Asura Emperor Venerable-Chapter 673: Digging

Shi Hao shook off Meng Tian and arrived on a new celestial body.

He indeed possessed monstrous talent, unmatched in his tier, and could even defeat the vast majority of his opponents from a higher realm, including those of genius caliber.

However, when facing real top-tier geniuses, he still couldn’t win.

For example, this Meng Tian, who hadn’t even ignited the Incense Flame of the Supplementing Divine Temple.

One must know that certain dynasties, in order to grant their descendants the greatest opportunities, specifically cultivate special talents. The invincible power of a true Supplement God Temple Level, when facing such an opponent, how is Shi Hao to win?

They can’t simply rely on the Purple Gold Rat to steal things every time and then just run away with their tails between their legs, right?

"The Rat Lord wouldn’t mind," said the Purple Gold Rat from the side.

What’s the use of face? Can it be eaten?

As long as there are tangible benefits, this Rat Lord truly doesn’t care about any dignity or face.

"I mind," Shi Hao said.

But, cultivation improvement is a step-by-step process; how can it surge in a short period of time?

In other places, no, but here it is possible.

The Star Core and the River of Time!

The Star Core contains an immense amount of energy, enough to even nurture life on a celestial body. Even just a whiff of its remnants would be a terrifying amount of energy for Shi Hao.

And as for the River of Time, it could allow Shi Hao to enter a sped-up time stream, digesting the Star Core at a rapid pace.

Only a few days might pass outside, but his time stream could have already spanned several months or even years.

"Continue searching!"

Finding the Star Core is actually not difficult; as long as the celestial body is intact, there is certainly a Star Core inside. The difference lies in how much energy remains, and whether it has been exhausted.

However, the challenging part is how to break into the heart of the celestial body.

This is a compressed celestial body, its terrain incredibly dense, comparable to six- or even seven-star Precious Metal. Faced with such dense terrain, how is a martial artist to dig through?

——The celestial body itself is as large as a city, with at least a thickness of three hundred li. To reach the middle, that’s at least one hundred fifty li, right?

Just imagine, how long would it take to bore a hole through a chunk of Precious Metal that’s over a hundred li thick?

Therefore, even knowing there’s treasure underneath, it’s essentially unattainable; one can only hope that time will pass and cause these celestial bodies to crumble on their own.

Everyone obtains Star Cores this way because there are always new celestial bodies that break apart during the opening of the Ancient World, revealing their Star Cores.

But the Star Cores obtained in this manner naturally lose the most energy.

What can be done?

Being able to get one is already fortunate enough, who can afford to be choosy?

Shi Hao was also thinking, was there any way for him to dig out a hole straight to the core of the earth?

"Rat, with your strong teeth, surely you have a way, right?" he asked the Purple Gold Rat.

"Don’t call me Rat!" the Purple Gold Rat rejected the name.

"Then what should I call you?" Shi Hao said with a smile.

"Great Emperor!" proclaimed the Purple Gold Rat proudly.

Thud, it was immediately kicked away by Shi Hao.

"With two tufts of hair on your head, one purple and one gold, either I call you Xiao Zi or Xiao Jin, choose one," Shi Hao offered with outstretched hands.

Both names sounded too weak, but they were still better than Rat or Vermin.

The Purple Gold Rat had to compromise: "Call me Xiao Jin then."

After a pause, it added, "The Rat Lord doesn’t have a way either."

"Weren’t you able to bite through the body of the Golden Dragon?"

"Pah, that’s not my ability but those scavenger insects’. It’s a case of one thing overcoming another, do you understand?" said the Purple Gold Rat disdainfully.

Shi Hao stroked his chin. Even this rat was at a loss; did he really have no choice but to pick up celestial bodies that happened to have shattered within this century?

First, there were too few of them, and second, if the celestial bodies were shattered, how much energy could be left inside the star cores?

"I’ll dig!"

Shi Hao decided to dig. He put on his spirit armor, which was of the six-star level, allowing him to have the combat power and defense of the Supplementing Divine Temple.

However, he found that wearing this provided almost no enhancement to him at all.

Because his combat power was already at the Supplement God Temple Level, digging with this was merely a waste of spirit stones.

"Black Hole, devour for me!"

Shi Hao summoned a black hole and directed it to engulf the earth beneath him.

As the black hole passed, it seemed like nothing changed.

Yet, Shi Hao revealed a look of joy. It was not that nothing had changed; the black hole truly devoured a layer of earth, just that it was too thin to be noticed by the naked eye.

After all, even such a thin layer would expand to the height of a mountain if placed outside.

To devour such thin layers bit by bit, Shi Hao would probably not reach the core even if given a hundred years, such was the inefficiency.

However, Shi Hao had more than one black hole.

"Come!"

Woosh, woosh, woosh, multiple black holes appeared, forming a line as they engulfed the ground.

This earth was extremely hard and difficult to "digest," so each bit devoured by the black hole required a pause, but because there were enough black holes, a cycle was formed where there was always a black hole devouring.

In just a few breaths’ time, Shi Hao had dug a hole.

"Damn, you’re really something!" admired the Purple Gold Rat, finding Shi Hao’s method astonishing.

Shi Hao paid no attention as all his focus was on the black holes’ devouring.

This was of course a great expenditure.

Half a day later, he had dug about ten miles, but his soul force was depleted.

He stopped and took the Time Liquid to speed up his recovery.

This was too little; Shi Hao couldn’t soak in it, only managing to evenly sprinkle it on himself. Otherwise, if his left hand received the acceleration of time and the right did not, what kind of aberration would happen to his body?

In just a short time, Shi Hao’s soul force was restored to perfection.

Normally, he would need a full night’s sleep to recover his soul force, so the ratio of time flow was... one thousand to one.

Such an alarming rate of flow!

However, what he had obtained before was just a small puddle; the Time Liquid was pitifully scarce. If he kept using it, it would probably only afford him an extra month of "additional" time.

To accelerate his cultivation, star cores alone weren’t enough. He needed to obtain more Time Liquid.

Eight days later, Shi Hao finally reached the core.

—He camouflaged the exit to prevent others from finding it and causing trouble.

Ahead, after the black hole devoured once more, an empty layer of earth appeared.

He was initially surprised, then realized he had reached the core.

The core was not solid, but an extremely small space, akin to a miniature universe, and in the center of this "universe" was only a tiny, faintly glowing stone sphere.

Star Core!

Shi Hao immediately sensed that the star core was emitting strong energy fluctuations.

This was an indescribable energy, filled with vitality and yet full of destruction, seeming out of place, filled with contradictions.