Chapter 2176: The Accident

On a certain Earth Star near the edge of the Chaotic Sea of Stars,

After a period of rest, Shang Xia had recovered most of his inner qi. Close to 80 percent of it was restored and the Crimson Soul Tablet in his sea of consciousness had also repaired another of its fine cracks, leaving only three still visible. Yet, those remaining three seemed far harder to mend than before.

By then, Shang Xia had already gotten used to the flow of time in the Chaotic Sea of Stars. Unlike his first entrance into the Star River, when he could not even tell how much time had passed, he could roughly estimate that less than two years had gone by since his last return from the Star River.

Including his earlier journey to the Pagoda Forest in the Aligned Star Region, he had been away from the Essence Luxuriant Heavenly Field for over two years.

It should not have taken so long, but his unexpected encounter with Sage Star Thief had forced him to interrupt the refinement of his Starlight Silk, wasting much time within the Star River.

After reentering the Chaotic Sea of Stars, Shang Xia, who had originally planned to return to the Essence Luxuriant Heavenly Field through the connection he had with it, suddenly halted mid-flight. A look of alarm appeared on his face, and he quickly examined the area around him.

The Chaotic Sea of Stars was shaking.

There was no localized spatial turbulence, no ripple of distorted space. It was as if the entire Chaotic Sea of Stars were an egg being shaken violently in someone’s hand, everything quivering within it.

The sensation was indescribably strange, but Shang Xia could clearly feel it. The Chaotic Sea of Stars was trembling!

He was certain it was not an illusion. Any cultivator who had reached the late stage of the Seventh Tier should be able to sense this phenomenon as well.

Yet what disturbed him even more was not the shaking itself. Soon after entering the Chaotic Sea of Stars, he began to sense faint traces of origin qi drifting through the void. Origin qi that did not belong to their Star Field, but from another entirely!

Because of his past travels to collect origin qi from foreign Star Fields, Shang Xia was highly attuned to such differences.

When he first felt the Chaotic Sea of Stars quivering, he instinctively spread his divine soul outward and immediately detected the presence of several distinct types of external origin qi.

A growing sense of unease gripped his heart.

The forbidden regions connecting the Chaotic Sea of Stars to the foreign Star Fields were all located across the major star regions.

Previously, even though traces of alien origin qi had occasionally seeped through them, they had remained confined within the void around the forbidden regions, unable to spread further.

But now, the strange origin qi was leaking beyond the forbidden regions, so much so that even at the very edge of the Chaotic Sea of Stars, Shang Xia could clearly sense it. That could only mean one thing! The contamination from foreign Star Fields had spread far more deeply across the major regions than it ever should have.

Of course, there was another possibility that new spatial channels connecting foreign Star Fields had opened up somewhere beyond the main regions, allowing foreign origin qi to disperse directly into the surrounding void.

But that seemed unlikely. Shang Xia could distinctly identify not only the number of foreign origin qis present, but even which of the eight foreign Star Fields each one came from.

“Looks like many things have changed in the Chaotic Sea of Stars during my time in the Star River...” Shang Xia murmured to himself.

He had been hesitating whether to return to the Essence Luxuriant Heavenly Field immediately, but his only concern was that he might already be too late, and that something might have happened there.

Not long after reentering the Chaotic Sea of Stars, he flew to the region of space where he had once arranged the Dipper Star Region.

But when he arrived, that once-familiar void was now utterly unrecognizable.

𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Many of the stars had dimmed drastically. Some had been completely destroyed.

Shang Xia tried to sense whether any of his stars remained. Even if they had been displaced from the constellation, as long as they still existed, he should at least be able to feel their presence.

Yet there was nothing, not a single trace.

That meant the entire Dipper Star Formation, including their auxiliary stars, had been utterly annihilated.

Moving a star through the void was not too difficult for a Sage, but destroying one was another matter entirely. It was a perilous act that could easily kill even a mid-level Sage.

Yet 10 of them had all been destroyed!

Shang Xia could hardly believe anyone could locate all of them so precisely. But seeing that nearly a third of the stars in the region had vanished, leaving the entire region dimmed by a third, he could easily imagine how fanatical those so-called people must have been in their search for every possible Fate Star tied to him.

In his haste to return to the Essence Luxuriant Heavenly Field, Shang Xia did not bother concealing his presence as he traversed the void. Soon enough, something lurking in the darkness took notice of him.

Without warning, the void shuddered. An enormous avian creature unfurled its wings like thunderclouds, blotting out the heavens. Even before its full body emerged, a pair of golden talons, each forged like divine metal, tore through the void, clawing directly at Shang Xia’s path.

“A high-level beast emperor? How can such a creature appear so brazenly in the Chaotic Sea of Stars? Did it come from the Desolate Forbidden Region in the Floating Star Region?”

The thought flashed through Shang Xia’s mind, but he showed no fear. Forming a seal with his fingers, he slashed lightly through the air.

A razor-sharp blade of sword intent cut through the void, slicing straight into the golden talons before vanishing without sound.

A moment later came a shrill, furious screech.

Skreeee

!

The beast emperor’s vast form manifested fully, its colossal wings sending waves of crushing pressure that distorted the void. Then, with a thunderous beat, it ascended rapidly, disappearing once more.

In its wake, a rain of blood fell, splattering silently across the emptiness of space.