Ian Song wasn't bothered at all by Victor Tang's departure.
Tonight, he decided to do one thing: break through the third tier of the Divine Temple and become its true master.
In fact, he'd long since had the strength to clear the third tier of the Divine Temple.
He'd just been hesitating all this time, because once he became master of the Divine Temple, he'd also inherit the hatred of its creator, the Star King.
So, keeping that in mind, he'd held off from clearing the third tier.
During this time, he'd been pondering why he couldn't break through to the Nascent Soul stage. After thinking it over, he felt the third tier of the Divine Temple had become a knot in his heart.
Cultivating Immortal-Dao is different from martial arts—it's more about comprehension and heart-realm.
At the same time, cultivation is about going against heaven, seizing fortune from the world. If he didn't even dare to inherit the Star King's hatred, then what right did he have to keep cultivating?
So, Ian figured that once he broke through the third tier and inherited the Star King's hatred, his cultivation would finally reach the Nascent Soul stage.
With a single thought, Ian entered the Divine Temple, finding himself surrounded by endless starlit sky.
"You bastard, let me out!"
The idiot princess waved her arms at Ian Song, cursing loudly.
With a casual wave, Ian tossed the idiot princess into the depths of the starry sky.
"Temple Spirit, I want to take on the third-tier challenge!" Ian called out to the void.
"Child, have you really thought this through?" The Temple Spirit's voice sounded, full of kindness.
"I've thought it through!" Ian replied firmly.
The Temple Spirit continued, "Of the three major challenges in the Divine Temple, the second tier is the hardest. Once you pass it and spend some time accumulating strength, the third tier becomes easy. But clearing the third-tier challenge means inheriting the Star King's legacy—and his hatred. Once you inherit his hatred, destiny will arrange for you to cross paths with his enemies. Are you sure you still want to take on the third-tier challenge?"
Ian said seriously, "Cultivation is like rowing upstream—if you don't advance, you fall behind. If I don't even have the guts to face the Star King's enemies, I might as well just be an ordinary person!"
"Very good. It seems you've made up your mind. In that case, I'll send you to the third-tier trial!"
As soon as the Temple Spirit finished speaking, Ian found himself standing on a grassland. Not far away, a puppet that looked exactly like him stood with sword in hand.
As soon as it saw him, it lunged forward with a sword strike.
This puppet only had early-Jindan cultivation, while Ian was already at Jindan peak. So with just a few palm strikes, he smashed the puppet to pieces.
"Child, congratulations on clearing the first layer of the third-tier trial. You have half an hour to rest—do you need a break?" the Temple Spirit asked.
"No need!" Ian replied.
The scene shifted, and Ian found himself above the ocean. Immediately, a late-Jindan puppet appeared.
"Kill!"
Ian summoned his Azure Lotus Sword and struck first. In just a few breaths, the late-Jindan puppet was shredded to pieces.
"Child, congratulations on passing the second layer of the third-tier trial. Now, do you want to rest for half an hour before taking on the third layer?"
"No need, let's go straight to the third layer!"
The third puppet had early Nascent Soul cultivation.
The early Nascent Soul puppet's strength was about the same as an early Martial Saint, but Ian's martial cultivation had already reached Martial Saint peak, so he easily finished off the puppet.
"Child, congratulations on clearing the third layer of the third-tier trial. Now, you can become the true master of this Divine Temple and inherit the Star King's legacy!" the Temple Spirit announced. Then, Ian's vision shifted, and he found himself in a sealed chamber.
Inside the chamber were two items: a palm-sized miniature palace and a milky-white pearl, both floating in midair.
The Temple Spirit reminded him, "Child, that little palace is the core of the Divine Temple. As long as you refine it, you'll have complete control over the Temple. That pearl contains the Star King's legacy—his cultivation techniques and experiences. If you refine it, you'll gain everything inside!"
"Thanks for the reminder, I got it!"
Ian stepped forward, grabbed the miniature palace, and sent a strand of true essence into it to begin refining.
Ian had expected the Temple's core to be hard to refine, but to his surprise, it only took a few minutes to finish. Once it was refined, he found his mind could instantly reach every corner of the Temple, and with a single thought, he could control any function.
Before, using the Temple to travel between worlds cost him triple the spirit-stones, but now, as long as he provided enough energy, the Temple could shuttle freely.
All the Temple's training rooms, refining halls, and Scripture Pavilions were now completely open to him. Even more surprising, on a planet deep within the Temple, life had evolved and developed tribal civilization.
The people in these tribes were still very primitive, using stone tools and wearing animal skins and leaves.
With a thought, Ian sent the idiot princess and her two maids down to the planet.
Then, after a moment's thought, he sent Landon Lu to the planet as well.
As for what kind of trouble they'd stir up down there, Ian wasn't worried. Inside the Divine Temple, he was basically a god—one thought from him could wipe out the entire planet.
After handling that, Ian picked up the milky-white pearl and started refining it.
This time, it took over half an hour.
The pearl contained a huge amount of information—if it all flooded into his mind at once, it would have made his head explode. Luckily, everything was neatly sorted and categorized.
Focusing his mind, Ian locked onto the Star King's core technique—the Myriad-Star Divine Art.
As soon as his mind touched it, the technique poured into his consciousness—not as written words, but as pure intent.
The benefit of this method was that he didn't need to study or understand it—he instantly knew how to cultivate the technique.
Of course, this method had a drawback: since the intent came from the original cultivator, it would be hard for anyone who received it to ever surpass the transmitter.
Ian wasn't worried about that, though—he wasn't just a cultivator, he was a host.
The first chapter of the Myriad-Star Divine Art was called Myriad-Star Body-Forging. Simply put, it used the light of ten thousand stars to temper the body. Once mastered, he'd gain the Star Physique.