Chapter 8: The Origin Pool

Inside the cave, everything was bright and white. The entire floor was flat and clean, and the atmosphere within was solemn and quiet.
A hundred meters deep in the cave, at the very bottom, lay a pale purple rectangular object—this was the appearance of the cultivation space.
Next to the cultivation space stood a disciple from the Tongzhou Hall, thin in build, with a cultivation level of only two stars as a Human Soul Immortal.
Huo Zun and Xiao Qiang approached the disciple together.
“Senior brother, I want to enter the cultivation space,” Huo Zun said with a faint smile.
The disciple guarding the cultivation space looked at Huo Zun and calmly said, “Place your identity card in the slot, and then you can enter. Just a reminder: ten points grant only one day of cultivation time. If you don’t have enough points in your identity card, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to raise your cultivation level by one star in one attempt—so don’t waste your points.”
In the Tongzhou Hall, points could only be obtained by completing the crafting tasks assigned by the sect. An ordinary disciple typically earned around twenty points per year. By exchanging the Origin Stones received as annual tribute, they could also get about twenty points. Thus, a disciple from the Tongzhou Hall would accumulate roughly forty points in a year, enough for four days of cultivation in the space.
Four days of cultivation was hardly enough to raise one’s cultivation level. If a disciple from the Tongzhou Hall used up their annual points to enter the cultivation space, it would basically be a waste. Therefore, disciples usually saved for decades, or even centuries, before exchanging all their points to enter the space and raise their cultivation level by one stage.
After hearing the disciple’s reminder, Huo Zun merely smiled and then asked, “Senior brother, if I use Origin Stones, how many would I need for one year of cultivation time?”
This question surprised the guarding disciple and also frightened Xiao Qiang.
“Huo Zun, do you really have enough Origin Stones for one year of cultivation time?” Xiao Qiang shouted.
Earlier, Xiao Qiang had thought for a long time but still couldn’t believe Huo Zun had so many Origin Stones. He guessed that Huo Zun must have obtained points from Zhen Nantian, allowing him to enter this cultivation space.
The guarding disciple quickly regained his composure and said with a faint smile, “One hundred Origin Stones grant one day of cultivation time.”
Huo Zun confirmed that this was indeed as Zhen Nantian had said, and he felt relieved.
“Then I’ll enter the cultivation space,” Huo Zun said with a smile. He took out his identity card and walked straight toward the rectangular object.
On the side of the rectangular object was a slot, where the identity card could be inserted.

Xiao Qiang saw that Fire Lord didn’t even respond to him, but he wasn’t angry. What intrigued him even more was whether Fire Lord really intended to enter the cultivation space for a year. For a new disciple to be able to enter the cultivation space just the day after joining the sect was a matter that could shock the entire Tongzhou Hall. After all, it usually took ordinary disciples hundreds of years to enter the cultivation space for the first time. After inserting his identity card into the slot, Fire Lord immediately detected a spiritual fluctuation similar to his own immortal consciousness within that rectangular object, and this spiritual fluctuation connected with his own immortal consciousness. Using the identity card as a medium, Fire Lord was able to communicate with the cultivation space. “How long does it take?” a message came from the cultivation space. “One year!” Fire Lord’s immortal consciousness replied swiftly. “A total of 36,500 Origin Stones!” “Alright.” The transaction was completed quickly through this back-and-forth exchange. Soon after, Fire Lord noticed that the points for Origin Stones in his identity card decreased by 36,500 points immediately. “This identity card is truly amazing,” Fire Lord thought in amazement. The identity card stored Fire Lord’s personal information, the points for Origin Stones, information about the sect, as well as points for sect tasks—it seemed to have almost unlimited capabilities. With this card in hand, one could travel freely in the immortal realm. “Junior brother, take out your identity card and place your hand on the rectangular object,” the guarding disciple called out at that moment. Fire Lord nodded and immediately followed orders—taking out his identity card and placing his right hand on the rectangular object—before disappearing entirely. Inside the rectangular object was the cultivation space, which had already absorbed Fire Lord. Seeing Fire Lord enter the cultivation space, Xiao Qiang made strange noises before leaving the cave to return to Fire Seizing Peak to report what had just happened. …… Suddenly, everything went dark before Fire Lord found himself in a miraculous place. The entire space was a circle about a hundred meters in diameter. This circular space was divided into five colored zones: gold, green, blue, red, and yellow. Within each of these five zones, there were six pools. Fire Lord first arrived at the red zone, then squatted beside one of the pools, dipping his hand into the calm water to feel it. “This… this is the power of fire,” Fire Lord exclaimed in surprise. When he dipped his hand into the water, he discovered that it was filled with fire-type Origin energy, and under the influence of this heat energy, a fire-type heat domain had formed.

“That’s right. These six pools are formed by the six primal forces of the Fire element’s primal energy. The other five pools represent the forces of Warmth, Ascension, Soaring, Explosion, and Splitting,” the Voice of the Artifact God suddenly rang out.
It could also be inferred that the pools in the other four areas corresponded to the six primal forces of the Metal, Wood, Water, and Earth elements.
The Fire Lord was momentarily surprised before becoming extremely excited. He exclaimed, “Voice of the Artifact God, I understand now why those Soul Immortals progress so much faster in this cultivation space compared to outside. These pools contain pure primal forces.”
Primal energy seemed to be composed of countless extremely tiny cubes. The six faces of each cube—top, bottom, left, right, front, and back—represented the six different force attributes.
When all the cubes moved in the forward direction, it indicated the emergence of one primal force; when they moved to the right, it represented another primal force.
Under normal circumstances, when cultivators tried to comprehend primal forces and sensed one face of a cube while the surrounding cubes displayed other faces, it created great confusion and significantly hindered their ability to grasp the primal forces.
Now, thanks to a special array, these pools transformed the primal energy into pure forms of each primal force, allowing those who entered the pools to clearly perceive and sense these forces without being disturbed by others.
“Hehe, Qu Yi, you’re in for a real fortune now. The Fire Lord has entered, and there are no other disciples from the Tongzhou Hall here. All five of your avatars can come out now—each of you can enter their own primal pool and cultivate to their heart’s content,” the Voice of the Artifact God cheered happily again.
The four avatars of Qu Yi—the Gold Lord, Wood Lord, Water Lord, and Earth Lord—had been inside the Tiny Realm Sphere and were now sent out by Qu Yi.
“Fire Lord, thank you for your hard work,” the four of them said with a smile as soon as they appeared.
Inside the Tiny Realm Sphere, they had been striving to comprehend their respective primal forces, only to find that it took a long time to capture even a trace of such energy, which then disappeared quickly, causing them constant frustration. Now, discovering the wonders of this cultivation space and the existence of these miraculous primal pools that allowed them to quickly sense primal forces, they were naturally overjoyed.
“Let’s enter the primal pools,” the Fire Lord said with a faint smile.

At that moment, the Voice of the Artifact God sounded again, “Fire Venerable, you all take a slower pace. There’s no need to rush. I still have something to tell you. You still remember the Divine Formula of Five Energies and Three Flowers, right? I said that there are other uses for this card, and now is the time to tell you about them.” Sure enough, upon hearing this, the Five Venerables immediately stopped. “The Five Energies and Three Flowers—by Five Energies, I mean the spiritual energies of the Five Elements, which are the cultivation methods you used in the realm of cultivation. As for the Three Flowers, they refer to the Flowers of the Soul. Currently, since you are all Human Immortals, the Flowers of the Soul that appear are merely outlines of flowers. If you advance to Earth Immortals, the Flowers of the Soul will take shape fully, and by the time you reach Heavenly Immortals, they will be like real flowers,” said the Artifact God. The Five Venerables listened quietly; they already knew these basic truths of the immortal realm, so they continued to wait for further explanations from the Artifact God. “Inside this Divine Formula card of Five Energies and Three Flowers, there are also five spaces representing the Five Elements. In each space, there are six Enlightenment Steles that can help you understand the primal forces more clearly, allowing you to quickly master all six types of primal forces within a year,” the Artifact God said slowly. The Five Venerables were astonished—there were such treasures hidden within this divine formula card. For example, water flows from high to low, snow falls from top to bottom, and meteorites turn into meteors as they descend. If an ordinary person were to analyze and understand the mysteries behind these phenomena, it might take a very long time. But if a wise person told them that these phenomena are caused by gravity, it would likely enable them to understand many of these phenomena instantly. The same is true with this Primal Force Pool—although it contains pure primal forces, the Five Venerables can sense them continuously but still need to analyze and understand them to truly cultivate their primal forces. Now, the Enlightenment Steles within the divine formula card are like that wise person, presenting the truths, laws, formulas, rules, and so on of various primal forces, allowing the Five Venerables to directly observe them and then compare them with the primal forces they sense, thus quickly understanding various aspects of these forces. To put it vividly, understanding within the Primal Force Pool is like being given a card and being asked to measure its length, width, thickness, temperature, smoothness, etc. This process involves many steps and takes time. But now, while still in the Primal Force Pool, the Five Venerables also have the Enlightenment Steles, which have already shown their length, width, and thickness. All they need to do now is verify each one.

“Five of you, but there’s bad news: this divine technique card can only be used by one person at a time. So, you five need to discuss among yourselves who should use it first,” said the God of Tools with a faint smile.
Jin Zun, Mu Zun, Shui Zun, Huo Zun, and Tu Zun exchanged glances and wore helpless smiles.