Chapter 1002 - The Dark and Gold Star Realm, the Celestial Ruin

Bloody clouds churned, and lightning flashed.

Su Yi waved the Immortal-Beating Mallet and charged ahead alongside the Netherworld King.

“Fellow Daoist, it’s just as we expected. Two experts of the Church of the River of Stars are pursuing us,” she said with a hint of strange light in her eyes.

When they left Allriver Mountain, Su Yi transmitted a message to her saying to keep an eye on what went on behind them and see if anyone was following them.

Now, her keen senses told her they were indeed being followed.

“Two of them? Seems one of them has yet to show up,” Su Yi said thoughtfully. “They’re either stationed outside the Reincarnation Grounds, or they’re near Allriver Mountain. But then, they won’t have too much of an impact either way.”

Earlier, Yun Qi told him that five experts of the Church of the River of Stars had entered the Mausoleum of the Gods.

One was the Sacred Emissary of their Celestial palace, while the other four were Guardians of the Faith.

The Sacred Emissary of mysterious origins had long since entered the Reincarnation Grounds. Now that Yun Qi had met with catastrophe, only three Guardians of the Faith remained.

That’s how Su Yi reached this conclusion.

“Should we attack?” The Netherworld King looked a bit eager.

“Let’s wait a little longer,” said Su Yi. But then, something occurred to him, and he asked “Which is stronger? The Nine Heavens Pavilion’s Laws of Heavenly Prayer, or the Laws of Cosmic Silence?”

The Netherworld King made no attempt to hide the truth. “In the depths of the starry skies, this is no secret. Since you want to know, I naturally won’t keep it from you, Fellow Daoist.

“Both the Laws of Heavenly Prayer and the Laws of Cosmic Silence are ‘Celestial Laws.’ Both were born of a star realm’s source power, and both transcend the Laws of the worlds therein.

“A star realm encompasses numerous worlds and planes. So long as you’ve mastered its Celestial Law, you can stand atop other worlds.

“Take the Heavenly Prayer Star Realm. Numerous worlds and planes of all sizes are spread throughout its territories, but only the Nine Heavens Pavilion controls the Laws of Heavenly Prayer born of its source.

“In the eyes of the Heavenly Prayer Star Realm’s cultivators, the Nine Heavens Pavilion are like the sovereigns wielding the power of heaven’s will.

“But in the Cosmic Silence Star Realm, the same is true of the Church of the River of Stars and their Laws of Cosmic Silence.”

Here, the Netherworld King twirled a lock of blue hair growing at her temples. She continued, “When an expert of the Nine Heavens Pavilion comes here, we can rely on the power of the Laws of Heavenly Prayer to suppress experts of the same cultivation. We can even defeat foes of higher levels.

“Thus, in the eyes of this world’s cultivators, our Laws of Heavenly Prayer are like a catastrophe of the Grand Dao.”

Su Yi couldn’t help but nod. “That’s not too far from what I guessed. At the end of the day, it’s just a difference in the level of your power of the Grand Dao.”

They said there were three thousand Grand Daos, but that wasn’t an exact number. It really just meant that there were an enormous number of Daos, too many to count.

However, some Grand Daos were grander than others.

It was just as the Netherworld King said. A Star Realm encompassed numerous planes and worlds. Those who mastered its ultimate power of the Grand Dao were like embodiments of the will of heaven!

Su Yi asked with great interest, “Then do you think there’s a Celestial Law akin to heaven’s will in the Wilds?”

The Netherworld King’s gaze shifted inscrutably, and she shook her head. “No. The Heavenly Prayer Star Realm I came from is complete, but the Star Realm containing these worlds is not. Its worlds and planes are scattered and fragmented.

She paused, then continued, “Fellow Daoist, should the day come that you venture into the starry sky, you’ll undoubtedly discover that both the Netherworld and the Wilds lie within a chaotic, battered Star Realm. It’s impossible to uncover its celestial source. Naturally, no supreme Celestial Law exists either.”

Su Yi’s eyebrows rose, and he realized a problem——

Was it practically impossible to reach a path beyond the Profound Dao in the Wilds and its affiliated worlds because this star realm was fragmented?

“However, before I left for the Netherworld, I heard the Supreme Leader say that this fragmented star realm was once called the Dark and Gold Star Realm. A long, long time ago, it was utterly dazzling, and it was seen as the ancestral origin of all Grand Daos throughout the stars. It once gave rise to countless legendary experts, people strong enough to make innumerable worlds shake.”

The Netherworld King’s eyes shone with reminiscence. “Alas, the Supreme Leader didn’t go into detail. All he said was that the Dark and Gold Star Realm were destroyed due to a mysterious catastrophe. After the catastrophe ended, all of the realm’s gods were dead, and its legends disappeared like smoke. The entire star realm was reduced to fragmented ruins; as a result, it has been called the Celestial Ruin ever since.”

When it was at its most dazzling, the Dark and Gold Star Realm was considered the ancestral source of all Grand Daos, and countless legendary figures brilliant enough to dazzle all worlds arose here!

But after it withered, it was reduced to fragmented wreckage, the Celestial Ruin!

Even Su Yi couldn’t help but feel stunned, and his heart shook.

In his past life, he was the sole sovereign of the Wilds, the Swordmaster of Abstruse Force. He’d read countless ancient tomes, and he had indeed seen the term “the Celestial Ruin.” However, they were nothing but bits and pieces, with no explanation of what the name meant.

Only now did he realize that this referred to this ruined star realm!

And only now did he learn that this fragmented star realm was once utterly radiant and dazzling!

“That aside, do you know anything else about the Dark and Gold Star Realm?” asked Su Yi.

The Netherworld King shook her head. “By the time the catastrophe ended, the cultivators of the Dark and Gold Star Realm had been all but wiped out. Furthermore, in the countless years that followed, the vast majority of cultivators throughout the stars have completely forgotten the Dark and Gold Star Realm.”

“Even I only heard the Supreme Leader describe it briefly. Before that, I didn’t even know an ancient ruin like the former Dark and Gold Star Realm existed.”

Su Yi couldn’t help but furrow his brow.

The passage of time was indeed heartless. Eventually, it would wash away and erase all traces of ages gone by.

And besides, the Dark and Gold Star Realm had faced an enormous tribulation. Its gods were dead and buried, and its legends were no longer.

He’d never heard any of this even in his past life, so it went without saying that others had no idea either.

Waves coursed through Su Yi’s heart.

Normally, he wouldn’t have reacted so strongly. It was just that the Netherworld King’s description of these ancient secrets was far too shocking. It was completely beyond Su Yi’s perception of reality.

In my past life, I cultivated in pursuit of the Dao for 108,000 years, but I never learned these secrets. That alone is proof of how terrifying the catastrophe that befell the Dark and Gold Star Realm was; it practically wiped out the world’s legacies and transmission of the Grand Dao. Otherwise, there’s no way there wouldn’t at least be a few records left behind… Su Yi thought to himself.

“However, when I arrived in the Netherworld, I realized that the fragmented ruins of the Dark and Gold Star Realm really were unbelievable.” The Netherworld King said with a hint of ruefulness, “For example, the secrets of reincarnation are a taboo power that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the starry skies.

“And that Heaven-Deceiving Grass actually neutralized the Grand Dao Oath I took in the Nine Heavens Pavilion. That surpassed my imagination; a treasure like that is simply heaven-defying.”

Here, her eyes shone with strange light, and she stared intently at Su Yi. “Of course, the power you’ve mastered is the most shocking and unbelievable of all!”

Even now, she couldn’t imagine how the power to contend with both the Laws of Heavenly Prayer and the Laws of Cosmic Silence could exist within this ruined star realm.

This completely overturned her perception!

And the thought that this was the power the Supreme Leader had been searching for all this time made her heart quiver uncontrollably.

It was for this very reason that she realized on a visceral level that before its grand and mysterious catastrophe, the Dark and Gold Star Realm really had been glorious. What little remained of its foundations still ran unimaginably deep!

Su Yi laughed. “So we’re like a clan that was once prosperous, only to suffer a devastating decline.”

Learning these secrets didn’t upset Su Yi. If anything, it piqued his curiosity. This made the world much more interesting!

It was also now that Su Yi finally sensed some sincerity from the Netherworld King.

She had always kept her secrets tightly under wraps. There was no way she would have revealed something like this to him.

However, just as Su Yi planned to strike while the iron was hot and see if he could pry more secrets out of the Netherworld King, she said, “Fellow Daoist, isn’t that the entrance to the hidden realm you spoke of earlier?”

Su Yi got his emotions under control, looked over, and nodded.

Off in the distant landscape, a massive spatial vortex floated in the air, like the gaping maw of heaven and earth.

A whirlpool of surging spatial power fluctuations revolved, letting out rumbling booms. This threw the entire area into chaos, and heaven and earth distorted.

The red lightning blanketing the ruins was obviously much sparser here. Almost none of it remained.

Suddenly, a figure shot over from the distance, seemingly out of nowhere.

It was a man in long purple robes and a Lotus Nebula Crown. His gaze was calm with a hint of pride.

Before he’d even drawn near, he said leisurely, “You’ve already been surrounded.”

The Netherworld King had a strange look in her eyes. “Fellow Daoist, it seems there’s no need for you to worry about things at Allriver Mountain. The third Guardian of the Faith was keeping watch outside the hidden realm all along.”

“Hm,” said Su Yi. “That’s naturally for the best.”

The purple-robed man frowned; he sensed that something wasn’t quite right here. These two were too calm and too fearless. It seemed they’d long since anticipated their arrival.

He stopped in his tracks about a thousand feet away, then said probingly, “Did you… guess you’d encounter me?”

“You’re not completely stupid after all,” the Netherworld King said with a smile. Her beautiful eyes darted about as she laughed, “Tell me, should we send you on your way now? Or should we wait for you two companions to arrive, then send the three of you on your way together?”

The purple-robed man’s eyelids twitched.

It was then that someone sighed behind Su Yi and the Netherworld King.

“Junior Apprentice Brother, it seems they discovered us a long time ago. There’s no need to skulk about any longer.”

Before this voice had even finished echoing through the air, an elder in ornate robes and a man in white shot over from distant skies.

These were three Guardians of the Faith from the church’s Cloud Division. There was one in front, and two in back. Su Yi and the Netherworld King were beset on both sides!

However, both of them were just as calm as before. Their expressions never so much as wavered.

They’d long since anticipated this, so how could they possibly panic over it?