Origin Continent was a land so vast it seemed boundless. How large was it? No clear record in its entire history gave an answer.
Even a God King would have to be mad to measure it. Those who had tried had either given up or perished along the way, claimed by unknown dangers.
As the birthplace of the Three Thousand Dimension Worlds, Origin Continent was a place of countless wonders.
Far out in the depths of space, two colossal stars—the sun and Taiyin Star—circled under their mutual pull, casting daylight and moonlight over Origin Continent.
Both were the stuff of legend. Even a God King could not say how large they were or how far they lay from Origin Continent.
Not even someone in the God King Realm could reach the sun or Taiyin Star.
Towering peaks rose across Origin Continent, their heights measured in thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions of light-years. Most resembled ordinary mountains on a far greater scale. Others stood like immense stone pillars, surrounded by orbiting celestial bodies, each tens of thousands of times larger than a normal star.
You Mountain was one such pillar-shaped peak.
Ten enormous celestial bodies orbited You Mountain, each more than a hundred thousand times the size of the sun.
This was the heart of the famed and powerful You Mountain Empire. The empire's territory extended over a hundred billion light-years around You Mountain.
A vast wasteland lay thirty billion light-years from You Mountain.
It belonged to the Azure Domain of the You Mountain Empire.
The wasteland was a massive mining site. Mountains of mining waste stood everywhere, while busy figures moved in orderly streams through and around the mines: mechanical robots and humanoid miners of the Alien Race.
Monitoring devices resembling wireless cameras had been installed throughout the site, watching every movement in the mines.
Above the mine, two humanoid members of the Alien Race hovered and looked down. Both stood about twenty meters tall, though one was sturdier and the other leaner. Like humans, they had one head and two arms. Overlapping red scales covered their heads, and they had cold, dark-blue eyes and ears but no noses. Their enormous arms were especially striking, like those of Earth's gibbons.
Clad in dark-red armor, they stood suspended in the air, invisible auras spreading from them.
"An Sai, after ten epochs, we've nearly exhausted the Blue Molybdenum Crystal here. I'll probably be transferred before long. Once that happens, we brothers may not see each other again." The sturdier one spoke in a deep, rough voice and glanced at his leaner companion.
"Brother, you're my brother, so I'll be honest. The family isn't happy. You've spent too long as a mine inspector. You should put more effort into cultivation and break through to the True God Realm. Once you become a True God, you'll regain your freedom. Then we can join the army together and win glory for the Meng'an Tribe. Our An family is one of the tribe's proudest!" An Sai, the leaner one, said after a long pause.
"A True God?" Longing flickered through the sturdy An Ruiqi's eyes. "I want to break through too..."
But he had remained a Lord of Laws for more than twenty Eras of Reincarnation. Could he still break through? His chances were probably vanishingly small.
"Brother, believe—"
"Hm?"
Suddenly, An Sai and An Ruiqi sensed a violent spatial fluctuation less than a hundred kilometers ahead. Both their expressions changed.
They turned toward its source.
In an instant, space there seemed to twist into a vortex some two hundred meters wide. A nine-story pagoda the size of a fist flew out. The vortex vanished, and so did the pagoda. In its place hovered two figures, one dressed in white and one in black, each about two meters tall.
So this is Origin Continent? Where's Origin Ancestor?
Luo Feng had felt a powerful summons from the Reincarnation Passage. Then, without warning, he had found himself in an entirely new world. He instantly sensed his surroundings and emerged from the Star Tower only after finding no danger.
But just as Mountain Guest had said, he had been separated from Origin Ancestor.
After passing through reincarnation, one could land anywhere on Origin Continent.
Luo Feng's gaze settled on An Sai and An Ruiqi, a hundred kilometers away. The strongest two here are a Lord of Laws and a True God.
For now, the area was safe. From inside the Star Tower, Luo Feng had already sensed everything nearby. The strongest beings were the True God and Lord of Laws before him.
The gravity and suppression are intense, Luo Feng thought.
This was indeed the birthplace of the Three Thousand Dimension Worlds. The sheer force of its suppression astonished even Luo Feng.
In the Primal Universe or the Universe Ocean, sensing one's surroundings across hundreds or even tens of thousands of light-years had been easy. Here, his awareness extended only about a million kilometers.
Of course, that was his passive awareness, not an active sweep of his domain.
Even so, the range was less than a ten-thousandth of what it had been in the Universe Ocean. The suppression of perception here was staggering.
The gravity was more startling still. Under its pull, anyone below the level of Venerable would probably be unable to stay aloft.
Space here was as stable as in the Universe Ocean. But without the pressure of Primal Chaos Currents, it exerted an even stronger binding force. Flight would be much slower, perhaps less than a tenth as fast as in the Universe Ocean.
As expected of the birthplace of the Three Thousand Dimension Worlds, Luo Feng thought.
Arriving on Origin Continent felt much like entering the Universe Ocean from the Primal Universe for the first time. The difference was the powerful spatial suppression here. His perception and divine-body strength could probably exert only a fraction of the power they had in the Universe Ocean.
But the suppression affected everyone on Origin Continent, not just him.
Luo Feng could tell from the two members of the Alien Race flying toward him.
A Lord of Laws and a True God should have been able to teleport across a hundred kilometers in an instant. Yet these two apparently could not. They had to fly.
Luo Feng sensed that he, too, probably could not teleport directly, unless he used One Thought Void or One Thought Universe. Within the domain of either technique, teleportation should be possible.
The two soon arrived.
"May I ask who you two seniors are?"
An Sai and An Ruiqi sensed vast yet tightly restrained auras from the newcomers. Guessing that both might be Void True Gods, they shrank to about Luo Feng's height—two meters—as a sign of respect.
Only when they stood before Luo Feng and Morosa did they ask their question in respectful voices.
The Duandong River Lineage contained no record of their language.
Luo Feng understood their meaning nonetheless.
"We're adventurers. We stumbled into a dangerous place and were unexpectedly transported here. Where are we?" Luo Feng replied in a language recorded in the Duan Donghe Inheritance. They did not share a language, but the intent carried by his words conveyed their meaning.
"Adventurers?" An Sai and An Ruiqi exchanged glances. Both found the answer somewhat believable. When they looked back at Luo Feng and Morosa, there was admiration in their eyes.
It never occurred to them that the two had crossed the Reincarnation Passage from one of the Three Thousand Dimension Worlds. They knew little—if anything—about the Universe Ocean, and had never heard of anything like this.
But hearing Luo Feng call himself an adventurer filled them with respect.
Adventuring was not something ordinary people dared attempt.
Adventurers had visited the Meng'an Tribe long ago, when the brothers were still young. Just hearing others recount their stories had filled them with yearning. They had even resolved to become adventurers when they grew up. Now one was a Lord of Laws and the other had reached the True God Realm, yet the tribe still would not permit them to venture out.
The world was far more dangerous than they had imagined.
The lean An Sai stole a glance into Luo Feng's eyes.
Boom!
A dizzying sensation struck him without warning, and his mind went blank. When he came to, Luo Feng was smiling at him. Shock surged through his heart.
What terrifying eyes. A chill ran through An Sai. If Luo Feng had meant to kill him, a single glance might have been enough.
An Ruiqi was stunned too and quickly averted his gaze.
"Seniors, this is the Azure Domain of the You Mountain Empire. We belong to the Meng'an Tribe. My name is An Sai, and this is my older brother, An Ruiqi." The lean An Sai had grown even more respectful.
The You Mountain Empire? The Azure Domain? The Meng'an Tribe? Luo Feng nodded thoughtfully.
He swiftly searched the records of the Duandong River Lineage in his mind. They did mention the You Mountain Empire, but only briefly.
The You Mountain Empire was an ancient realm. It had existed long before the founding of the Wu Kingdom. But it lay so far away that the Wu Kingdom knew almost nothing about it. From rumor alone, it knew that its founding ruler, the God King You Mountain, was a figure of immense age and renown.
Luo Feng realized his luck had probably been poor. He must have landed an immense distance from the Wu Kingdom.
The Duandong River Lineage also recorded that every great God King realm had an enormous spatial teleportation array. Such arrays could carry travelers between realms in an instant, but the cost was so high that even a Saint-level Existence might balk at it.
Luo Feng could not afford to think about traveling to the Wu Kingdom yet.
"Seniors, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to invite you both to visit the Meng'an Tribe. We'll be sure to welcome you warmly," An Sai said.
"That sounds good. We were transported here by accident and don't know the area. Learning about the customs of different places is something we adventurers enjoy." Luo Feng nodded.
He had only just arrived on Origin Continent, and the Duandong River Lineage's records said next to nothing about the You Mountain Empire. Perhaps he could learn more at the Meng'an Tribe.
More importantly, Luo Feng had searched An Sai's and An Ruiqi's souls without their noticing. He knew the tribe's strongest members were only two Void True Gods, who posed no threat to them. Those Void True Gods would probably know far more than the brothers.
I've read Swallowed Star at least five times, and I love the story. The book may have ended, but to me, the story hasn't.
Why did I suddenly decide to write a sequel? Because I wanted to give the story an ending that felt right to me.
Why write it now, long after the excitement has died down? Because after rereading the book several times, I couldn't get the story of Origin Continent out of my head.
Why write another sequel when one already exists? Because that was someone else's sequel, not mine. So I started writing.
I've finished the outline. I simply want to take the story to a more distant ending. That's all. If it's not for you, please don't attack it.