Chapter 2048: Illegal Immigrant

Shang Xia had nearly been ambushed earlier, not because the assailant wanted to kill him, but because the other party was more desperate to rush out through the spatial gate he had opened.

Unfortunately for the guy inside, even with Shang Xia diverting part of his focus to his World Establishing Art, the attacker failed to push him away.

The second the mysterious expert withdrew, Shang Xia realized that if he continued to block the gate, they would never dare to try exiting there again. As it happened, Shang Xia was interested in the Star River before him. Though he knew there had to be unknown risks, since the mysterious expert who was so much weaker than he could roam about, so could he!

In an instant, Shang Xia settled on a plan. He feigned the pursuit of the attacker and stepped without hesitation, leaving the spatial gate behind him.

Events unfolded exactly as he had expected. The moment he entered the Star River, the void around him shifted dramatically. The gate that should have been right behind him had already vanished. Fortunately, he had made thorough preparations. Through the link between his divine soul and a portion that had been sealed in his talisman outside, he could sense his way out.

With nothing holding him back, Shang Xia set his mind at ease and began to probe the surroundings of his current position.

The environment felt familiar and strange at the same time.

It felt familiar because it felt like he was bathing in a star.

He was not unfamiliar with stars. Long before advancing to the Seven Star Realm, he had examined several stars at close range and drawn their origin light to use as part of his advancement formula.

After entering the Seven Star Realm, he went to the location of the Dipper Star Formation, even shifting it around several times. He was extremely familiar with them.

He had even reached the surface of several stars before, like how the bird emperor had slumbered in one.

Although he wasn’t actually in contact with any of the stars at the moment, they were all around him. The light and heat coming from them surpassed whatever he experienced when he merely touched one.

As for why it felt strange... While resisting the scorching heat from several nearby stars, Shang Xia suddenly found that the vitality within his body was slowly ebbing away. In the process, his skin began to roughen, and his hair turned gray. A decayed, withering aura started to grow within him...

Shang Xia did not panic. Circulating his inner qi, the loss of vitality instantly diminished by 70 to 80 percent. His inner qi produced by his Big Dipper Star Origin contained profound life force, and the moment he detected the drain, his dantian responded at once, setting itself in opposition to the force that was sapping his vitality away.

He quickly perceived that what was stealing his life force was the seemingly illusory river formed by the light and heat of countless stars converging into a slow flow.

In essence, the flowing river seemed to contain the power of time!

“No, not just time, but the power of space as well!” Shang Xia quickly made another judgment and adjusted accordingly.

When he was still in the Four Constellation Realm, his martial intent, the Four Constellation Samsara Blade, contained the power of time. His martial art at the time, the Twenty Four Solar Term Divine Blade Art, was based on the concept of time. In the Six Direction Realm, his martial intent, the Six Harmony Supporting the Heavens, could create Dao Fields and Elysiums. It even assisted a world in an advancement to a Spirit World. It was built on the power of space.

Having comprehended both martial intent, the moment Shang Xia discovered the strange forces in the Star River, he immediately separated corresponding strands of his inner qi with the same properties to counter them. He soon felt the drain of life force weaken. At least 90 percent of the erosion of his life force disappeared.

Once he could initially withstand the drain of vitality, he resumed his observations of the Star River around him, understanding its true essence.

But the earlier assailant clearly did not intend to grant him more time.

Perhaps suspecting a trap, the mysterious expert did not act immediately upon sensing that Shang Xia had stepped into the Star River and left the spatial gate. Instead, he silently observed.

He may have concluded that Shang Xia would be hindered by the erosion of space and time, unable to return, or perhaps he was just anxious to flee the Star River. In any case, not long after Shang Xia entered, he rushed back to the spatial gate, which had not yet closed.

...

With Shang Xia’s inner qi barrier around the spatial gate, Yuan Qiuyuan started to unleash his stargazing techniques, observing to the very limits of his range the arrangement and distribution of the stars in the Star River. He stared at the anomalies that had occurred and were occurring on their surfaces, and the strange luminous flows of light and heat that converged into the formless river.

In a state of intoxication, he could clearly feel a progress in his arts of stargazing. It was as if he was compressing two or three decades of advancement into the span of his observation.

Perhaps because he was too engrossed, even with the barrier that Shang Xia had personally laid down filtering his view, the countless stars out there still caused a slight backlash.

Yuan Qiuyuan felt none of it. He only noticed that, after looking for a long time, his eyes brimmed with tears. Since it did not impede his observation of the stars, he simply let the tears spill down his cheeks.

What he didn’t realize was that initially, his tears were normal, but they were soon dyed with a tinge of faint red.

Soon, the tears flowing down his face became darker and darker until they resembled blood completely.

His entire vision turned crimson as the tears became pure blood. Still, he tirelessly sought the mysteries of the Star River.

Naturally, Shang Xia wasn’t a real Stargazer. Even though he believed he had provided ample protection, he still underestimated the power within the Star River and did not anticipate that Yuan Qiuyuan would become so obsessed that he forgot everything around him.

Just as Yuan Qiuyuan was sinking too deep to pull free and would soon bleed himself dry, a figure suddenly slammed into the barrier sealing the gate. It blocked Yuan Qiuyuan’s line of sight and, with its violent impact, startled him out of his trance.

“There’s danger!” Knowing almost nothing of what had happened, Yuan Qiuyuan activated both talismans purely on instinct.

A dense mist of clouds sprang from nothing and swiftly formed a cloud fortress around him. At the same time, a mighty will, accompanied by horrifying power, descended.

Yuan Qiuyuan’s cultivation realm began to climb rapidly, soon stepping into the high-level Martial Void Realm before soaring higher. He felt that he had reached a level entirely beyond his capacity to endure.

Only then, newly awakened from his immersion, did he fully recognize what was happening to him.

Though Shang Xia’s inner qi filled his body, in reality, Yuan Qiuyuan was completely devoid of energy. His face was as pale as a sheet and it looked like a mere breeze would be enough to knock him over.

“What happened?!” His heart trembled, and only then did he recall what had just occurred and understand how close to death he had come.

As he hastily stuffed several restoration treasures into his mouth, a dull thud drew his attention back to the gate before him.

With the barrier shaking violently, Yuan Qiuyuan finally saw clearly what stood outside it.

But he had only to glance once before he cried out and wrenched his gaze aside. Once move, blood streamed from his eyes.

“Hah... Haha!”

The raspy voice made him think of a fish struggling in the desert. Yet in Yuan Qiuyuan’s ears, it was as if ten thousand insects were forcing their way through his pores into his body.

His already weakened aura immediately turned chaotic, as if he were about to fall into qi deviation the very next second. With another muffled thump, a sound like a bubble popping followed.

The barrier that had sealed the gate was finally punctured. A thing that looked like an arm, but also like a slimy tentacle that resembled a candle melting under a flame, forced half its length through the barrier, twitching as it probed the void beyond.

Though in an extremely bad state, Yuan Qiuyuan knew he had to act. He could not allow the not-quite-human monstrosity to break Shang Xia’s barrier and enter the void where he stood.

The next instant, the mighty will and power that had descended upon him gathered, finally condensing into a point of fire at his fingertip. With a flick, it landed on the strange tentacle that penetrated the barrier.

Like a spark falling into readily flammable gas, star fire flared up at once, burning the protruding half of the tentacle to ash. The flames even licked through the barrier, but the monstrosity severed that tentacle immediately.