Stardust Crystal Stone—straight from beyond the Ninth Heaven. Legend says it’s a chunk of star that flew out of the cosmic chaos and crash-landed on Earth. Because it’s from way up in the heavens, it’s got this insane cold inside—cold enough to freeze water solid. But when it hits the ground, it bursts into blazing celestial fire, the whole stone wrapped in flames. So, on the outside, it’s scorching hot, but deep inside, it’s freezing cold. These two forces clash right at the boundary, making the whole thing glitter like a real star.
Most folks who touch it don’t notice anything weird, since the hot and cold energies balance each other out and don’t show on the surface. Honestly, it just feels like any old luminous pearl. But if you’ve got a sharp eye—and a bit of know-how—you’ll spot that it’s anything but ordinary.
Stardust Crystal Stone is a real treasure. Sure, you see it mentioned in old books sometimes, but honestly, you’d be lucky to find even a handful in the whole world. No wonder Princess Embroidered Jade didn’t recognize it at first.
"You... used that thing to practice martial arts?" Princess Embroidered Jade stared at The Fool in disbelief.
The Fool nodded. "Yep. Why so surprised? Is it that hard?"
"It’s not about hard or easy. It’s just that the Stardust Crystal Stone isn’t meant for regular folks to use." Princess Embroidered Jade looked half amused, half shocked. "That stone’s supposed to be for forging divine weapons—how are you even surviving it?"
The Stardust Crystal Stone really does pack both heat and cold, yin and yang—a one-in-a-million treasure. But it’s meant for making weapons. Heck, even second-rate metal can’t handle its extreme temperatures; it’ll just turn into scrap. So a human trying to use it for training? That’s like someone bragging, 'Hey, I just chugged three pounds of industrial alcohol—what a rush!'
"I don’t know about all that. I just know I have to master inner power—otherwise, I can’t save you."
That stretch where Princess Embroidered Jade teetered between reason and confusion might’ve felt short to her, but in reality, it was quite a while. During that time, The Fool tried every trick in the book to break Lady Simone’s radio drama mind attack, but nothing worked. In the end, he was left with just one option: the Heavenly Dragon Way Sound.
To actually pull off the real Heavenly Dragon Way Sound, you need to have inner power. So The Fool started cramming the Bright Jade Technique like a student before finals. The first step is sensing your qi—a hurdle that takes most people a week or two, or even months, of meditation to get past. But for The Fool, this step was a breeze. Not only did he have another consciousness feeding him experience, but for him, 'feeling the qi' was never something to worry about.
He could precisely sense the inner energy of the Underwear Men and the Golden Fan Young Master, so catching his own qi was a piece of cake. In fact, back when he flattened the water’s surface with a palm strike, he already had a basic sense of qi—otherwise, he couldn’t have tracked his enemies’ energy. Following the Bright Jade Technique’s beginner’s method for a bit—didn’t even bother with the textbook posture—he easily found that cool, refreshing true qi.
Bright Jade Technique and Supreme Skill work on totally different principles—and target totally different spots in the body. Supreme Skill gathers inner power at the lower dantian, while Bright Jade Technique hides its strength in the middle dantian, the chest’s qi sea. Once a bit of inner energy started forming in his middle dantian, Princess Flower Shifter’s qi orb began spinning around it, sending out cool waves that nourished the fledgling energy inside.
During his short meditation, The Fool could clearly feel his spirit-refining speed was way faster than most people’s. Princess Embroidered Jade had explained the basics: after you sense your qi, you practice while you’re energized, stop when you’re tired, and after three to five days, you’ll have it stabilized. But The Fool’s spiritual energy was endless—he could practice all day and never get tired.
With all that spiritual juice backing him up, the inner power in his qi sea grew like it was on fertilizer—going from vague and wispy to solid in no time. Finally, it gave a little jolt in his dantian and officially took shape.
If we’re talking baby metaphors: finding your qi is like a fertilized egg implanting—it means you’re technically pregnant, but it’s still super fragile and could get lost at any second. That’s why you can’t normally train inner power with innate sound skills—like trying to have a baby next to a nuclear reactor, it just won’t work. But with The Fool’s endless spiritual energy, his inner force shot straight past the danger zone and fully formed. It’s like hitting that three-month mark in pregnancy—now the fetus has shape, organs, arms, legs, and it’s all stable.
Still, this early-stage inner power can’t be used for real yet—it just sits in the dantian, getting stronger. From here on, it’s all about slow, steady progress. Whether you’re on the Supreme Skill path or the Bright Jade Technique, it’s the same deal: Supreme Skill uses life essence to fuel qi, Bright Jade Technique uses mental energy. It’s like a ten-month pregnancy—when the time comes, your inner power finally leaves the dantian, and boom! You’ve got a year’s worth of power by the book.
Normally, a regular martial artist takes about a year to build up a year’s worth of inner power—which is why they call it ‘a year’s power’ in the first place. It’s a pretty universal standard.
But only those who break the rules get called geniuses.
That’s how Yang Qi did it with the Supreme Skill. You know the saying, ‘one drop of essence equals ten drops of blood’? Well, it works both ways—refining blood into qi is much less efficient than refining essence. But after Yang Qi mastered a dragon’s strength, her whole being evolved—her blood turned into treasure blood, and just a drop would probably knock out a regular person. With endless life force backing her up, her mastery of the Dragon Elephant technique really kicked in. All that time spent boosting her basic stats finally paid off big time.
In just a few days, the Supreme Skill in her dantian grew like it was riding a rocket—one year, two years, three years, and by the time she was sparring with the King of the Golden Blade, she was pushing five years’ worth of power. Some of those henchmen fighting in the Ice Cave had been training forever and were only at this level.
The Fool could pull off the same trick. Thanks to the Insight Technique, his spiritual energy was off the charts—if you gave him a few days, he could rack up five years’ worth of Bright Jade Technique power. But time wasn’t on his side, so he had to get creative.
(This chapter isn’t over yet ^.^—click next page to keep reading!)
So, he realized that inside this glittering stone was exactly what he needed.
Rewind ten minutes: When Princess Embroidered Jade was nearly unconscious, The Fool grabbed a Stardust Crystal Stone. He could sense the power inside—not much of it, but it was high quality and might help him out. But because the stone’s energy structure was so stable, it was hard to draw out the power—at least, he couldn’t do it alone. So, he decided to call for backup.
The best kind of backup.
So, with a flash of gold in his left hand, he stashed a crystal stone into his storage space. He closed his eyes and sent his thoughts out to a faraway world.
Inside the secret chamber of Spirit Eagle Palace, Yang Qi’s blood and qi were surging as she battled blade energy. Suddenly, her eyelids twitched. With her eyes still closed, she grinned, showing off her tiger tooth: "Oh, found something good! Just what I needed!" She flipped her right hand, and the Stardust Crystal Stone appeared in her palm.
She weighed it up and down—not heavy. Pinched it gently between thumb and forefinger—pretty solid. Then she gripped it tight in her hand. "Hah!" she barked, and gold light flashed from her right hand, sending magical ripples spinning in her palm. The Supreme Skill’s pure yang power flowed into the crystal, stirring up its energy. The stone started glowing red, and soon, strands of red light began to seep out, getting sucked right into Yang Qi’s palm.
"Ow, ow, ow, that’s hot!" It sounded like meat sizzling on a grill—Yang Qi couldn’t help but bare her teeth and rub her right arm with her left hand. Even her tough body felt the burn. The scorching energy flowed through her meridians like molten iron. A normal person would be toast—their meridians would snap and never heal. But Yang Qi toughed it out, and then realized this burning power was actually working.
"Oh, it’s working!" Thanks to the heat, the Golden Blade King’s blade energy started backing off—no longer so aggressive. Yang Qi’s Supreme Skill inner power shrank and twitched like fried squid, but with her endless blood energy, it quickly bounced back and charged in again—now even sharper and fiercer than before.
All the scorching heat from the whole stone got sucked away, and the crystal turned ice blue, chilly mist wafting off it. "I’ll take the hot, you take the cold—half each," Yang Qi said. The now icy stone instantly zipped back to The Fool. With the hot and cold energies no longer balanced, the cold was easy to absorb. The chill flowed into his meridians, and Princess Flower Shifter’s qi finally kicked in, acting like a defensive satellite to block all the cold from hitting his dantian, while also feeding nourishing cold energy to the Bright Jade Technique.
Just like that, the Stardust Crystal Stones kept passing back and forth between them, each taking what they needed. Sure, the cold and heat can’t directly boost your power—it’s not some miracle pill for humans. But the special effects they bring? Even some rare medicines can’t match them.
Inside the Spirit Eagle Palace’s secret chamber, Yang Qi’s whole body turned as red as a boiled shrimp. After absorbing ten crystal stones, she was burning up—her temperature was off the charts. But if she was uncomfortable, the Golden Blade King’s blade energy was suffering even more. The heat roasted it like it was stuck in a furnace. Blade energy’s tough, but without backup, it’s just a tree with no roots.
The Supreme Skill wasn’t having an easy time either, but it was like a sword blank getting hammered over and over—starting to show some real edge. It took the chance to attack, smashing and breaking the blade energy bit by bit.
Finally, the blade energy was completely wiped out. The tiny bit of innate essence left behind became a huge boost for the newborn Supreme Skill. Steam poured out of Yang Qi’s pores, and her Supreme Skill went wild—like a kid who just learned to walk, running all over the place. Crackling sounds filled the air as one of her twelve main meridian channels burst wide open. The kind of meridian-clearing skill that makes martial artists tear their hair out? For her, it happened naturally and effortlessly.
"Hoo-ha-ha-ha-ha—cough, cough, man, I’m thirsty..." Yang Qi staggered to her feet like a zombie, sleepwalking out to find food. She deserved a treat—using a bit of that innate blade energy as a trophy, Yang Qi’s Supreme Skill officially broke through the first level, giving her a solid five years’ worth of power.
At the same time, the wild chill running through The Fool’s meridians finally calmed down. In his chest’s qi sea, a thread of energy started flowing smoothly. Bright Jade Technique—one year of power, officially unlocked.