Chapter Ninety-Six: The Immortal's Abode

After killing the master of Seven Star Pavilion and devouring his Nascent Soul, Yuan Shan entered Chen Mu’s spirit beast bracelet and began refining his gains to raise his cultivation.

The Soul-Calming Tower imprisoned the Seven Star Pavilion master’s soul within its depths, slowly refining it into soul power to replenish Chen Mu, allowing Chen Mu’s own spiritual strength to grow steadily.

With every disciple of Seven Star Pavilion already eliminated, Chen Mu turned his curious gaze upon the pavilion’s sect-protecting treasure, the building itself.

He entered the interior of Seven Star Pavilion and wandered through it again and again. The space inside was far larger than the pavilion appeared from the outside, which was only to be expected of a spatial treasure.

Chen Mu paid no attention to the ordinary rooms. He cared only about finding the central core of this pavilion and seeing whether he could take control of it and refine it.

Earlier, when he had imprisoned the Seven Star Pavilion master’s soul, he had failed to extract anything useful from him. But after hearing Rou’er’s guidance, he learned that a spatial treasure of this sort should have a central core. So he searched the pavilion from end to end.

Half a day passed. After searching hundreds of rooms and finding none that contained the so-called central core, he was nearly ready to give up.

With a trace of frustration, Chen Mu sat down and began examining the master of Seven Star Pavilion’s storage ring.

As expected of the head of a sect, the contents of the ring were priceless. Chen Mu took the things he could use and placed them into his own storage ring, leaving the rest untouched. He intended to hand everything else over to Gu Xingyuan for disposal.

While sorting through the ring, Chen Mu discovered a book containing the research and control methods developed by successive masters of Seven Star Pavilion for this pavilion. Though the methods recorded there were rather limited and only of minor practical use, the text did indeed note the location of the central control core.

That core was hidden in a strange space within the room used by the sect master. To enter it, one had to communicate with a miniature pavilion ornament in the room using divine sense. When Chen Mu had previously searched the rooms, he had not paid any attention to that pavilion-shaped ornament, which was why he had been unable to find the core.

Fortunately, he had now found this record concerning the pavilion. Otherwise, he truly would have been helpless before it.

Although the Seven Star Pavilion master remained imprisoned in the Soul-Calming Tower and was slowly being refined, his mouth was as hard as iron. No matter what, it could not be pried open. Chen Mu had no choice but to treat him as a supplement and slowly absorb the soul power.

Arriving before the ornament, Chen Mu sent out his divine sense. Instantly, a door leading to the central core appeared before him. Passing through it, he entered the heart of the pavilion.

The place was covered with all manner of incomprehensible formation patterns, presumably part of the treasure itself. Yet none of those patterns were functioning properly, likely because no one had ever refined the artifact.

These myriad patterns surrounded a spherical core, and that sphere was clearly the central core controlling the Seven Star Pavilion.

Without hesitation, Chen Mu stepped up to the core and attempted to refine the pavilion treasure. Unfortunately, neither blood binding nor a soul imprint worked.

He flipped through the book again, studying the methods and explanations within. The Seven Star Pavilion’s refinement process relied on formations to temporarily activate certain specific arrays inside the central core, allowing one to use a few of its less important functions.

Chen Mu was speechless. He knew nothing about formations, and even the Seven Star Pavilion’s clumsy method could only activate a few trivial functions. What he wanted was to take the pavilion treasure for himself, not merely treat it like a building that could neither be moved nor carried.

Perched on his shoulder, Rou’er watched his struggle with obvious glee. Only when he had truly run out of options did she finally ask, “Do you need my help?”

At her words, Chen Mu blinked, then stared at Rou’er with burning eyes as if she were a savior descended from heaven. “Expert, teach me how to refine this central core.”

The little fox Rou’er was very satisfied with his attitude. She smoothed the fur on her body and said, “The reason you cannot refine this treasure is that it requires primordial spirit power. Your soul has not yet凝聚成 primordial spirit, so refining it is impossible for you. From what I can tell, this should be a treasure forged by an Integration-stage cultivator, later obtained by some Primordial Spirit-stage master of Seven Star Pavilion many years ago. After that Primordial Spirit-stage master died, the sect no longer had anyone of the same realm, so they had no clue how to refine it.”

Chen Mu’s face fell again. Was that not the same as saying nothing at all? Then he still could not refine the treasure.

“As for this Yuan Yao Continent, there is certainly no one who can make this treasure acknowledge you as its master,” Rou’er continued, glancing at Chen Mu’s long face with smug delight. “But luckily, with this little genius of unparalleled wisdom and beauty here, I do have a way to force the treasure to leave a soul imprint on you and recognize you as its master. Surprised? Delighted?”

Hearing that she had a method to compel the treasure to recognize him, Chen Mu immediately looked at her with hopeful eyes, urging her to continue.

Rou’er lifted her little head proudly. “Yes. I can make this broken pavilion acknowledge you by force, though you will only be able to control part of its functions. Still, shrinking it down and carrying it away should be possible. I can use a secret art to force your soul imprint onto the central core, but it will consume a great deal of your soul. Still, I believe you can recover in a short time. If you are ready, we can begin refining it at any moment.”

Chen Mu did not hesitate for a second. He immediately said that they should refine it now.

Rou’er gave him a look that seemed to say she truly had no choice with him, then nodded. “Very well. Sit cross-legged first. I’ll extract a strand of your soul imprint and brand it onto the central core. In a moment, the treasure will send back a flood of information, which will cause a considerable drain on your soul. You must endure it.”

Chen Mu’s expression turned solemn. He nodded and sat cross-legged, fully prepared.

Rou’er tapped Chen Mu’s forehead with a tiny paw. With exquisite control over primordial spirit power, she drew out a strand of Chen Mu’s soul imprint and placed it upon her paw, then struck the central control core of the Seven Star Pavilion treasure.

At once, the core began to shimmer with a strange radiance, and the impossible suddenly appeared before their eyes.

Chen Mu’s soul imprint successfully branded itself upon the central control core, and the pavilion began to form a spiritual link with him.

Before Chen Mu could even feel joy, a torrent of information surged from the core and flooded his mind.

To receive it, Chen Mu continuously consumed his soul power. His head gradually grew heavy and drowsy, but fortunately the Soul-Calming Tower kept replenishing him, allowing him to endure.

Only then did he learn that this pavilion treasure was not called Seven Star Pavilion at all. Its true name was the Reclining Immortal Residence, a spatial treasure indeed forged at the Integration stage by a cultivator named Daoist Travel Heaven. Its purpose had been to serve as a portable dwelling.

Daoist Travel Heaven had countless companions, and in order to travel and roam the mountains and rivers with them all at once, he had devised this treasure.

Chen Mu was somewhat speechless. He had originally thought this was some kind of portable sect stronghold, only to discover that it had been made for carrying along a host of companions while sightseeing. As expected, imagination and reality were not always the same thing.

Still, one thing did align perfectly with what Chen Mu had hoped for. He too wanted a treasure like this, one he could use to take his family wherever he pleased. Star-Gazing Valley had already been rebuilt, so he need not worry about it for the moment, but his father and elder brother still had no home to return to.

Although it was Chen Mu who had shattered the Great Elder’s line and caused the Chen family to fall apart, that was only because the Chen family had fundamentally expelled Chen Haoran and cast him out to begin with. That could not truly be called a home.

So Chen Mu intended to establish a new Chen family, one that would rise toward a higher heaven and a broader world.

At last, the stream of information in Chen Mu’s mind came to an end, and he felt somewhat exhausted.

Still, he had finally learned how to use part of this treasure’s power. Besides being able to shrink and expand freely, the Reclining Immortal Residence could also take living people inside.

It contained every convenience one could imagine for daily life. However, the original offensive formations, concealment formations, and cultivation arrays for gathering spiritual energy could not be controlled. Only a single defensive formation could barely be activated by Chen Mu.

Even so, that was more than enough. As long as he shrank it down and carried it with him, he could take his family and roam this world together.

Seeing Chen Mu practically glowing with hidden delight, Rou’er asked, “How is it? It seems you have refined it?”

“Yes. This treasure is truly marvelous. With it, I can take my family and wander wherever I please.” Chen Mu said excitedly as he picked Rou’er up and rubbed his face against hers.

Rou’er’s cheeks flushed at his affectionate gesture. She seemed to enjoy it immensely and muttered with a satisfied air, “Hmph. This little one is indeed the most amazing.”

Thus, man and fox emerged from the Reclining Immortal Residence and appeared once more before the crowd. By then, Chen Mu had gone inside the treasure, and the remaining beasts had not attacked the homes in the area. They had simply waited for Chen Mu to come out.

Many of the townspeople, seeing that there was no more commotion outside, ventured out to look. At first, they had been terribly afraid of those beasts, but since the beasts paid them no heed, their courage gradually returned, and they all came out to see what had happened to Seven Star Pavilion.

They knew this was a grudge between Chen Mu and Seven Star Pavilion, so they were whispering among themselves about what kind of enmity could possibly exist between the two sides.

When they finally saw Chen Mu emerge from the Reclining Immortal Residence, the crowd instantly fell silent. After all, the image of Chen Mu toying with the Seven Star Pavilion master like a cat tormenting a mouse had been deeply shocking. If even a Nascent Soul cultivator in the early stage was no match for him, then Chen Mu’s strength had already placed him at the summit of the Great Xia realm.