Divine Convenience Store

After leaving the quarters, Lin Mo returned upstairs to once again make use of the Premium Cultivation Room. Having finished his preset training by the old man and successfully consolidated his gains, he's now ready to take that item bestowed upon him as another layer of preparation for his Minor Tribulation.

The Primordial Starlight Dew.

He configured the cultivation room to suit his current needs before stepping into the familiar, featureless white expanse. The reinforced door hissed shut behind him, sealing him in a cocoon of absolute silence and potent spiritual energy.

Somehow, being isolated in this tranquil space, the events of the past few days felt like a distant storm to Lin Mo. The Divine Lecture, the Landlord Eviction, the Violethaven Temple's plot, the new hires and the strange destiny of Pan Ruo… All of it could wait until he's finished with this. This moment was for him.

Accessing the system's inventory, Lin Mo pulled out a single, ethereal vial. It gently materialized on top of his palm before staying still.

Looking at its content, Lin Mo couldn't help but wonder which material it was crafted from. It seemed to resemble solidified moonlight, and within it, a solitary drop of liquid swirled quietly.

It didn't appear to be silver or gold but a perfect, inky blackness, shot through with microscopic, glittering points of light, like a miniature galaxy suspended in a tear.

The Divine System Interface provided the details, a silent confirmation of the treasure he held.

[Item: Primordial Starlight Dew]

[Grade: Divine]

[Description: A diluted drop of condensed essence, drawn from the light of the very first star at the dawn of creation. It contains the purest, most foundational principles of starlight energy.]

[Effect: When consumed by a cultivator, regardless of their current stage, it will scour one's spiritual sea, purify the meridians, and guide the spiritual energy to refine and form a flawless foundation only second to Heavenly Physiques. It attunes the user's very soul to the starlight Dao, significantly increasing the probability of achieving the highest attainment in every grade. Perfect Foundation, Golden Core, Purple Nascent Soul, Spirit Oneness, etc.]

[Note: Side effects may include… cosmic epiphanies.]

"Cosmic epiphanies, huh?" Lin Mo let out a dry chuckle. "Another one of the old man's little jokes. But thinking about it, Taihao being one of the most mysterious origin deities, producing something like this must be easy for him."

Shaking his head and shelving his concerns over Taihao's gift, he sat down cross-legged in the center of the room.

This was it. The final step.

Taihao's regimen had reforged his body and honed his techniques. This dew would perfect the foundation upon which everything else was built.

With a steady hand, he uncorked the vial. No grand aroma or burst of light emanated from it… just profound silence, as if all the sound in the room was being drawn into the inky blackness of the dew.

He brought the vial to his lips and tipped the single, perfect drop onto his tongue.

There was no taste. It was like inhaling the morning breeze. It felt cold and expanding as it seemed to be filled with the distant flavor of constellations.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, a silent supernova erupted in his tongue, all the way down to his dantian.

His consciousness was immediately overwhelmed and yanked from his body. He got pulled into a dizzying, cosmic vision.

He found himself floating in what appeared to be the primordial void at the beginning of time. He witnessed the first flicker of creation, the birth of the first star, a cataclysmic fusion of impossible energies that painted the endless black with light. He saw galaxies spiral into existence, nebulae bloom like celestial flowers, and the silent, graceful dance of planets and moons.

He felt the essence of starlight, not as a technique to be learned, but as a fundamental language of the universe. It was the energy of creation, of order in chaos, of light in darkness.

Was this cosmic epiphany? That thought crossed Lin Mo's mind. The dew seemed to allow him to attune his soul to the origin source. Or so that's what it felt like.

Just as his mind threatened to dissolve into the infinite expanse, he was pulled back, crashing into his own body with a jolt.

The vision was over, but the transformation had just begun.

The primordial essence of that first star now surged through his meridians.

The six nodes of starlight qi in his dantian, his perfect little hexagon, began to glow with an intensity that bordered on pain. The silvery starlight qi was being scoured, purified, and reforged.

Flecks of brilliant gold and deep sapphire began to appear within the silver, a sign that the qi was evolving, becoming denser, more complex, and infinitely more potent.

The six nodes, which had been silently orbiting around his dantian, now pulsed in perfect unison. Thin, unbreakable lines of pure starlight energy connected them, forming a perfect, stable lattice of divine light at the heart of his spiritual sea.

Somehow, it stopped being a mimicry of a constellation but a self-contained star system, a perfect engine that properly churns out more starlight and celestial power.

His meridians, already tempered by the waterfall, were now being infused with this perfected energy. They widened, strengthened, and took on a faint, star-like shimmer. His bones were reinforced like it's made from the hardest material known to the realm. His flesh, blood and every cell in his body were being baptized in this ancient light.

Unlike Liu Xiaoyu, who possessed the Nine Heavens Exquisite Body, his body was getting reconstructed to accommodate a Perfect Foundation. To achieve a state of perfect, harmonious integration between one's physical body, one's spiritual core, and the Dao they followed.

The pain was immense, but it was a clean, purifying pain. It was the pain of being remade, of shedding imperfection. His mind, anchored by the [Everflowing Serenity Sutra], remained a point of absolute calm in the center of his personal big bang.

And then, from this perfect harmony, something new was born.

[Celestial Providence Activated: Your soul's resonance with the Primordial Starlight Dew has unlocked a new innate ability.]

[New Ability Unlocked: Stellar Domain (Passive/Active)]

[Description: Your near-perfected foundation now passively projects a subtle, invisible field of starlight qi in a 10-meter radius around you. Within this domain, your control over spiritual energy is absolute, your senses are heightened, and your starlight-based techniques are amplified by 20%. When activated, you can expend spiritual energy to expand the domain, suppress hostile energies, and subtly influence the emotional state of those within, inspiring awe or calm. This ability grows alongside your cultivation base. The higher it is, the stronger its effect, even against someone more advanced in their path than you.]

Upon reading that, Lin Mo's eyes widened. That's a domain ability. An innate field of influence that he could take with him anywhere. It's something only those top-tier existences could cultivate. Even Xiaoyu didn't have a domain ability yet but now… because of the Primordial Starlight Dew, he acquired it.

It was a subtle, yet unbelievably powerful ability. A home-field advantage that was always active. But instead of thinking of it as something he could use on a battlefield, he found that it was the perfect ability for a 'manager', a being who sought to create order and convenience around him.

As the last vestiges of the dew's power settled, a profound sense of completeness washed over Lin Mo. The aches from his training were gone. The exhaustion was gone.

Every part of his being, from his physical vessel to his spiritual core, was in absolute, unwavering harmony.

He opened his eyes. The white room returned to being a white room again. But he was no longer the same person who had walked into it. He had been reforged from a drop of a priceless treasure.

He stood up, feeling the new, effortless power flowing through his limbs. The peak of Spirit Condensation felt less like a ceiling and more like a launching pad. He was ready.

And the Heaven's Will of the First Heaven seemed to sense it… It cannot wait any longer. He only had a few hours left before it arrived.

Lin Mo took a deep breath, calming down his emotions. And as he stepped out of the Premium Cultivation Room, the Divine interface System flashed in front of him.

Venom Master Xun had sent another follow-up report. It arrived a moment ago, but the system had held it until his session was complete. His eyes narrowed as he checked it. It was formatted differently from her previous reports. Looks like it was an urgent message sent while still in the middle of a chaotic battlefield.

ArachnidMistress: "Dear Shopkeeper. The situation has escalated. The Ironbone Clan and the Spirit Haze Sect have made their move after seeing how I can stand toe to toe against the Crystalweb Tyrant. I suspect they're not going to simply help. They're waiting for the last moment to swoop in and steal the kill. A classic, inconvenient scavenger tactic. My Arachnid Branch can hold them off, but not while I'm dealing with this crystal-shelled behemoth. I require… reinforcements. Or a particularly large distraction. Urgently."

The message was clipped, different from her usual poetic and seductive prose. Surprisingly, she was in trouble. And she's asking him for help.