Chapter 2010: Changes to the Void Mirage Pt.3

At that moment, the Star Origin Lord and Shang Xia were engaged in a contest of martial wills against their opponents.

The Star Origin Lord’s situation was still unclear, but Shang Xia had already fought his opponent to a standstill several times across the void. It was not the first time Shang Xia had faced beings from beyond the Chaotic Sea of Stars, but whether it was his experience in the Nebula Forbidden Region or his adventure in the great void vortex, neither could compare to the cunning and unpredictability of his current encounter.

The instant he infused his inner qi produced from his Big Dipper Star Origin into the seal, joining the Star Origin Lord to maintain and reinforce the seal while extending his soul into it, Shang Xia realized that he and the Star Origin Lord had already fallen into the enemy’s trap.

The experts on the other side had clearly discerned that the chief obstacle to breaking through into the Chaotic Sea of Stars was both high-level Sages who had laid down the seal. Rather than waste their strength attacking the seal from across the void, drawing the attention of the enemy’s experts and leading to a protracted tug-of-war, it was far more effective to lure those very experts into battle. Once they were drawn over, they immediately dragged their souls into battle.

It would minimize the advantage of the Chaotic Sea of Stars’s void seal and might even shatter their greatest barrier to invasion in one perfect strike.

Judging from the nature of the void seal, it had been crafted by two high-level Sages, which meant that the defenders likely did not have many such experts in reserve.

In such cases, winning by superior numbers was the easiest and most direct method.

Unfortunately for the invaders, they had chosen the wrong opponents.

Neither the Star Origin Lord nor Shang Xia could be measured by common standards for high-level Sages.

Among the foreign experts invading the Chaotic Sea of Stars, there were five with strength equivalent to a high-level Sage. Even with the distance between their Star Fields diminishing their strength, their combined might should have been enough to repel or even severely wound two high-level Sages.

Yet the reality was that the Star Origin Lord and Shang Xia not only withstood their assault but even attempted a counterattack in perfect, unspoken coordination. Facing five of them, and the vast distance and barrier across the Star Fields, they never expected such a counter to truly injure the enemy. They merely wanted to probe their strength.

As expected, the Star Origin Lord and Shang Xia’s counterattack was easily blocked and shattered by the enemy experts, and the soul strands they sent out were completely erased.

"Five high-level Sages... Three at the sixth star, one at the seventh star... Another at the grand compilation stage?! Four fourth star sages and three fifth star Sages. Nearly ten second and third star Sages!”

In the fleeting moment when his soul extended across the void, Shang Xia had already formed a rough picture of the enemy’s overall strength.

"Illusory Sea of Stars!" Compared to Shang Xia’s findings, the Star Origin Lord merely uttered three words.

"Hmm?" Shang Xia’s heart stirred. "That’s the name of their Star Field?"

The Star Origin Lord simply nodded in silence.

Sensing something, Shang Xia frowned. "You know about them?"

The Star Origin Lord did not answer immediately, instead wearing a look of distant recollection.

Shang Xia’s dissatisfaction grew, and he was about to speak when the Star Origin Lord said, "Forgive me. The memories are too old, it’s not easy to recall the details."

Shang Xia only gave a dry chuckle in response. The Star Origin Lord ignored his tone and continued, "Over 1,000 years ago, during the previous invasion, the Illusory Sea of Stars was one of the participants. Later, it was even one of the behind-the-scenes forces driving the united destruction of the Heaven Observation Sect by the great powers of the Chaotic Sea of Stars’ Heavenly Fields.”

"Cultivators from this Star Field rarely reveal their true identities in public. Even when they do show one, it is often false. They possess powerful souls, unyielding martial wills, and can easily twist and manipulate one’s thoughts, taking and wearing the identities of others. Their methods are cunning and hidden, turning people into unwitting pawns.”

"But I did not expect them to now wield such mastery over large-scale illusions, even making the false become real. This was a technique they did not display back then."

Shang Xia frowned. "Perhaps they did, and no one knew."

The Star Origin Lord paused, then slowly nodded in agreement.

Shang Xia went on, "In that case, we have all the more reason to suppress them and prevent them from descending into the Chaotic Sea of Stars so easily."

The Star Origin Lord’s face showed rare helplessness. "That is all we can do. But it’s only a matter of time before they truly arrive."

Shang Xia said, "We are merely a handful of Heavenly Fields in one Star Region, while they are an entire Star Field. Naturally, we can’t hope to hold them off, especially since what they’ve shown so far may not be their full strength."

The Star Origin Lord smiled. "Yet you, Sage Shang, don’t seem worried. Have you already thought of a countermeasure?"

Shang Xia returned the smile and mirrored his tone. "Star Origin Lord, are you not equally confident? I wonder, how far are you now from the Martial Eternity Realm?"

A single Star Region could never truly match a Star Field. Even figures like the Star Origin Lord and Shang Xia could not claim a certain victory against such a disparity in power.

Both knew that the only true solution to this looming crisis lay in a breakthrough.

If someone could step into the Martial Eternity Realm before the invasion, the crisis would resolve itself.

For cultivators at their level, striving toward the Martial Eternity Realm was nothing surprising.

The Star Origin Lord, in particular, had already laid his own path bare for all to see.

As they spoke, the Illusory Sea of Stars’s experts once again struck the Heaven Observation Star Region’s seal. Almost in unison, Shang Xia and the Star Origin Lord loosened part of their shared control over it, while Gu Yi, who had been evidently prepared, immediately pushed his inner qi into it.

What had been maintained by two high-level Sages now had a third.

Though Gu Yi was inferior to the Star Origin Lord and Shang Xia in every aspect, a high-level Sage’s cultivation could not be faked, and his presence strengthened the void seal immediately.

The next moment, the souls of five high-level Sages from the Illusory Sea of Stars surged across the void, meeting the three in a direct, unadorned clash.

The void seal shook violently, and the Heaven Observation Star Region’s Sages paused to watch the outcome.

Yet instead of stabilizing quickly after Gu Yi’s addition, the seal shook even longer than when it was just the Star Origin Lord and Shang Xia who were holding it down.

As the watching Sages puzzled over this, the turbulent seal suddenly stilled, and the figures of the Star Origin Lord, Shang Xia, and Gu Yi reappeared in the void.

Gu Yi’s face still bore a trace of shock. The Star Origin Lord looked at Shang Xia and sighed. "Sage Shang, you are too strong. If my old eyes are not mistaken, you must be close to reaching the seventh star."