cuishan responded.

"Personally, I feel like entering these Divine Weapon Star barriers is a lot like playing a game," Gu Zhenzhen said softly, cradling a Black Wind Scarlet Tiger beast no larger than a kitten and gently stroking its sleek fur.

"How so?" the others asked in unison.

Seeing Gu Zhenzhen glance left and right, Hua Ruoxue lightly flicked her left hand, instantly casting a sound-proof barrier around the five of them. "You can speak freely now," Hua Ruoxue said, offering Gu Zhenzhen an encouraging and reassuring look.

"Just think about it: to enter the Divine Weapon Star, you first have to clear three successive stages, and upon completing them, you receive rewards. Doesn't this feel strikingly similar to the games Big Brother Tang is always playing inside the starship *Jete*?" Gu Zhenzhen explained.