"Although I don’t know what you want that broken Crown for, it’s clear that this Crown is the key to defying fate."
"GAH! This is infuriating!" Count Brand squawked in her arms, feeling like a pawn.
But his gaze quickly fell upon Vincent by the distant Arcane Gate. The Magic Staff in the Mage’s hand once again began to emit an even more dangerous red light.
"GAH! You wretched woman! Quick..."
Before he could finish, all the locusts seemed to have been injected with frenzied Magic Power. They became more bloodthirsty, their speed increased, and they charged forward, ignoring the natural winds Celeste had summoned.
Even though Louisa had timely cast a Magic Shield over them from afar, at the critical moment, Celeste turned to protect Count Brand and the pouch in her arms, taking the brunt of the locusts’ impact with her back.
"Ugh!" Celeste grunted, a sharp, corrosive pain spreading across her back. Her airborne body instantly lost its balance, and she plummeted toward the ground.
"We’re done for! We’re done for! I’m going to be a crow pancake!" Amid Count Brand’s shrieks, Celeste clutched him as they plummeted toward the hard ground.
However, the excruciating pain she imagined never came.
Count Brand felt as if he and Celeste had landed on a warm, springy mattress. They even bounced a little.
’Hm? Gel?’
He carefully opened his beady little eyes and saw that a large, stretched-out, emerald-green Gel had appeared beneath them at some point. It was blinking a pair of small, round eyes, staring right back at him.
With another bounce, Chen Yu’s Gel body quickly returned to its plump, round shape, flinging them away.
"GAH! It’s Your Majesty!" Count Brand was ecstatic. Snatching up the leather pouch that had fallen nearby, he hopped nimbly over to Chen Yu, puffed out his chest, and began to boast, completely forgetting about the injured Celeste beside him.
"Your Majesty, look! They’re all here! All the Crown fragments are here! This Count has successfully completed his mission!"
"As expected of Count Brand, the Kingdom’s most reliable minister," Chen Yu praised him. This time, the compliment was entirely sincere.
’To escape from a Mage of Vincent’s caliber is truly impressive.’
Celeste clutched her chest, struggling to her feet. "You’re quite the flatterer, you little crow," she complained.
Count Brand hopped around and flapped his wings magnanimously. "Wretched woman, considering you took that hit for me, this Count will forgive you for manipulating fate!"
Celeste rolled her eyes at him and paid the noisy crow no more mind.
She glanced into the distance at the intense magical duel. Louisa’s face was growing visibly paler, while Vincent’s aura remained as strong as ever. Getting straight to the point, she said to Chen Yu:
"Lord Slime, Her Highness’s Spiritual Power is at its limit. She can’t hold on for much longer. Whatever you plan to do, please do it quickly."
Chen Yu wiggled his Gel body to show he understood.
He wasted no time, immediately having Count Brand pull a Crown fragment shimmering with faint golden light from the leather pouch with his beak.
Once exposed to the air, the golden Crown fragment seemed to awaken, suddenly flaring with a light as blinding as the midday sun.
Pure golden flames erupted on the fragment’s surface. Resembling a miniature sun, it floated automatically in front of Chen Yu.
’Huh? Why is this thing so eager?’
Chen Yu blinked his small, confused eyes. He watched as the Crown fragment trembled violently, then deliberately shot into his Gel body.
Immediately after, a second piece followed, then a third... Most of the Crown fragments in the pouch seemed to answer a summons, flying out of their own accord. They transformed into streaks of golden light, crashing one after another into Chen Yu’s Gel.
VMMMM!!!
Chen Yu’s entire Gel body was instantly engulfed in a dazzling golden radiance. He seemed to have transformed into a true sun, emitting a blinding light that was impossible to look at directly and a warm, boundless, sacred aura.
The surrounding gray mist was driven away. The Demons let out pained hisses and subconsciously retreated.
"H-His Majesty... he’s turned into the sun?!" Count Brand cried out in alarm, shielding his eyes from the blinding light with his wings.
But Chen Yu had already entered a trance, immersed in his own internal vista, and had gradually lost most of his awareness of the outside world.
...
The Inner Vista of the Yellow Court, the deepest reaches of a Cultivator’s consciousness.
Foundation Establishment is the first true threshold on the path of cultivation.
It is said that the beginning of Foundation Establishment requires the harmony of yin and yang, the convergence of dragon and tiger in the Yellow Court, and the completion of the five elements, where the three treasures—essence, qi, and spirit—condense into a single, immortal Dao Seed.
After all the Crown fragments merged into his Gel, a mass of chaotic, unseparated "Innate Ancestral Qi" suddenly appeared within Chen Yu’s inner vista.
’He had guessed correctly.’ The fragments of the Crown of Ignis, which contained Solar Divine Power, could indeed serve as one of the two treasures of yin and yang, with the World Tree being the other.
This mass of Innate Ancestral Qi was clearly a primal substance. It had been naturally created when the two treasures of yin and yang acted as a catalyst, erecting an invisible cauldron within his inner vista and using his own vast essence and qi as fuel for the refinement.
As he "looked" closer, the meridians, Dantian, and other features that had once defined his inner vista had all vanished. His surroundings had become a chaotic darkness, like the void before the birth of the universe.
Only in the very center of the boundless darkness, his essence, qi, and spirit had converged, condensing into a tiny seed that radiated a three-colored light—the Three Treasures Dao Seed.
Now that the Dao Seed was formed, the next steps were relatively simple for a Slime Cultivator like Chen Yu, who possessed an exceptionally stable Dao foundation.