After the Warm Spirit Lotus had devoured so much golden energy, its six-colored radiance flickered ceaselessly, as though it needed only to absorb a little more before it could evolve.
This left Yang Kai feeling deeply regretful. He knew all too well how difficult the Warm Spirit Lotus's evolution was.
Back when he had first obtained this heavenly treasure that nourished the Divine Sense, the Warm Spirit Lotus had been only five-colored. Later, even after consuming countless pills that enhanced Divine Sense power, it had shown no change whatsoever. It was only when he took a single top-grade Saint Grade pill—one that had manifested a pill cloud and was over a thousand years old—that the Warm Spirit Lotus had finally leaped to six colors.
As for wanting it to evolve to its ultimate seven-colored form, Yang Kai had never harbored much hope. He had always thought that achieving this goal within his lifetime would already be remarkable enough.
But now, this lofty goal was showing signs of being within reach, filling him with a mix of excitement, anticipation, and a touch of regret.
He was already wondering whether, once the Flowing Flame Sand Ground closed, he should go refine some pills that boosted Divine Sense cultivation and take them relentlessly to help the Warm Spirit Lotus evolve.
When it came to taking the pills, how much he could absorb personally wasn't the point. As long as it helped the Warm Spirit Lotus, no amount of holy crystals spent or pills wasted would be too great a price.
After indulging in these thoughts for a while, Yang Kai felt his spirits lift.
He was eager to see what kind of benefit the Warm Spirit Lotus's evolution to its ultimate form would bring him. In the past, when his strength had been low, he could feel the Warm Spirit Lotus's various advantages but hadn't truly understood them. Now, as his strength continued to grow, Yang Kai was becoming increasingly aware of just how important the Warm Spirit Lotus was.
He had never deliberately cultivated his Divine Sense power, yet his Divine Sense far surpassed that of warriors at the same level. Eighty percent of the credit for that belonged to the Warm Spirit Lotus, and of course, the Demon Eye of Annihilation had also played an indispensable role.
Without the Demon Eye of Annihilation, he wouldn't have been able to brazenly devour others' insights into the Heavenly Dao and the Martial Dao, nor would he have been able to ensure his understanding of realms remained free of bottlenecks, nor could his Divine Sense have grown so unchecked.
Setting these thoughts aside for the moment, Yang Kai retrieved an item from his Spatial Ring.
This was the very unknown object that had poked him in the pool. At the time, Yang Kai hadn't had the chance to examine it and had simply tossed it into his Spatial Ring. Only now did he realize it was a hexagonal crystal, translucent throughout and roughly the size of a chicken egg.
It looked like a flawless piece of jade.
However, aside from its beauty, there was nothing particularly special about it. When Yang Kai had first touched it in the pool, it had been slightly warm, and a thread of cold yin energy had seeped from within, flowing into his body.
But now, it was utterly unremarkable. Yang Kai couldn't sense even a trace of energy emanating from within. Frowning, he observed it for a long while. A layer of demonic flame surfaced on his hand, roiling and slowly wrapping around the crystal, but no matter how fiercely he burned it, the crystal showed not the slightest change.
This greatly surprised and delighted Yang Kai. His current demonic flame was something that even ordinary Void Grade Artifacts couldn't withstand, let alone some unremarkable stone.
Unable to sense any energy fluctuations and with the demonic flame proving useless, Yang Kai tried probing the crystal with his Divine Sense.
But the moment his threads of Divine Sense touched the hexagonal colorless crystal, it vanished from his hand in a flash.
At the same time, a refreshing sensation spread through his mind.
Yang Kai's expression shifted slightly, and he hastily plunged his consciousness into his Sea of Consciousness.
Within his Sea of Consciousness, the crimson ocean churned ceaselessly, and the six-colored Treasure Island blazed with radiant light in every hue. And high above the sea, seemingly out of nowhere, hovered a hexagonal colorless crystal—the very same one he had just held in his hand.
Yang Kai's eyes nearly bulged out of his head.
As far as he knew, the Sea of Consciousness was an intangible entity. Even if one were to crack open a warrior's skull, the naked eye would never detect its existence. Into this invisible ocean, nothing from the outside could enter, with the sole exception of certain soul-type artifacts.
The Demon Eye of Annihilation could barely be considered a soul-type artifact, and the Warm Spirit Lotus was a heavenly treasure that nourished the Divine Sense. Both were exceptions to this rule.
But what on earth was this hexagonal colorless crystal, that it had managed to enter his Sea of Consciousness the very instant he probed it with his Divine Sense?
Then again, as far as he could tell, he seemed perfectly fine. The crystal had brought nothing but an indescribable feeling of freshness and clarity, with no sense of danger whatsoever.
Yang Kai had wanted to examine the matter more closely—after all, having some inexplicable object appear in one's Sea of Consciousness was enough to make anyone uneasy.
But before he could make a move, the six-colored Treasure Island suddenly sent all of its radiance soaring into the air. The light transformed into six-colored beams that shot forth from an impossibly distant point, like a vibrant ribbon of color. They wrapped directly around the hexagonal colorless crystal, and before Yang Kai's dumbfounded gaze, dragged it back to the island in one swift motion.
The six-colored Treasure Island shimmered and shifted, reverting to the true form of the six-colored Warm Spirit Lotus, as its multicolored radiance quickly drew inward.
With a mere thought, Yang Kai's spiritual form materialized above the six-colored Warm Spirit Lotus. He looked down, and just as he had expected, the colorless crystal was lying quietly upon the lotus's flower bud, refracting its six colors into a dazzling kaleidoscope of hues.