Firmament Sword

The seven great stars, as if merely laughing and chatting, burned themselves away as they rushed toward the youth in the Golden Battle Garment.

Outside the Grand Array, starlight blazed brilliantly. A curtain of stars hung like an inverted Star River.

From the heavens above, the Celestial Tribulation descended!

BOOM!

A heaven-shaking, earth-shattering explosion suddenly erupted.

The destructive shockwave blasted out in all directions, directly shattering the void for ten thousand miles around!

Fortunately, this was happening high above the Endless Ocean. The Seven Star Souls had deliberately focused their power on the youth in the Golden Battle Garment in their final attack, preventing the force from blasting downward.

Even so, Xu Luo could still feel the entire island beneath his feet trembling violently. The Endless Ocean was no longer just churning with furious waves. In the instant of the explosion, it was as if all the water in the entire ocean had surged into the sky!

The scene was so spectacular and intense it beggared imagination!

Suddenly, Shaking Light’s desolate and ancient voice, seemingly bidding farewell, echoed in Xu Luo’s ears.

”Xu Luo, take care!”

Just three words!

Only three words!

This was Shaking Light’s farewell!

It was also the final farewell from Shaking Light on behalf of the other six Star Souls!

In that instant, heaven and earth lost their color.

The youth’s expression finally turned incomparably foul. He roared in fury, and from his body emerged a massive Kun Fish and a Peng bird, desperately trying to break out. But they were instantly obliterated by the seven great stars!

The Golden Battle Garment automatically detached from the youth’s body, transforming into a golden dragon with menacing horns, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws as it tried to attack one of the great stars.

But the burning star rolled right over it, grinding it to ash.

”Beidou! Beidou! Beidou!” The youth roared three times, each cry shaking the heavens, filled with an endless, surging hatred that permeated the firmament.

BANG!

The youth’s body exploded, shattering into pieces. It dissolved into streams of incomparably powerful energy that shot off in all directions, seemingly trying to escape the Grand Array.

The brilliant starlight that hung like an inverted Star River, filling the firmament, flashed once. It instantly dispersed those streams of energy, which then dissipated between heaven and earth.

At the zenith of the heavens, the massive, vortex-shaped Celestial Tribulation was also struck by this power and directly disintegrated.

This was a power that did not belong to this realm. Not even the Celestial Tribulation... could stop it!

Afterward, the roiling Endless Ocean continued to churn with furious waves. Countless motes of starlight rained down from the sky, a scattered, indescribably beautiful shower.

The seven great stars were gone. The youth in the Golden Battle Garment who had looked down on the world was gone. And the Celestial Tribulation was also gone.

Starlight like rain, waves like the tide.

It was as if Xu Luo was the only one left between heaven and earth, standing on the small island continuously battered by furious waves, staring blankly at the sky.

In his Dantian, power surged, vast and mighty. But the Seven Star Souls that had accompanied him for so many years were missing.

”Shaking Light... you’re still here, right? You promised me I could enter your Star Gate to train!”

”Jade Balance, come out and say something to me! Even though you were always so cold, I know you were the kindest!”

”Kaiyang, say something! Why were you always so silent? Besides quietly transforming my physique, why were you never willing to talk with me?”

”Tianquan, you haven’t finished teaching me your understanding of space and time! You can’t just leave!”

”Phecda, the Treasure Hunting Skill is so powerful! As a star, can’t you find the true ultimate treasures of this universe? You haven’t taught me these things yet!”

”Merak, why did you only leave your power in my body? Where did you go? Please come back! I don’t want this power, I just want you all by my side!”

”Dubhe... you’re definitely still here, right? You’re the leader of the seven stars! You’re the sovereign of Beidou! You’re still watching over me in secret, aren’t you? Please come out... I’m the Eighth Star. We’re brothers and sisters. I never even got to... properly talk with all of you...”

Xu Luo muttered to himself, his spirit lost. Finally, he fell weakly to his knees. He looked up at the firmament and let out a blood-curdling roar, ”Kunpeng! I will kill you!”

An immense, surging, and unrivaled will erupted from Xu Luo, soaring straight into the nine heavens!

「Meanwhile」 in the distant depths of the cosmos, on some nameless world, inside a dilapidated Temple, the Green Robe Taoist suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood. His eyes flew open, his face a mask of shock and fury. Two terrifying beams of divine light shot from his eyes.

He slowly rose to his feet. He hadn’t moved from this spot for who knows how many years, and his gait seemed a little strange. Watching the mouthful of essence blood he had just spat out transform into energy and slowly seep into the ground, he said with a perverse expression, ”Damn you. You dare drink my blood?”

With that, he stomped his foot viciously on the ground.

BOOM!

With another heaven-shaking sound, a massive fissure split open where the Taoist had stomped, rapidly spreading into the distance.

Immediately after, viewed from high above, one could see the massive planet cracking. Centered on the Green Robe Taoist’s location, a fissure spread in opposite directions at an incredible speed!

A moment later, with a cataclysmic boom, the enormous planet actually split completely apart, breaking in two!

A torrent of magma spewed from the planet’s core, dyeing the cold, black expanse of the universe a fiery red!

The Green Robe Taoist’s rage was apparently not yet spent. He roared, punching and kicking, and directly smashed several extremely distant planets to smithereens!

His speed was utterly extreme. He just made a few gestures with his fists and feet, and those great stars exploded one after another!

Like brilliant fireworks, they bloomed in the desolate, lonely depths of the cosmos.

Only then did the Green Robe Taoist’s anger seem to subside slightly. He stood motionless in this space, yet he gave off the feeling that this vast, boundless cosmic expanse could not contain his body at all.

His every casual movement caused this region of space to tremble.

’Who was it? Who destroyed my spiritual body? Fu... was it you? Excellent... just excellent! To think that after reincarnating for so many years, you still possess that heaven-blessed spirituality, still receive the favor of a lifetime... Why? On what grounds? I won’t accept it! I am clearly the master, and you are the subordinate! On what grounds do you stand above me? Why?’

The Green Robe Taoist began to roar, and this entire region of space trembled along with him. As his movements became too violent, four invisible Order Divine Chains suddenly appeared.

The Order Divine Chains were blood-red, link after link. It was impossible to tell what material they were made of, nor what kind of Great Power could bind such a mighty expert—one who could destroy stars with a wave of his hand—here.

These four Order Divine Chains were bound to the Green Robe Taoist’s hands and feet, their length unimaginable as they stretched off into the depths of the cosmos!

”Fuck! Dammit! Dammit, dammit, dammit!” The Green Robe Taoist was enraged. He struggled, causing the four Order Divine Chains to clang and reverberate, shattering countless stars in the surrounding heavens and turning them to dust that vanished into the Cosmic Void.

”I hate these stars! I hate them! I really hate them! I especially hate them!” the Green Robe Taoist roared. Immediately, countless bolts of Celestial Thunder struck him, setting his body ablaze.

”Strike me! Go on, strike me! Damn you, will of the Great Cosmos! Sooner or later, I will replace you!” The Green Robe Taoist’s body trembled as he shrieked, but he no longer struggled violently.

Then, the Celestial Thunder vanished, and the four Order Divine Chains also slowly faded from sight.

’Originally, in just ten more years... in ten more years, my spiritual body would have returned, we would have merged into one, and your Grandpa Kunpeng would have been able to break free from these damned Order Divine Chains!’ The Green Robe Taoist said through gritted teeth. Light flickered in his eyes, and various mystical symbols appeared and disappeared within them, as if a great world were evolving in his gaze. Finally, he muttered, ’But I never expected... my spiritual body would actually be killed. Fu... you’ve really outdone yourself. The time I need to break free... has been extended by another hundred years! I need one hundred and ten years now! AAAAAAH! Dammit... It must have been you! It must! I hate you! I hate this entire world!’

Not only had he failed to gain any benefit or useful information from that spiritual body, but its destruction had caused him to suffer a massive backlash. This left the Green Robe Taoist furious but helpless.

’Hehehe, your Grandpa Kunpeng has already endured a million years. What’s another hundred-odd years to wait? Fu... you had better wait for me. I will come for you!’

As he spoke, a great star slowly formed beneath the Green Robe Taoist’s feet. A new world was instantly manifested, and a dilapidated Temple materialized to envelop his figure.

Everything... seemed to have returned to how it was.

The desolate cosmos fell silent.

...

Xu Luo walked alone, high above the Endless Ocean.

His expression was ice-cold. The cheerful, sunny youth he once was was fading further and further away.

A single Beidou Soul Star Array had entrapped and killed nearly ten thousand of this world’s top experts, but it had also caused the Seven Star Souls to depart from him.

’If I could do it all over again, maybe I would have made a different choice.’

’The greatest variable... came from that youth in the Golden Battle Garment. He was a sliver of the Kunpeng’s spiritual body, hidden in this world for so many years. His target was me.’

’Shaking Light and the others must have known this would be the outcome. But they showed no fear, no hesitation. They just did it.’

’I hate it! I hate my own powerlessness, my inability to participate in this world-defining battle. I hate that I couldn’t live and die with you!’

’This is a cold and heartless world. Almost everyone wants to find me, to refine me, to turn me into their own great fortune...’

’Only you all were always helping me, never abandoning me. You were the ones who saved me in countless moments of crisis.’

’In this world, you were like my family, giving me warmth and helping me grow.’

’And now, for my sake, you’ve even given up your lives. How can I ever repay this debt?’

’Perhaps you were only remnant souls, wisps of consciousness. Perhaps your true bodies still hang high in the heavens. But to me, you died once for my sake!’

’Kunpeng! I will cut you down!’

Xu Luo looked toward the endless firmament above and made a solemn vow.