"Star Devourer" and "Gestalt."
These two cold Mechanical Civilization codenames were like two insurmountable ancient divine mountains, weighing heavily upon the hearts of every great power in the Hall of Civilization.
The hall fell deathly silent; even breathing could be heard clearly.
The joy of capturing the probe and winning the joint battle had long since been washed away by this cruel truth, leaving behind only bone-piercing cold.
One alone had already put the entire Primordial World on high alert.
Now there were two!
And their targets were astonishingly the same—the Solar Star!
"The Solar Star... the Solar Star..."
Primordial Heavenly Venerate repeatedly rolled the name over his tongue. For the first time, deep wariness and unease appeared on his eternally unchanged face.
With one hand, he formed a Saint's incantation. Countless runes flowed through his eyes as his divine sense transformed into an invisible sword, instantly piercing through the crystalline barrier of the Primordial World and probing into the depths of boundless chaos.
He attempted to deduce the whereabouts of the star that the Dao Ancestor had personally exiled.
However, chaos was chaos.
There was no time, no space, no laws—only eternal void and disorder. The moment Primordial Heavenly Venerate's divine sense entered, it was like a drop of water merging into the sea. It instantly lost all direction; everything he perceived was a hazy chaos, and he could not find a single useful coordinate.
A moment later, Primordial Heavenly Venerate opened his eyes and slowly shook his head.
"No. The Dao Ancestor's seal has cut off all heavenly secrets. Even I cannot locate the Solar Star's exact position within chaos."
Even a Saint could not find it!
This result made the atmosphere in the hall even heavier.
"We absolutely cannot let them obtain the Solar Star!"
Lord of the Heavens suddenly slammed his palm against the armrest. Terrifying sword intent surged into the heavens, making even the hall's dome hum and tremble.
"The Solar Star was formed from Father God Pangu's left eye. It is one of the foundations of our Primordial World! If those lumps of iron devour it, it would be no different from gouging out one of Father God's eyes! The fortune of our Primordial World would suffer a devastating blow!"
"My junior brother is correct."
Jieyin's face, usually filled with suffering, had now turned unprecedentedly solemn.
"The Solar Star's origin is supremely rigid and supremely yang. It is the source of all yang energy between heaven and earth. Once seized by an outside force, the yin and yang of the Primordial World will inevitably fall out of balance. Eternal night will descend, and all living things will wither. That would be the true catastrophe!"
The Saints were more united than ever.
The Solar Star could not be lost under any circumstances!
But if they could not find it, everything was empty talk. Were they supposed to simply watch as those two Mechanical Civilizations used unknown methods to find the Solar Star, then wage a desperate war over that prize right at the doorstep of the Primordial World?
A war of that level—even its aftershocks would be enough to make the Primordial World suffer horribly.
Just as everyone was at a complete loss, Nuwa, who had been silently observing from the seat of honor, finally spoke.
Her voice was cool and clear, yet it was like a bolt of lightning that split apart the gloom within the hall.
"Perhaps... one person knows where it is."
Swish!
Everyone's gaze instantly focused on her.
"Who?" Grand Supreme Elder asked.
Nuwa parted her red lips and spoke a name long buried by time, yet one that still stirred countless old grudges.
"Xihe."
The moment those two words were spoken, the expressions of many great powers who had lived through the Witch-Demon Cataclysm changed at once.
Xihe!
The former Demon Empress, the consort of Demon Emperor Dijun, and the mother of the ten Golden Crows!
During the Witch-Demon War, Di Jun and Taiyi had fallen, and nine Golden Crows had died. This once incomparably noble Demon Empress had been devastated by grief. Taking the last young Golden Crow with her, she traveled to Tanggu Valley in the far north to live in seclusion, cutting herself off from the world.
Yet everyone knew that she had once been the mistress of the Solar Star and shared the deepest soul bond with that star.
If there was anyone in this world who could sense the Solar Star hidden by the Heavenly Dao, it could only be her.
"No!"
Guang Chengzi almost blurted it out. He stepped forward and bowed toward those above, though his tone was extremely agitated.
"Reporting to Master, reporting to Your Majesty! We share an irreconcilable hatred with the demon race! Back when the witch and demon races fought, blood flowed like rivers, and many disciples of our Chan Sect fell in that conflict! How can we now beg a surviving remnant of the demon race?"
His words spoke for the hearts of many Immortals and Gods.
Was hatred really so easy to let go?
"Guang Chengzi, bullshit!"
Before the Saints could speak, Zhao Gongming of the Jie Sect leaped out and pointed at Guang Chengzi's nose as he cursed.
"Is now the time to fuss over that ancient crap? Without the hide, where would the fur attach? Our home is about to be gone, and you're still clinging to that petty grudge? Did your Chan Sect kill few disciples of the Jie Sect back then? Should I settle those accounts with you first?"
"You...!"
Seeing that the Chan and Jie Sects were about to start fighting on the spot again, the atmosphere in the hall became incomparably strange.
Between national hatred and blood feuds, and the survival of their race, which mattered more?
At that tense moment.
A calm voice drowned out every argument.
"Have you all finished arguing?"
It was Chen Ran.
He stepped out from the crowd and walked, one step at a time, toward the enormous incomplete Star Chart marked with the two terrifying civilizations.
Everyone's gaze unconsciously followed his figure.
"Is there any meaning in arguing until your faces turn red over old debts from hundreds of epochs ago?"
Chen Ran turned around. His gaze swept over Guang Chengzi, then Zhao Gongming, before finally settling on the several Saints seated at the highest point.
"In my view, our thinking has been wrong from the very beginning."
He suddenly stretched out his hand and heavily pointed at the brightly highlighted coordinate on the Star Chart—the Solar Star!
The light screen flickered violently at his gesture.
"What we have been thinking about is how to stop the 'Star Devourer,' how to defend against 'Gestalt,' and how to keep the Solar Star from being taken!"
"Those are all passive, cowardly thoughts!"
Chen Ran's voice abruptly rose, like a great bell ringing within everyone's soul!
"Why don't we consider..."
His hand traced a resolute arc across the Star Chart, connecting the Primordial World to the Solar Star hanging alone within chaos!
"Why don't we take control of it ourselves?!"
The entire Hall of Civilization instantly became quiet enough for a pin to drop!
Every great power, including the six lofty Saints, had their pupils contract violently!
Take control of the Solar Star themselves?!
What kind of joke was that!
That was a violent existence even the Dao Ancestor had needed to seal personally! The True Sun Fire there could burn a Quasi-Saint into body and soul in an instant!
"I know it sounds insane."
Chen Ran took in everyone's shock. A light called ambition burned on his face.
"But this is also our only chance!"
"Should we sit at home and wait for the enemy to come knocking, then fight an utterly unprepared defensive battle amid ruins? That is the worst possible strategy! As the art of war says, the best defense is always a proactive attack!"
"The chaotic region concealing the Solar Star will be our future main battlefield! We must reach it before the enemy does!"
"We are not going there to extinguish the True Sun Fire, nor are we going to move that star! We are going to..."
"Use the Solar Star as our core and harness its endless energy to build, there, an impregnable war fortress for our Primordial Civilization!"
Chen Ran's voice was filled with irresistible conviction as he painted a grand blueprint none of them had ever imagined!
A super war fortress powered by a star as its energy core!
"I call it—the Solar Furnace!"
"It will become a sharp blade thrust by our Primordial Civilization into the depths of chaos! It will be the first, and strongest, line of defense against all foreign enemies!"
"When the time comes, whether it is the 'Star Devourer' or 'Gestalt,' as long as they dare to come, we will let them taste what the fury of the sun truly means!"
The hall remained deathly silent.
Every great power had been completely stunned by Chen Ran's wildly imaginative yet irresistibly tempting plan.
Building a war fortress around the Solar Star?
Such scale, such audacity... even Demon Emperor Dijun, who had once ruled all demons and established the supreme Heavenly Court, had been no more than this, hadn't he?
For a long, long time.
"Hmph, what a madman's idea..."
Lord of the Heavens muttered to himself. Yet there was not the slightest trace of disdain in his eyes. Instead, they erupted with terrifying brilliance—the excitement of encountering a worthy rival, even glimpsing a broader world beyond!
"But... I like it!"
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