Chapter 1618: Last Star Chart

With Yan Ming and the corpse of his External Avatar, Shang Xia ran for more than 1,000,000 miles. Only after ensuring no one was following did he slow down. He looked for a deserted region to settle down to restore his cultivation.

"What exactly happened? What is in that world?" Yan Ming asked, twisting her wrist that Shang Xia had been holding.

Shang Xia shook his head and pointed to the External Avatar beside him. It was reduced to a mere zombie-like state, and he mumbled, "The strand of soul I left in it has been completely eliminated. I didn't get to share everything he saw in the world in time; only some scattered images remain."

"Do you have any guesses?" Yan Ming knew Shang Xia must have some insights. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have told her not to look back and to block her field of vision with his body.

Shang Xia recalled the eye that appeared above the heavenly screen back then and he felt his scrap tingling when he thought about it again. After thinking for some time, he sighed, “The last transmission from my External Avatar was that there was a supreme expert on the world. His cultivation should be in the Martial Emptiness Realm at the very least, and his combat strength should reach the third star of the Martial Emptiness Realm.”

"How can you be sure?" Yan Ming immediately frowned after hearing his explanation.

Shang Xia continued, "My External Avatar has my experience and I once saw Zhuo Gudao facing a third star Martial Emptiness Realm clone outside the Essence Ping World with the help of the Star Origin Guards and the Spirit Observation World. If my External Avatar ran into something in the world that was weaker than them, he wouldn’t have been so desperate to escape.”

Yan Ming felt that Shang Xia's reasoning wasn't entirely convincing, but before she could object, Shang Xia added, "Moreover, I suspect that the being sleeping in that plane world is likely non-human."

"What?!" Yan Ming couldn't help but exclaim.

Thinking about the eyeball that had appeared on the heavenly screen, Shang Xia felt his inner qi trembling whenever he thought about it. It was clear the eye had the ability to affect one’s soul.

Shang Xia's own foundation was solid, and his soul was exceptionally robust. It was what prevented the attacker from succeeding.

Nevertheless, some lingering effects still troubled him. And the feeling probably needed more time to fully dissipate.

Despite many unknowns about that world, it was clearly not the time to delve deeper.

Yan Ming glanced at his External Avatar, now a zombified body with many injuries, and asked, "How is he?"

Shang Xia shook his head. "The soul that was originally there has been completely extinguished, but fortunately, the physical damage is not severe. Once I infuse another strand of soul, he should awaken again."

Yan Ming nodded, set up a simple array for concealment around them, and after notifying Shang Xia, went into meditation to recover.

Shang Xia, while reflecting on the last fragmented images sent back by his External Avatar, infused a stream of inner qi into the body of the External Avatar to heal the internal and external injuries.

"That has to be a newly created world..." Shang Xia recalled the scene when the External Avatar first crossed the heavenly screen. A huge ball of light suspended in the sky, radiating light and warmth. The primal light contained within was familiar to him. It was identical to the energy contained in the great sun with the dark spot!

There was no doubt about it. The sun in the world had been carved out from the sun itself!

On the ground, the human beings lived in tribal societies but were conducting a grand sacrificial ceremony in a very primitive way. Living humans were being sacrificed to a monster that even the External Avatar couldn't clearly see.

The External Avatar had triggered some mechanism while trying to see the object of the sacrifice. Immediately afterward, a terrifying presence descended over the tribal area. Realizing the danger, the External Avatar chose to flee outside the heavenly screen, leading to the subsequent events and confirming the horrifying presence hidden within that strange world as non-human.

As for why this mysterious and terrifying being would create a world and hide within it, Shang Xia could not know, and he certainly did not wish to find out at that point in time.

For him, the priority was to quickly complete the survey of the fifth and final Star Chart.

Due to the presence of the strange plane world and the large dark spot on the sixth sun, the fourth chart was instantly eliminated from his scope of consideration.

Fortunately, Shang Xia still had the third Star Chart as a backup. The next step would be to see if their luck would improve as they surveyed the fifth chart.

As Shang Xia infused another strand of soul into the External Avatar's body, the fourth tier True Immortal-level External Avatar was revived.

"Are you alright? Do you need to rest a bit longer?" Yan Ming, fully recovered, looked at Shang Xia's somewhat pale face and suggested.

The newly revived External Avatar chuckled, "This little damage won't affect my combat power. As for the fatigue in my soul, it should recover in a few days. We can continue the survey while recovering."

Yan Ming glanced at Shang Xia, who smiled silently before grumbling inwardly.

Shang Xia was eager to complete the survey of the last star map as quickly as possible to maximize time efficiency.

Seeing as there was no way to convince him otherwise, Yan Ming quickly planned their route according to the last chart.

Each Star Chart contained the positions of 7 suns arranged in the Big Dipper. As Yuan Qiuyuan and Xin Lu were only able to observe the positions of those suns through the Star Observatory, they were only able to create the Star Charts. Yan Ming and Shang Xia had to verify them personally.

Due to the distance and their current position, the first sun they needed to find on the fifth Star Chart was in the Merak position.

To find it, the trio traveled about 10,000,000 miles in the void, passing through several maze-like asteroid belts, circling around 3 or 4 smaller suns, and passing through several Earth Stars with living beings before finally arriving at the section of the void corresponding to the Star Chart.

Once they had accurately located the section of the void, finding the corresponding sun was much easier. After all, with diameters reaching tens or even hundreds of thousands of miles, such suns hanging in the void were impossible to miss unless they were actually blind... Even then, they would likely be able to feel its presence.

However, the moment the trio saw the giant blazing orb, they were all struck by its similarity in size to the previously encountered great sun with the dark spot.

"The energy it contains is extremely abundant! There are no worlds or Earth Stars around either, and even asteroids are scarce...”