Chapter 2139: Ready Set

Beneath the Star Observatory in the void outside the Essence Luxuriant World.

Watching as the Stargazers bustled about under the direction of Yuan Qiuyuan, Chu Jia, Xin Lu, Zhang Yusheng, and the others, Kou Chongxue suddenly appeared at Shang Xia’s side and asked, “Isn’t this a bit too hasty?”

Shang Xia let out a helpless sigh, “There’s no helping it. From the moment he passed me the secret art for crafting the Starlight Curtain, this clash was already fated.”

Kou Chongxue disagreed. “You could have delayed it. Since you have already found the direction to advance to the Eighth Order, why not first gather all the origin qi from the remaining two Star Fields before doing anything else? Time is on your side.”

Shang Xia drew a deep breath and said, “Not necessarily.”

Seeing the surprise on Kou Chongxue’s face, he continued, “At first, I thought so too. But what I discovered in the Flood Star Region convinced me that the Star Origin Lord had likely also found his path toward the Eighth Order this time.”

Kou Chongxue’s expression tightened. “Then whose method is right?”

After he spoke, he seemed to realize that it wasn’t the cleverest question to ask.

Shang Xia smiled and said, “Patriarch Kou, there did not have to be only one method to advance. I was confident in my own breakthrough, but I cannot deny that the Star Origin Lord might also have a way to ascend.”

Kou Chongxue nodded slightly. “How did you judge that the Star Origin Lord might also have found his direction?”

Shang Xia said in a low voice, “I used to think the Star Origin Lord was flailing about like a headless fly in his bid for the Eighth Order, but now I realize that was not the case. He had been conducting targeted trials all along, and by now, he should have identified the correct one.”

Seeing Kou Chongxue’s confusion, Shang Xia went on. “Beast Warriors... Living puppets, the integration of whole Star Regions... He might be behind this all along, and likely the former Heaven Observation Sect as well. All of these had once been attempts related to striking at the Eighth Order. They were simply proven unworkable and discarded.”

“Then what are your odds today, luring him to act and crossing blades with him?” Kou Chongxue asked.

Shang Xia shook his head and muttered, “There were no winning odds. My true purpose is to see just how many trump cards the Star Origin Lord has prepared, and what role the Illusory Sea of Stars played this time.”

Kou Chongxue was taken aback; he clearly had not expected the answer. He asked, “In that case, won’t your Starlight Curtain be impossible to refine?”

Shang Xia smiled. “Who said so? From the moment that bolt of Star Devouring Silk fell into my hands, its refinement had already begun.”

With that, Shang Xia lifted his head to glance at the depths of the void above, then said, “No matter what, I will still need your full support this time, Patriarch Kou.”

Kou Chongxue waved his hand and said nothing more.

Shang Xia then turned and walked toward the Star Observatory.

As he nodded to the assembled Stargazers, Yuan Qiuyuan presided over the activation of the Star Observatory. With dozens of them working in concert, the platform was fully activated.

In an instant, from the void outside the Essence Luxuriant World all the way as far as the eye could see, it was as if the myriad stars scattered across the void all flared to life at once. Endless radiance of starlight cascaded down from above and converged upon the Star Observatory.

In a single moment, it was shrouded in a rich, dreamlike brilliance of concentrated starlight.

Despite what looked like success, the Stargazers didn’t stop. Led by Yuan Qiuyuan, the Grand Stargazers started to form hand seals in perfect unison, as the starlight started to compress and condense. It eventually turned into one starry pillar after another. Each pillar fell into the hands of a powerful Stargazer, while the other pierced deep into the void, as if fastening the canopy of the night sky.

At Yuan Qiuyuan’s signal, they drew those pillars downward at the same time. The once-distant, ethereal night abruptly began to descend, closing the distance to the Star Observatory.

At that moment, had someone viewed the scene from far enough away, they would have seen the Star Observatory and the surrounding space completely severed from the sea of stars. Under the drapes of concentrated starlight, it seemed to have become a self-contained space of its own.

But to those in the Star Observatory itself, as the starry sky overhead drew ever closer, not only did the stars shine more dazzlingly, the starlight streaming in grew denser and denser. So much so that at the topmost platform of the observatory, the faint condensation of Starlight Essence had begun.

At such a time, any cultivator whose secret arts, techniques, or even martial intents were related to starlight would have gained twice the result with half the effort by standing upon the observatory.

However, when Yuan Qiuyuan glanced at Shang Xia, the response he received was that it wasn’t enough!

Yuan Qiuyuan could only signal the Grand Stargazers to continue maintaining the links among the various Stargazers or Astrologers on the Star Observatory, and to keep stacking the concentrated starlight on each other.

At that point, Shang Xia signaled to Chu Jia. As the Five Element Rings, her formation divine weapon, soared into the air, the formations she had laid out in the surrounding void were activated. The temporary pocket of space around the observatory was reinforced once more.

The Starlight Essence that had already gathered there and was growing richer with each passing breath could no longer dissipate.

Not only the observatory itself, but the entire severed space grew so saturated with starlight that it turned to a tangible mist.

Viewed from outside, one would have seen the entire space burning with the brilliance of a massive star, as if all the starlight once scattered across the night had been collected and had been tucked into that single pocket of space.

Even so, Shang Xia still found it insufficient as he beckoned toward the distant void.

A stone rod flew in from the depths of space in the direction of the Spirit Frost World. After it fell into the temporarily carved-out and formation-bolstered space made up of the Star Observatory and starlight, the staff began to thicken and lengthen, soon bracing the space from end to end. It still did not stop growing, forcing the entire pocket to expand further so that it could gather and contain even more starlight.

By then, the Tongyou Institution, the Essence Luxuriant World, and even the entire Essence Luxuriant Heavenly Field had sent their most accomplished Astrologers, dozens of disciples of the second rank and above, to the Star Observatory, where each pushed their art of stargazing to the limit.

Only at that point did Shang Xia, who had been waiting for a particular critical state to be reached, finally signal to Yuan Qiuyuan.

They could begin!

Yuan Qiuyuan let out a slight breath of relief and nodded to the Grand Stargazers at his sides. Next, he walked straight to the center of the observatory and reached up to slash into the void.

The starry firmament that had covered the observatory was instantly peeled away, and in its place came another void pricked with a completely different array of stars.

Yet Shang Xia still shook his head. He had the canopy replaced a second time with a third, again utterly different, and said, “You should already know the approximate region of the void where my Dipper Star Formation is located, so there is no need to mess around. Let’s dispense with the pointless steps and enter that sector of space.”