The moment Lan Xiaobu’s first strand of Eternal Life Dao Rule touched the Seven Realms Stone, the stone frantically tried to break free from his control. Lan Xiaobu quickly extended his divine sense to suppress it, but his divine sense could only barely restrain the stone’s charm backlash, binding it to allow stable refinement was nearly impossible.
Lan Xiaobu felt a pang of regret, he should have set up a trapping array before attempting to refine the Seven Realms Stone. But he soon realized that even a trapping array likely couldn’t prevent the stone from escaping into the void.
A treasure like the Seven Realms Stone wasn’t something an ordinary trapping array could contain. Unless the array’s grade matched the stone’s, which was practically impossible.
The stone’s seven-realm charm tore at Lan Xiaobu’s Eternal Life Dao Rule, making it impossible for him to suppress it and refine it calmly. At this point, Lan Xiaobu guessed that to forcibly refine the Seven Realms Stone, he’d need at least the strength of a Creation Dao Saint. Fortunately, having perfected his own Dao, though not at the Creation Dao Saint level, his strength was no weaker than an ordinary Creation Dao Saint. Otherwise, he wouldn’t even be qualified to attempt refining the Seven Realms Stone.
Seeing Lan Xiaobu trembling, his face pale and his charm starting to destabilize, Zhen Changyuan knew his situation was critical. She couldn’t help him refine the Seven Realms Stone, but she could assist by suppressing it. If she could hold the stone in place, Lan Xiaobu could focus entirely on refining it.
Zhen Changyuan’s divine essence and Dao sense landed on the Seven Realms Stone, pressing down the stone that had nearly broken free from Lan Xiaobu’s restraint. Lan Xiaobu felt some relief and accelerated, channeling his Eternal Life Dao Rule to refine the stone’s restrictions.
Tai Chuan reacted a bit slower, but when Zhen Changyuan began suppressing the Seven Realms Stone, he snapped to attention, landing his divine essence and Dao sense on the stone, joining her to quell its upheaval.
Though Tai Chuan’s cultivation was relatively low, at this moment, every bit of strength helped. Besides, Tai Chuan wasn’t insignificant, he was a Third-Turn Holy Beast.
With the Seven Realms Stone’s spatial rules severed by Lan Xiaobu, Blood River Saint could no longer sense the intricate spatial rules and came to his senses.
Seeing Lan Xiaobu frantically refining the Seven Realms Stone while Zhen Changyuan and Lan Xiaobu’s beast companion Tai Chuan were helping to lock it down, he realized he’d done something foolish earlier. If this offended Lan Xiaobu, he might never reach the Land of Eternal Life.
And he knew Lan Xiaobu well, missing the Land of Eternal Life was one thing, but Lan Xiaobu might kill him to silence him. Despite establishing rules in the Great Desolate Divine Realm to protect cultivators’ lives and interests, if Blood River Saint threatened him, Lan Xiaobu would likely eliminate him without hesitation.
With this in mind, Blood River Saint didn’t dare hesitate. He leapt up, unleashing nearly all his Dao sense, joining Zhen Changyuan and Tai Chuan to bind and suppress the Seven Realms Stone.
With Blood River Saint’s help, Lan Xiaobu, Zhen Changyuan, and Tai Chuan all felt the burden lighten. The Seven Realms Stone stabilized completely, and Lan Xiaobu began refining the first restriction at a rapid pace.
Once the first restriction was refined, the Seven Realms Stone’s escaping force weakened significantly. Zhen Changyuan was the first to withdraw her Dao sense and divine essence, saying, “Friend Blood River, Tai Chuan, we’re no longer needed, you can retract your Dao senses.”
After Lan Xiaobu refined the first restriction, the Seven Realms Stone had no chance of escaping. Continuing to suppress it now would actually hinder Lan Xiaobu.
Indeed, after heeding Zhen Changyuan’s words, Tai Chuan and Blood River Saint withdrew their divine senses, and the Seven Realms Stone remained firmly locked under Lan Xiaobu’s Eternal Life Dao Rule, unable to budge.
The hardest part was the beginning. With the first restriction refined, the second and third followed. When Lan Xiaobu refined the thirty-sixth restriction, the Seven Realms Stone and he nearly vanished from the sight of Zhen Changyuan and the others.
All they could see were intense charm fluctuations and ceaseless spatial rule shifts.
Zhen Changyuan breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that, barring any surprises, the Seven Realms Stone would become Lan Xiaobu’s.
“Friend Fate, I’m truly ashamed. I was captivated by the seven-realm spatial rules earlier and forgot my task. I don’t know how to explain this to Brother Lan,” Blood River Saint said, unable to hold back, apologizing to Fate Saint Zhen Changyuan as Lan Xiaobu and the stone were enveloped in charm rules.
Fate Saint, mild-mannered, waved her hand with a smile, “Right now, Junior Brother Xiaobu is focused on refining the Seven Realms Stone. Our job is to guard him. We don’t know what might happen when a treasure of this level is refined, so we can’t let our guard down.”
“Yes, Fate Saint is right,” Blood River Saint quickly agreed, standing cautiously at a distance, observing the swirling Dao charm above the Seven Realms Stone.
Inwardly, he sighed. Neither he nor his master, Yellow Spring Dao Ancestor, had ever seen, let alone obtained, a treasure like the Seven Realms Stone. Lan Xiaobu’s fortune was heaven-defying, possessing not only the Cosmic Mill but also the Seven Realms Stone. Comparing oneself to him was maddening.
When Lan Xiaobu reached the forty-ninth restriction, he sensed something amiss. The Seven Realms Stone’s vast seven-realm charm was spilling out uncontrollably. If this weren’t the Great Desolate Divine Realm but the void, this boundless charm would likely have been noticed by others.
Lan Xiaobu could only frantically restrain the charm while speeding up his refinement. He had initially planned to send the Seven Realms Stone into his Eternal Life Realm, but he soon abandoned the idea.
Before fully refining it, the Seven Realms Stone couldn’t be sent into the Eternal Life Realm.
Though the Seven Realms Stone appeared as a massive stone, after refining dozens of restrictions, Lan Xiaobu understood it also contained its own void. If he tried to send an unrefined Seven Realms Stone into his Eternal Life Realm, it might escape with its void into the cosmic expanse, severing all connection with him.
Zhen Changyuan also sensed something wrong. Logically, the more restrictions Lan Xiaobu refined, the weaker the stone’s aura and the less charm would spill out. But in reality, as Lan Xiaobu refined more, the stone’s majestic charm became nearly uncontainable.
Zhen Changyuan grew alarmed. If the seven-realm charm was only detected by experts in this universe, it wouldn’t be a big issue. But if it was sensed by powerhouses in the Land of Eternal Life, it would be trouble. Those eternal life experts could still find a way here. Ordinary treasures wouldn’t attract them, but the Seven Realms Stone, a treasure that drove all creation experts mad, was far from ordinary.
To Lan Xiaobu’s delight, when he refined the seventy-second restriction, he managed to restrain the wildly spilling seven-realm charm again. Zhen Changyuan outside also relaxed, as long as the charm didn’t leak out, all was well.
Based on Lan Xiaobu’s experience, treasures of this level typically had one hundred eight restrictions, with each containing another one hundred eight sub-restrictions.
But this time, after refining the first one hundred eight restrictions, a new set of one hundred eight followed. Similarly, during the second wave of one hundred eight restrictions, the Seven Realms Stone’s charm again threatened to spill out wildly. Fortunately, with prior experience, Lan Xiaobu suppressed the charm while accelerating his refinement.
Then came the third wave of one hundred eight restrictions, the fourth wave, and so on.
Even Zhen Changyuan noticed the pattern, though unaware of exactly when the charm would spill, she knew that every so often, the Seven Realms Stone’s charm would surge uncontrollably. Thankfully, Lan Xiaobu’s experience allowed him to suppress it each time, preventing it from escaping the Great Desolate Divine Realm.
Lan Xiaobu went through seven waves of one hundred eight restrictions, suppressing the charm’s overflow seven times. Then, each of the refined restrictions contained another one hundred eight sub-restrictions.
Lan Xiaobu relaxed, the later restrictions were as expected, the toughest were the first seven waves. Now, fully refining the Seven Realms Stone was just a matter of time, the remaining restrictions wouldn’t cause the charm to spill again.
Indeed, as he continued refining, no further charm overflowed. As Lan Xiaobu progressed, the void around the Seven Realms Stone grew fainter, eventually almost disappearing.
If Lan Xiaobu weren’t still suspended in the void, Zhen Changyuan and Blood River Saint might have suspected the Seven Realms Stone had already escaped.
