Chapter 167. Three Thousand Starfields, the Age of Great Wars Is Here

Beings from the Outer Cosmos had descended, and they all had one goal in mind—to plunder the boons born from this world's awakening. As time ticked by, the speed at which everyone evolved would only become even faster. By then, this era could truly be called the Great Age.

Unfortunately, the increased rate of evolution meant conflicts, including full-scale wars, were inevitable.

The starfields scattered throughout deep space were nothing like Earth had been before, when evolution was impossible.

Their inhabitants had been evolving for millennia—no, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years. One could say that mighty beings were in abundance there, and it wouldn't be strange if there were beings capable of annihilating stars with a single strike among them.

Upon reaching the fourth stage of evolution, the Golden Body Realm, Lu Yuan could say that he was invincible among the Awakened on Earth.

The only opponents who could possibly match him were those beings from the Outer Cosmos. Hence, even though their arrival weighed heavily on his heart, he was also thrilled to meet them.

After all, since the New Era began, Lu Yuan had never fought at full strength. He had utterly crushed every opponent that dared stand in his way.

If he wished to become a true powerhouse, he would need to experience great battles, and the beings from the Outer Cosmos were the best opponents for him.

This wasn't exactly a bad thing for him. Battles would temper him and propel him even further into the path of evolution until he reached the apex.

With his current level of strength, he was strong enough to prevent the catastrophes that had occurred in his previous life. After all, the great clans from the starfields outside had never been kind to them.

Of course, Lu Yuan wasn't invincible.

Against those who had walked further down the path of evolution, beings whose power was capable of illuminating the firmament, he was absolutely not their match. The gap between them was simply too huge for him to cross.

However, Earth was being protected by a mysterious power at the moment. At first, Lu Yuan was unaware of the identity of those enigmatic runes, but through his conversation with Jiang Ningxian, Lu Yuan had come to understand.

The sages of humanity from ancient times had deployed them to protect the Earth. They were part of what was called the Separation of Heaven and Earth.

The Separation of Heaven and Earth had rendered Earth unsuitable for evolution, but it also protected all life on Earth in more ways than one. From that, Lu Yuan inferred that the "Great Calamity" those sages had anticipated could be even more terrifying than he could ever imagine.

The stronger I become, the more I learn, yet the more I learn, the more mysteries I encounter...

Lu Yuan couldn't help but sigh. However, he didn't dwell on it any further and simply stepped out of the chamber.

Soon, Elder Ji, Elder Yun, and other high-ranking officials, along with some elite students, visited him. All had anxiety written across their faces.

Clearly, the changes occurring in outer space had left them feeling utterly helpless, and they all wanted to hear Lu Yuan's opinion before deciding on their next course of action.

Lu Yuan knew what they wanted. He immediately called over Jiang Ningxian, who was staying in the building next door. She was from the Outer Cosmos, so her knowledge of the Outer Cosmos ran far deeper than him.

Before long, a meeting about the beings from the Outer Cosmos was convened.

Lu Yuan sat at the head, while Elder Ji and the other six members of the Wanglong Pavilion took their seats.

Jiang Ningxian offered her insights as their partner, but she made it clear that defeating those beings was impossible. What they could only do was keep striving to become even stronger, but the gap between the two sides was just too vast.

Hence, they only had one choice—strengthen the five supercities.

At the same time, they would mobilize as many resources as possible to cultivate more Awakened to replace the normal troops of the nation's armed forces. By now, humanity's weapons of mass destruction were almost obsolete. In fact, it could no longer serve as an effective deterrent.

None of this was particularly difficult, given that the nation had absorbed the accumulated resources of the Three Immortal Islands. Tens of thousands of Awakened remained there, and they weren't exactly weak.

To prevent any rebellion on their side, oaths had to be made.

There was also the matter of Elder Ji and the others hoping to allocate certain resources to Lu Yuan, allowing him to grow even stronger. After all, he was the most powerful Awakened on their side.

However, Lu Yuan chose not to accept their offer. There was simply too much to do in the days ahead; he couldn't possibly attend to everything personally. Moreover, ordinary resources were of little use to him at this point.

Based on Jiang Ningxian's suggestions, they decided to coin the stages of evolution after the Golden Body Realm. Adopted from the unified terms of the Outer Cosmos, they also called the fifth stage of evolution the Venerable King Realm, while the sixth, seventh, and eighth stages of evolution comprised the three stages of being a Sage.

Finally, Lu Yuan emphasized one thing. Unless it was absolutely necessary, they ought to avoid any conflict with beings from the Outer Cosmos. Of course, if they dared to come looking for trouble, there was no need to be afraid.

The Separation of Heaven and Earth meant that they wouldn't be too powerful upon their descent. In a nutshell, the takeaway was that they had to lie low and bide their time.

They had no choice. Lu Yuan couldn't possibly attend to everything himself, after all.

"Upon their descent, they'll surely seize locations with great boons," Lu Yuan added, "This will happen all over the world; no one will be spared. Aside from the territories already under our control, we'll leave everything alone... for now."

This was Lu Yuan's instruction to the upper echelons, and of course, this was all connected to a series of plans he had already formulated in his mind.

Elder Ji and the others readily agreed. Indeed, they had no choice.

With that, the meeting was adjourned.

Outside, Lu Yuan and Jiang Ningxian walked side by side.

"From the information they've gathered so far, people from the two major clans are outside," Jiang Ningxian said, "One of them is a clan of Celestials from the Thunderflash Starfield.

Yi

is from that clan."

Upon killing Yi, Lu Yuan had formed enmity between himself and the Celestials.

They would certainly avenge Yi. In fact, it was only a matter of time.

Lu Yuan, however, seemed unconcerned. Instead, he asked, "Are there many starfields in deep space?"

He had some knowledge about it, but anything further than the basics eluded him. Since they were already talking about the starfields outside, he decided to ask questions to learn more about them.

"There are lots of them; there are a total of three thousand starfields out there," Jiang Ningxian replied with a smile. "Each starfield is controlled by a major clan, with numerous lesser clans subordinate to them.

"Of course, many starfields are too distant to come here so easily, but the top one hundred starfields can definitely make the journey here. The Thunderflash Starfield is one of those top one hundred starfields."

𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Lu Yuan nodded, understanding that "three thousand starfields" was merely an approximation. It didn't mean there were only exactly three thousand starfields outside.

In Daoist scriptures, there were records of "three thousand great worlds," indicating that there were a myriad of worlds in the universe.

As for the so-called top one hundred starfields, it was self-explanatory. They were the hundred most powerful starfields in existence.

Lu Yuan smiled. "The Desolate Flame Starfield, where Miss Jiang's Ancestral Planet can be found, must be among the top ten of those one hundred starfields, am I correct?"

"Of course." Jiang Ningxian nodded, offering no further explanation. "In any case, the changes occurring in this world have drawn the attention of every starfield in the universe. This is the Great Age, and it is also an era of great wars and strife."

With a faint smile, she bowed slightly and returned to her quarters.

Lu Yuan could sense a formidable power within Jiang Ningxian. That formidable power was being constantly suppressed, but there were signs of it shattering that suppression.

Once unleashed, she'd be stronger than me,

he thought, realizing that Jiang Ningxian was no ordinary person. Her true strength was unfathomable. Had it not been for the Separation of Heaven and Earth, she would have been able to unleash her full power.

Of course, this had nothing to do with him for the time being.

Lu Yuan returned to his training chamber as he got ready to adapt to his newfound power at the Golden Body Realm. He chose not to enter closed-door seclusion and ignore the outside world, as he knew those beings from the Outer Cosmos could descend at any moment.

He had to stay vigilant. If an incident happened, he had to react to it immediately.

The government spent the following days consolidating its forces and pouring more resources into monitoring outer space. Since the last incident where dozens of starships failed their attack, the invaders had fallen silent.

They neither advanced nor retreated.

As days passed, more entities emerged and approached Earth. They remained in outer space, seemingly observing Earth. The probes took a closer look at them and revealed that they belonged to different major clans and factions.

In addition, tension seemed to be brewing between them.

Eventually, the starships charged their weapons to prepare for a battle, but no conflict erupted. They seemed to have reached a tacit understanding and turned their attention toward Earth instead.

Several days later, they made their move. Men with wings similar to the Winged Celestial God, as well as armored women and colossal beasts, appeared before everyone.

Quite a few of them landed on the nearby asteroids, and they somehow managed to steer those rocks toward Earth. The terrifying sight shook the entire world to its core, and it made one thing clear—their descent had finally begun.

The government used high-tech equipment to broadcast the event live. In the footage, meteors carrying over a thousand formidable beings hurtled toward Earth.

The terrifying scene left everyone stupefied. The invaders' appearance varied wildly; some resembled humans, while others had bizarre shapes of epic proportions.

As they approached the Earth, the faces of those watching turned pale in fear.

「Beings from space are descending upon our world! They're like demons and gods. Is Earth about to enter an age of gods and demons?"

「What are we supposed to do? How are we going to survive against those things?」

「I think this is the end of our world. Even the Awakened can't handle beings like them!」

The people watched in horror, and the world was thrown into an uproar in the face of the oncoming calamity.

Just as their heated discussion reached its peak, the meteors carrying thousands of beings from the Outer Cosmos breached the Earth's atmosphere.

Boom!

A layer of runes materialized in the void. The vast majority of the meteors disintegrated upon contact with the runes. They were reduced to fine powder before vanishing completely into nothingness.

However, quite a few of them punched a hole in the runes and reached the mesosphere before entering the stratosphere right away. The meteors emanated a fierce red glow due to the extreme temperatures.

Beings from the Outer Cosmos lurked on the meteors, riding them to enter Earth.

The runes had obliterated many invaders, but many of them managed to descend. The Separation of Heaven and Earth had failed to stop them all, and over a hundred of those beings finally entered Earth.

Countless eyes watched, desperate to know where they would land. Huaxia failed to track every single one of them; they lost traces of them in the troposphere.

Eventually, the Awakened decided to investigate from afar using the power of modern technology.

Rumble!

Great earthquakes disturbed the world, and wildfires blazed toward the heavens, dyeing the clouds red. The combined destructive power of hundreds of meteors crashing into Earth was simply unimaginable.

Had it not been for the Global Awakening, which expanded the world's lands by a huge margin, the disaster would have effectively ended the world.

***

An inferno of flames shrouded an enormous crater somewhere in Huaxia. In spite of the raging flames, a white-haired man with wings sprouting from his back stood in the midst of it.

The white-haired man frowned, sensing a profound suppression of the power within him. Soon, his frown disappeared, and his mouth opened as he spoke in one of the languages of Earth.

"My power is less than a tenth of my peak power, so I'll need some time to adapt. I must lie low for a while, but it doesn't matter...

"In this land full of opportunities and boons, my rise is inevitable, and I shall crush everyone underfoot."

The white-haired man gazed in a certain direction. Then, his wings trembled, and the power of wind and lightning erupted around him.

In the proverbial blink of an eye, he transformed into a streak of light and tore through the sky, vanishing from this corner of the world.

The white-haired man was a Celestial.

At this very moment, the same scene unfolded across the world.