Chapter 570 — Half a Year Later

Soon, the Foresight Owl glimpsed a pitch-black space. It tried to foresee the target's location, but beyond that pitch-black space, it could see nothing at all.

Sweat poured down the Owl's head, its feathers beginning to fall out, and the Hexagram flickered on and off like a weakened Ultraman.

Old witch... are you holding up...? Beside it, the Gem Cat was also looking frail. It had wished for the Owl's foresight to succeed, and the backlash from that wish seemed especially severe this time.

Of course, compared to the Owl as the main force, its consumption was still bearable.

Moments later, deathly aura shrouded the Owl, and it plopped down onto the deck.

"I did my best."

"Turtle, Little Ice, Buggy, Red Eye." Shi Jin immediately summoned Little Ice and Turtle in their fused Black Tortoise form, along with Red Eye and the others.

He could tell that the Owl, aside from having its life force greatly drained, had also suffered a backlash on its soul. Its condition was extremely poor.

This prompted Shi Jue to call out all the pets capable of healing, to heal alongside Ginseng Baby.

"Yiya!" Ginseng Baby cheered everyone on. Give it your all, everybody!

"Mmm..." Feeling the whole-team nourishment that usually only came when Shi Jin added points, the Owl finally caught its breath.

"No good. I can't foresee where it will appear next."

"Ah, that." Though Shi Jin had anticipated this, his heart still sank. Boohoo, so much for combining strengths.

Search Plan One, failed?

"Don't underestimate me, though." The Foresight Owl struggled to its feet and said, "I may not have foreseen its location—where it will appear next—but I changed the direction of my foresight."

"I foresaw roughly what time segment it will appear in next."

"If nothing major changes in the meantime, that time segment is when it's most likely to appear!"

"Really?" Shi Shuo was overjoyed. Beside him, the Gem Cat, who was being suckled by the treasure babies and other pet beasts, also wore a surprised expression—this owl was something after all.

"Shi Yun." Shi Tang said.

The Foreseeing Owl said, "Roughly half a year from now, give or take."

"During this Shi Yun period, try your best to observe every corner of Blue Star."

"Huh?" Shi Shuo froze, then said, "For real? Half a year???"

Wait—the God-Sealing War was only seven months away. Shi Yu was thinking of finishing off his opponents quickly and going back to prepare for battle.

This Jia Qi's timing of appearance just happened to fall right on the God-Sealing War?

"That's about right," the owl said.

"Didn't they say that Jia Qi had been appearing every few days over the past half month? Why is it taking so long this time?" the Gem Cat said.

"Fighting and feeding back to back also takes Shi Yun to rest and digest. It may well have already begun recuperating. When it appears again, it may be even stronger than last time," the owl said.

Shi Li: "Half a year from now..."

His expression shifted again and again, and at last he heaved a sigh.

"Then we'll wait for it."

He had, after all, brought back enough resources from Planet Realm King, and Blue Star had already revived. From here on, building up his strength for the God-Sealing War right here would serve just as well.

If he could not make this God-Sealing War, then he would enter the next one—the interval between each was not long in any case.

Of course, Shi Cen would not sit idly by in the meantime; he would keep using other methods to hunt for that monstrous insect.

"Ugh, I'm exhausted. I'll leave the rest to you all," the owl said wearily. "Shi Jin, be careful—your opponent is no weakling."

"Don't worry!" Shi Li said. "Blue Star is our home ground—Susu's home ground."

Back on Blue Star, besides the power of the starry sky, Susu could also command the power of the vast sea. Absolutely invincible.

"Teacher Owl, if there's any problem, I'll come find you again."

"Good. I'm going to digest the power of my past life," the owl said. "The next time we meet, I won't look like this anymore."

"You can all look forward to it!"

Shi Yan's Gem Cat was taken aback—so this Jia Qi was going to optimize its race and return to the form of the Astral Race. The Astral Race... seemed to be humanoid as well, didn't they?

The Gem Cat harrumphed. Go on, then—could it possibly be prettier than me?

"Teacher Ying, what do you plan to do next?" Shi Jin turned to look at the Gem Cat.

"I'm going to hatch that demon cub, then tidy up the merchant guilds on Blue Star," the Gem Cat said lazily.

"Remember not to wander off. We're in a dangerous time right now," Shi Li said.

The Gem Cat: "I know that perfectly well."

Once the three parties had finished confirming matters, Shi Jin had Chongchong send them back, while he himself remained standing amid the starry sky.

"Shi Jin..."

Qi flashed into being around Shi Jin, her face downcast. "I didn't find it."

Qi had assumed that finding a hidden insect would be easy, but the other party had concealed itself far more deeply than it had imagined.

As expected of an insect that had devoured the flesh and blood of a cosmic behemoth.

Qi knew... that the harm the Abyss Race and the Insect Race had once inflicted on Blue Star, put together, did not amount to even a tenth of the cosmic behemoth's.

After all, those first two races had initially targeted only the life on Blue Star, but the cosmic behemoth had struck at Blue Star itself.

"It's all right," Shi Jin encouraged. "Your power hasn't recovered yet, after all. Once you're stronger, we'll search again. For now, I'll teach you the star-refining skill. We'll find a suitable place to release the spatial star you carry, and during this Heng, you should seize the Shi Yun to refine it."

"Once it's refined into a weapon, your strength will surely rise another level. When you search again then, perhaps you'll find it."

"Hmm??" Qi was utterly delighted, her cherry-colored eyes shining.

At last she could learn star-refining and forge a star into a weapon!

Wonderful!

This was the first step for her, the Spirit of Time, toward becoming stronger!

...

The spatial star was roughly the size of ten moons. Shi Jin and the others brought Qi far away from Blue Star before they found a suitable place to release this white star.

Once released, it could not be taken back—the star stones the Cosmic Overlord Legion used to hold stars were single-use items. So from then on, Qi could only carry it with her after refining it into a weapon.

"Star-refining, add points."

Standing on Shi Ying's hand, Qi was overcome with emotion—this was the second skill she had been able to learn since the revival of the myths.

A moment later, gentle starlight wrapped around Qi, and surrounded by the glow of skill points, she immediately sensed certain changes in her body.

"Nngh—" Qi gritted her teeth against the pain, and a moment later she had learned the Star Refining skill.

She joyfully extended her perception toward the spatial stars, but the very next moment her spirits wilted again.

"Refining it… will take about 100 years," she said in despair.

"??" went Shi Jin.

"A hundred years??"

"Keep adding points."

To improve the efficiency of Star Refining, at the very least the skill had to be maxed out—filled all the way to (Mastery+11).

As he fed Qi her points, Shi Cen made up his mind: for the next stretch, he would just focus on adding points and sleeping.

Whether to prepare for the Apotheosis War, or to get ready to hunt down the monster bugs, he needed a stronger foundation of power.

After a long while, Qi finally completed the fifteen point additions to Star Refining and began to touch the spatial stars once more.

"About how long until it can be refined into a weapon?" asked Shi Tang.

Qi probed with her senses, then said with a tearful face, "Why do I feel like it'll still take a few years?"

And this was despite her being a spirit of time, perfectly attuned to the spatial stars.