Quinn Shepherd pried out another Creator’s Brow Crystal. The crystal was nearly as tall as he was. Standing behind it and looking forward, he found the world looked different than usual—but that was just the effect of the crystal’s refraction.
"The world seen through the crystal is different from what you see with the naked eye, but surely the crystal has more purpose than just that?"
Quinn touched his own brow. There was a small bump at the center of his forehead.
Back during the Origin-World Catastrophe, he gouged out his third eye and threw it into Youdu. The wound at his brow eventually healed, but ever since, a small fleshy bump had remained there.
"My third divine eye used to connect to Youdu, and I relied on it to wield the Youdu Dao’s divine arts. The pre-historic giants embedded crystals in their brows—were they also trying to use some kind of divine power?"
He couldn’t figure it out, so he went to the center of the altar and looked down at the pool of luminous liquid. The light-liquid flowed slowly, gradually gathering together.
Just now, Red Empress Claudia Qi had activated the Phoenix Ark and shattered that strange 'Heaven Duke,' exhausting the light-liquid. But now, the light-liquid was slowly gathering again.
If this altar filled up with enough of that strange light-liquid, it would likely condense another 'Heaven Duke' to guard this place.
"What exactly is this light-liquid?"
Quinn carefully scooped up a handful of light-liquid. Divine light swirled in his eyes as he examined it closely, but found that the liquid contained no rune-paths or Dao marks—nothing seemed special about it at all.
"Why can this light-liquid form such a powerful Heaven Duke spirit body?"
He cautiously activated his yuanqi and touched the light-liquid. Suddenly, the liquid condensed, transforming into a tiny Heaven Duke—only five or six inches tall—which immediately threw a punch at him.
Caught off guard, Quinn grunted as the sound of bones breaking echoed from his chest. The force sent him flying backward, crashing through several skeletons of pre-historic giants.
The next moment, he slammed into a pre-historic building. The immense force from the little Heaven Duke’s punch cracked the structure behind him.
The force kept surging, vast and unstoppable, pressing him until it blasted straight through the building!
Young Master Cyrus Qi shouted sharply, "On guard! Protect my second brother!"
The nine gods guarded Dragon-Qilin closely, fully alert and treating the situation as a dire threat.
On the altar, the five- or six-inch-tall Heaven Duke leapt up, palms cupped inward and wrists twisting, forming the character for 'Mao' (卯) with his hands.
Quinn landed, his fingers flying as he quickly reset his broken bones. Looking up, he saw the little Heaven Duke bringing both hands crashing down, and his face changed dramatically. He cried out, "The Fourth Heavenly Dao—Heaven Seal?"
That was the Fourth Heavenly Dao among the Heavenly Daos. Lila Swallowfeather once said that the Dao Ancestor had organized all the various Daos of heaven and earth for the Heavenly Court, dividing them into different sequences. According to her, the Dao Ancestor catalogued forty-nine Heavenly Daos based on the Dao runes on Heaven Duke’s body.