Penglai overseas; Lingxiao in the heavens.
Underground.
One of the Three Inheritance Lands: Mingqiong Sacred Land.
A majestic force swept across Mingqiong Platform. The bell tolling above it rolled like thunder, shaking the inheritance grounds of temples throughout the land.
Emperor Mu, who had been cultivating in seclusion, sprang to his feet. Threads of lightning law rippled across his towering frame, while purple lightning crackled around him and waves of murderous aura filled the air.
Emperor Mu's eyes were full of killing intent.
At the same time...
Inside Qinggan Palace.
Chen Beixun held the Gold Soul Stone, waiting for the Demon Island Vine inside his World Ring to complete its final transformation...
"It worked!" Delight flashed in Chen Beixun's eyes. He said excitedly, "How many perilous places have we braved together? Come on, old friend!"
The Demon Island Vine emerged from the World Ring, then transformed into armor that clung to Chen Beixun's body. It was redder than ever before—or, more accurately, it looked even more sinister.
"The Demon Island Vine's evolution has reached 56%. Its main vines have increased to 231, and their total length is now 9,811 kilometers!" Chunqiu said. The snail-shaped Chunqiu crawled along Chen Beixun's body.
"Let's go!" Chen Beixun's gaze burned brightly. He immediately flew out of Qinggan Palace, heading for Mingqiong Sacred Land.
Mingqiong Sacred Land was vast and boundless, enclosed beneath an enormous dome. Technology simulated the sky above, making it a paradise apart from the world. Rivers surged onward, and towering mountain ranges rose on either side.
Chen Beixun glanced around. "Chunqiu, how big is this place?"
"354,751.2 square kilometers," the thumb-sized snail reported through the Auxiliary Optical Computer.
"Hmm." Chen Beixun wasn't very surprised.
After all, he had seen enormous living bases built around stars.
"There! The signal is coming from that direction." Chunqiu marked a location. "Southwest. Keep going straight for 726.68 kilometers."
"Master, I sense a World Lord's aura." The Demon Island Vine relayed this important information directly to Chen Beixun through their mental connection.
"A World Lord?" As he flew, Chen Beixun's heart surged like a stormy sea, but he quickly calmed down.
"It must be Emperor Mu. Although Emperor Ta is also at the ninth level of the Universe Level, he's still a long way from becoming a World Lord!"
"This is going to be tricky." Chen Beixun kept his expression blank as he considered how to handle the situation.
"That World Lord only broke through recently and is deliberately hiding his aura. Master, I could grind a hundred opponents like him to dust!" the Demon Island Vine said through their mental link.
"Right. With your strength, Demon Island Vine, you'll have no trouble at all!" Chen Beixun's mouth twitched.
Clearly, he was a little too nervous.
"I spent too long at the bottom. Back then, Universe Level experts seemed untouchable. The old me wasn't even worthy to carry a World Lord's shoes." With that thought, Chen Beixun accelerated the telekinetic weapon beneath his feet.
"Chunqiu, expand the search radius. Demon Island Vine, be ready to fight at any moment," Chen Beixun ordered.
"Yes!"
"Yes!!"
"Exhilarating!" Chen Beixun reveled in the rush of high-speed flight.
He had once struggled to survive in that universe's "Asura Field," always on his guard. Now, it felt as though he had lived through a disaster and come out the other side.
"I have to get stronger. Only then will I have the confidence to face what's ahead." Chen Beixun silently swore to himself.
A short while later...
"Is that a World Castle?!" Chen Beixun spotted it from afar and was stunned. The pitch-black castle stood out starkly against its surroundings.
World Castles,
World Gems,
World Rings,
and so on.
These were all special treasures capable of holding living beings or objects of immense value.
Chen Beixun was deeply shaken. Judging by its size, this castle was far larger than the one he had seen in the Ghostly World Lord Realm.
"About twelve kilometers are visible above ground. The World Castle has a shielding function, so I can't measure its full size," Chunqiu said.
"The World Castle in the World Lord World was only ten kilometers tall... This is an Immortal Level treasure! It may belong to an Immortal God who serves as a general in the Xuyu Universe Kingdom's army!" Chen Beixun appeared calm on the outside, but inside, shock and wild excitement tangled together.
"Sixteen Universe Level fighters and one World Lord. The World Lord really is Emperor Mu." Chen Beixun calmly surveyed the group in the distance. "You cunning old fox. You fooled everyone else, but you can't fool me!"
Chen Beixun sped up and headed toward them.
"Haha, I'm late. Sorry to keep you all waiting," Chen Beixun said with a laugh.
"Peak of the initial stage of the Ancient Emperor Mirror. Not bad," the gloomy man in front of the castle gate said coldly.
"I've heard a great deal about you, Emperor Ta," Chen Beixun said.
"Spare me the empty talk. Keep your head down in there," the man said icily.
Chen Beixun glanced at Emperor Ta. He wore gleaming golden armor, stood on a chillingly dark flying wheel, and had six pairs of technological wings on his back. He was four meters tall and known as the Red-Faced Ghost, Emperor Ta.
Boom! Boom! Boom! A series of deafening crashes rang out.
"They're here."
Chen Beixun looked toward Emperor Mu. Clad in black armor and wielding a War Blade, Emperor Mu led the charge, hurtling toward the wide-open gate. Emperor Ta, Emperor Jing, Wood Grain Ancient Emperor, and the other powerful fighters followed.
Chen Beixun roused himself and rode the fourth-stage telekinetic flying weapon, the Gold Cloud Shuttle, into the castle. A flash of light swept past, and he arrived in a...
Chen Beixun surveyed his surroundings.
Lightning flashed across the sky, and the roars of strange beasts rang out now and then.
Volcanoes encircled the area. Lava surged from their craters, fierce beasts roamed everywhere, and sudden gales whipped up the searing molten rock.
"Chunqiu, scan the area and plot a route to Center Island using the map. Demon Island Vine, keep watch," Chen Beixun ordered.
He crouched and scooped up a handful of sand, astonished. "This sand is actually B2-grade metal!"
"Phew." Chen Beixun smiled faintly and sped away.
"There's a valley ahead. Fly straight for 2,230 kilometers, then turn left and continue for 1,585 kilometers. A Universe Level Third Order fighter and a Universe Level Fourth Rank fighter are 127 kilometers into the first stretch of the valley. They're too weak to pose a threat," Chunqiu warned.
Chen Beixun smiled when he heard that, then said, "Universe Level? Heh... Perfect. I could use a warm-up!"
At that moment, above a valley...
"Emperor Li! He's coming!" Emperor Li's eyes flickered as he looked at the black-armored man beside him.
In the distance, Chen Beixun sensed them and quickly locked onto the pair.
Deep within his sea of consciousness, nine crystals trembled faintly. Under Chen Beixun's guidance, they formed a formation: two above, four below, and three in the middle. The upper two hovered in front as the vanguard, piercing straight into the enemy's soul to break through it. The lower four became cavalry, circling around to support the three central crystals. The middle formation consisted of the third, fifth, and ninth crystals. It was difficult to condense, but immensely powerful.
"Go." Chen Beixun smiled faintly, unable to conceal the killing intent in his eyes any longer.
The upper two charged straight at the soul, while the lower four split into two groups of two, one pair on each side. Each formed a two-part formation, alternating between attacking and lying in wait. They invaded Emperor Li's sea of consciousness.
Emperor Li's eyes bulged, and he let out a scream.
The upper two had already torn into his soul. The middle three rushed in and slaughtered their way through it, while the two groups of lower crystals joined together to form a four-part formation. They battered his soul until it scattered and could no longer withstand the assault. The upper two returned.
Chen Beixun activated the Heavenly Path Lower Formation, formed from thirty-six blades of the Tianqu Cone. They arranged themselves like a road through the sky, while countless mountains flared like fire.
The flying blades rang out with a series of sharp metallic notes. Blade-light rained down across the sky, bright as stars falling from the heavens.
Emperor Li's eyes were vacant. No matter how loudly Emperor Spear shouted, he toppled straight into the valley, where a roaring gale swept him away. He tumbled helplessly in the wind like a lone boat without a mooring.
"Damn it!" Emperor Spear thrust both hands forward. Strands of black energy spread from his arms, and with a strange ripping sound, a hundred small swords shot out of the darkness toward Chen Beixun. Four or five vines sprang from the Demon Island Armor on Chen Beixun's body, blocking every one of them.
A bone-chilling aura poured from Chen Beixun as he went all out, controlling the Heavenly Path Lower Formation and closing it around Emperor Spear, intent on trapping and killing him.
A fierce look appeared on Emperor Spear's face. He swung one arm at the Heavenly Path Lower Formation with absurd force. After several metallic clangs, all that remained was a pile of mangled flesh and a few wisps of blood mist. The flesh sizzled against the scorching ground.
"Like an egg against a rock," Chen Beixun said disdainfully.
After finishing off his enemy, Chen Beixun quickly left the scene.
Inside a cave, its entrance only five or six meters high. Chen Beixun had carved it out himself.
"Let's take a break. Chunqiu, based on the map, how big is this place?"
"According to the map, it's about 5.1 million square kilometers. Luckily, we were transported close to Center Island. It's still about 1.05 million kilometers away," Chunqiu replied, its snail form hovering beside Chen Beixun.
Chen Beixun sat down on the ground and thought it over. "This great valley is the shortest route to Center Island. Judging by how far away Emperor Spear and Emperor Li were when they ambushed me, quite a few others must have landed nearby."
The World Castle was divided into three areas. The first was Beast Fire Domain, where even the strange beasts could reach the World Lord level.
The second was Green Flame Old Mountain, which was relatively safe.
The third was Center Island, suspended 6,900 meters above the center of the world. It covered an area of 10,000 square kilometers and was packed with treasures, but also beset by danger.
In a hidden place.
Someone was monitoring all of this.
"The Demon Island Vine? A Soul Secret Technique? The Gold Soul Stone?!"
"Two hundred and forty thousand years! At last, a promising young fellow has come along."
"Master... sigh... It's been two hundred and forty thousand years."
Two hundred and forty thousand years earlier...
Exploring the stars was the greatest pursuit of countless people in the universe, and young Murong Shujia was no exception. As a child, he once asked his father, "How vast is the starry sky?"
His father always smiled and told him, "One day, you'll see for yourself." As Murong Shujia grew older, his longing for the stars became an obsession.
"Father, the stars are beautiful. The universe really is vast." Now an Immortal, Murong Shujia rode a spacecraft through the Dark Universe, fleeing in a panic. He was gravely wounded and on the brink of death.
Murong Shujia could be called a peerless genius, the kind seen only once in a generation. But geniuses were hardly rare in this part of the universe.
It was like the imperial examinations of ancient times.
Even if you were a piece of gold, the imperial palace was still resplendent with it. You might be a genius who had overcome countless trials to reach the palace, but there were no last-place finishers there—only the top one hundred in the entire country!
Murong Shujia had struggled his whole life. He had risked everything in secret realms and earned the title "Marquis of Fate" on the Outer-Domain Battlefield.
Like Huyan Bo, he had been far too solitary. A man was guilty for possessing a treasure, even if he had committed no crime. He had no backing, and other powerful fighters could kill him without a second thought simply because he carried such a valuable treasure.
"I already gave you the treasure! What more do you want?" Murong Shujia roared.
"Haha! You're all alone, gravely wounded, and without a master or a force to back you. You're dead!"
Countless sinister black specks of light struck Murong Shujia's F-class spacecraft in the Dark Universe, making it lurch from side to side.
"Die!" A surging force pierced the F-class spacecraft and struck Murong Shujia's soul directly. He staggered, nearly collapsing to the ground. He had no time to spare and brought out a mysterious golden bell covered in runes.
Murong Shujia forced himself to keep standing and activated the golden bell in his hand. Golden light enveloped the F-class spacecraft.
"12345...8!9!10!"
"The spacecraft has reached thirty times the speed of light! Accelerating! Full acceleration! Forty times! Fifty times!" the Intelligent Life cried out anxiously.
When he turned around,
"Master, you..." The Intelligent Life's face fell.
"Enough. I knew this day would come. First, fly out of this Universe Country. Then find somewhere to leave my inheritance," Murong Shujia said, leaning against the metal cabin wall.
The places Murong Shujia chose were Tianwen Planet and Dili Planet.
"Xiao Qi, I'll leave the inheritance to you!"
"Understood! Master, I'll make sure the inheritance continues," Xiao Qi said respectfully.
Murong Shujia closed his eyes and looked back on his life.
"If only I'd been a little more careful. If only I..." Murong Shujia's divine body gradually crumbled until nothing remained.