Chapter 2164: Heading to the Aligned Star Region

It was clear that Shang Xia could not possibly spend five or six years traveling back and forth between the edge of the Chaotic Sea of Stars and the Star River.

At the border of the Chaotic Sea of Stars, he absorbed the essence of the stars from the Dipper Star Formation again, rapidly replenishing his inner qi. All the while he contemplated how to shorten the time needed to refine the Starlight Yarn.

For the moment, increasing the speed of each refinement did little to save his energy.

To truly improve efficiency, he would have to do two things. The first was to perfect his method of drawing and refining the essence of the stars within the Star River, ideally to gain control over the power of space and time it contained.

That would allow him to recover his energy faster while refining the Starlight Yarn and thereby endure for longer.

The second method was to rely on the Crimson Soul Tablet.

In the past, Shang Xia had always kept a portion of extra origin qi stored within it as an emergency reserve.

In fact, while inside the Star River, he had considered using the stored energy to restore his inner qi, extending the time he could remain there.

However, because he had been unfamiliar with the situation and because the stored amount in the tablet was not great, he refrained from using it due to his caution.

Now, however, he needed to find a way to let the Crimson Soul Tablet absorb and store as much origin qi as possible.

That was where a new problem arose. At the edge of the Chaotic Sea of Stars, where could he find a sufficient supply of origin qi?

Should he return to the Essence World Ruins again, or venture into the Pagoda Forest of the Aligned Star Region, the one place among the eight Star Regions he had yet to visit?

As he hesitated, the flow of his inner qi suddenly faltered for an instant, as if reacting to something.

The disruption lasted barely a moment and caused no harm to his immense cultivation, but it instantly drew his attention.

The stars in the Dipper Star Formation had been shifted again!

The rate at which he could draw upon the essence of the stars from them dropped sharply.

“Star Origin Lord?” Shang Xia snorted coldly. “So he knows how to pick his moments. Looks like he’s discovered the abnormal loss of energy in that region.”

Focusing his senses, Shang Xia found that at least three of the main stars, including some auxiliary stars, had shifted. One of them had dimmed drastically. Either it had been obscured, or it had been damaged.

During his last battle with the Star Origin Lord, Shang Xia had seemingly exposed his Fate Stars. But in truth, he had only revealed the section of void where they resided.

That void contained hundreds, even thousands, of stars. Pinpointing the seven of them that made up the Dipper Star Formation was no easy task, especially since three faint auxiliary stars orbited close by as well.

He knew they would eventually be discovered, but the process would take time.

The Star Origin Lord might have deduced that Shang Xia possessed more than one Fate Star, but he still had to identify them one by one.

And even if all seven were found, Shang Xia could still rely on the remaining three auxiliary stars.

As long as at least one of the ten stars remained hidden, he could continue to draw the essence of the stars from them.

Still, the Star Origin Lord’s methods were terrifyingly precise. In such a short time, he had already located four of the stars!

Some had merely been displaced while others had their brilliance dimmed. Yet none were completely destroyed, leaving Shang Xia uncertain of his enemy’s true intent.

One thing was certain. Every time Shang Xia reached out to them to replenish his energy, he increased the risk of exposing the remaining ones.

Yet under such circumstances, he had no choice but to continue.

“Let’s see whether you can find of them first, or if I finish refining the Starlight Yarn first...”

This time, he not only replenished his inner qi but also tried to channel as much energy as possible into the Crimson Soul Tablet for storage.

Even so, it was far from enough.

The essence from the Dipper Star Formation could replenish his inner qi because his cultivation was based on it, but that did not mean the energy was enough for the Crimson Soul Tablet.

The Crimson Soul Tablet only recognized origin qi from the different Star Fields, or world origin, and at present, it acknowledged only world origin from Essence Worlds, even for storage purposes.

“Must I really go to the Aligned Star Region?” Shang Xia sighed to himself as the thought formed in his mind again.

He had considered raiding a nearby Heavenly Field, forcing entry into their Essence World to steal world origin.

But the tablet still lacked the eighth and final origin qi from the last Star Field needed for his advancement formula.

𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Making a trip to the Aligned Star Region’s Pagoda Forest would not only yield the missing origin qi but also allow him to stockpile more energy for later use. It was technically a win-win.

The only problem was that the danger there would far exceed that of breaking into any Heavenly Field.

Oh, and perhaps one more thing... He might stray even farther away from his current position in the void.

After weighing his risks briefly, Shang Xia made his decision.

Once his inner qi had mostly recovered, he set off again, returning to the Chaotic Sea of Stars. Following the route once mapped for him by Yuan Qiuyuan, he rushed to the Aligned Star Region.

What he was doing contradicted his original plan, but the difficulty of refining the Starlight Yarn had far exceeded his expectations, forcing him to adapt to the situation and change his plans. Unfortunately, that also gave the Star Origin Lord more time to locate the remaining stars in the Dipper Star Formation.

...

By the time Shang Xia approached the Aligned Star Region, he sensed that another star had been displaced.

Now, five of the seven main stars in the Dipper Star Formation had been found, leaving only two main and three auxiliary stars intact.

His ability to draw upon the essence of the stars from afar was drastically weakened.

He had hoped that by minimizing or halting the drawing on their power during the journey, he could make them harder to locate... But clearly, he had underestimated both the Star Origin Lord and the Stargazers working for the Six Essence Heavenly Field, who inherited the orthodox art of stargazing of the Heaven Observation Sect.

“Well... Looks like I have to finish this up whether I like it or not.” Shang Xia muttered bitterly, gazing across the void at the distant expanse.

A Star Region was vast beyond measure, impossible to take in at a glance. From beyond its borders, he recalled the intelligence the Tongyou Institution had gathered about it.

Those reports had been compiled from information collected across various Starsea Markets, through the Invincible Pirates, and from merchant fleets traveling around.

Though inevitably outdated, they gave him a general understanding of the Aligned Star Region.

“From all the reports gathered so far, this region seems pretty strange...”

Concealing his presence once more, he flew into the Aligned Star Region.

And soon enough, he felt what made it strange.

“Along the way I’ve already spotted three Heavenly Fields, but I haven’t encountered a single patrol ship...”

He shook his head. That was clearly abnormal.

Star regions were immense, with worlds separated by millions of miles, divided by spatial rifts, asteroid belts, and spatial vortexes. Even so, there were always people on patrol.

For any complete Heavenly Field, such patrols were vital to maintaining systemic security.

In the Essence Luxuriant Heavenly Field, for instance, even before their Heavenly Field was established, the Tongyou Institution and major sects had jointly maintained the defenses and sent their experts to patrol the void around their territory.

As their strength grew, those fleets expanded in number, strength, and frequency.

Yet the Heavenly Fields in the Aligned Star Region seemed utterly still, contrary to all logic.

Suppressing his urge to investigate one of those Heavenly Fields, Shang Xia pressed on toward his true goal, the Pagoda Forest.

The place was unlike the Desolate Forbidden Region with drifting continents, or the independent spaces of the Essence World Ruins and Nebula Forbidden Region, or even the void currents formed by the collision of Star Fields in the Towering Star Region.

It resembled a vast asteroid belt suspended in the void.

However, the belt was unique. Countless structures stood fixed in position rather than drifting, and each one, large or small, bore the outline of a tower. The bases and spires of those towers were perfectly aligned, forming a forest of stone spires seemingly growing straight out of the void itself, hence the name.

Even though he had read descriptions about it before, the sight that greeted him upon arrival still filled him with awe.

“Is this really not man-made?”

At that moment, he could not help but share the same wonder that had struck those who first saw the Pagoda Forest ages ago.

For hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years, countless cultivators had tested that very question, yet none had ever been able to prove that the Forbidden Region had been built by someone.