Chapter 2191: Wait A Second Is This Redirection?!

Shang Xia’s martial intent, Star Shifting Constellation Transformation truly was capable of relocating an entire star.

However, during the execution of his martial intent, Shang Xia relied on the auxiliary star within his dantian, borrowing the power of the five stars that had already been fixed in place.

It was only a pity that although the power of those five Stars was immense, they had not yet been constructed into the Dipper Star Formation. Otherwise, he would not have struggled so much while shifting the star.

After he relocated the troublesome star to a sufficiently safe distance, Shang Xia’s inner qi was nearly exhausted, and his entire body was on the verge of collapsing from total fatigue.

Fortunately, no one else happened to be present in the surroundings. Otherwise, if anyone had launched an attack against him, Shang Xia would barely have been able to respond.

By barely stabilizing himself through the combined support of the five already-settled stars and those within his dantian, he managed to withstand the inevitable tremors triggered by the displaced Star. The five fixed stars were also not significantly affected.

But from here onward, the speed of constructing the Dipper Star Formation needed to increase. Even repeated low-intensity shockwaves, if allowed to spread, could attract the attention of other Star River Stowaways.

Thankfully, he was already working on the sixth star. Once he successfully placed it into the Merak position, only one star would remain for him to complete the Dipper Star Formation.

Before that, however, Shang Xia needed to spend some time slowly recovering his nearly depleted inner qi.

With the sixth Star successfully falling into its Merak position without incident, the sixth auxiliary star within Shang Xia’s dantian quickly established a link with it, bringing the completion of the Dipper Star Formation within reach.

Yet, as the saying went... What one feared would come to pass. Just as Shang Xia temporarily rested to recover his inner qi in preparation for shifting the final star, he suddenly detected traces of an Eternal Golden Boat’s presence.

Shang Xia immediately grew vigilant. While concealing his movements as much as possible, he began tracking the Eternal Golden Boat throughout the dense region of stars.

In truth, he could more or less guess that this Eternal Golden Boat had to also be searching for him.

But compared to Shang Xia, hiding the movements of an Eternal Golden Boat was clearly far more difficult.

Events unfolded exactly as expected. While the suddenly-appearing Eternal Golden Boat was still searching the Star River for the cause of the recent shockwaves, Shang Xia had already found it and was silently trailing behind it.

At first, Shang Xia intended only to observe from the shadows. Once the expert on board found nothing in this area where stars converged, they would naturally depart.

Unfortunately, they seemed convinced that something had to be hidden in this part of the Star River and lingered there repeatedly, circling and searching without end.

Shang Xia’s patience was eventually worn thin.

Under normal circumstances, he could have afforded to wait it out. But time did not wait for him. The longer he remained in the Star River, the greater the potential changes within the Chaotic Sea of Stars became. The Essence Luxuriant Heavenly Field would face increasing danger from the foreign Star Fields. Furthermore, the changes in the Chaotic Sea of Stars were directly tied to Shang Xia’s opportunity to enter the Eight Trigram Realm.

Thus, once he had followed the Eternal Golden Boat into a certain part of the Star River, he suddenly decided to strike.

𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The method Shang Xia employed was truly unusual. He did not launch any direct assault upon the Eternal Golden Boat. Instead, he used Shifting Dipper, the seventh move of his Seven Star Mace Technique, to push a star across empty space, sending it crashing toward the Eternal Golden Boat.

A star was unimaginably massive. The instant it was shifted, the reaction shook everything around it; the entire Star River began to roil, and a colossal tide seemed ready to erupt.

“‘So you were behind me all along!’”

At that moment, a cold laugh sounded from the Eternal Golden Boat. “If you had continued hiding your tracks, I would have had difficulty locating you. Fortunately, you still could not remain patient. It seems my effort was not wasted...”

Before he finished speaking, the Eternal Golden Boat, which had been moving forward, suddenly swerved sideways in the Star River. The expert standing at the bow did not even look at the incoming star but instead fixed his gaze upon a particular location in the Star River.

The next moment, golden lacquer spilled from the hull of the Eternal Golden Boat, forging a golden pathway beneath it.

As the Starlight Curtain serving as the Eternal Golden Boat’s sail fluttered on its own, the vessel glided directly along that golden path, instantly crossing the distance required to evade the incoming star. In the blink of an eye, it appeared almost directly before Shang Xia.

Meanwhile, along the route where the Eternal Golden Boat passed, the surging Star River was completely suppressed and gradually returned to calm.

Even the brief demonstration allowed Shang Xia to nearly conclude that the individual’s strength likely surpassed that of Sage Star Thief and those he had previously encountered.

“Heh, why are you hiding like a little rat? Let me take a good look at who... Huh?! How are you...”

The expert on the Eternal Golden Boat had not even finished speaking before he froze in shock the instant he laid eyes upon Shang Xia.

A Sage without an Eternal Golden Boat, appearing openly within the Star River’s main body amidst densely packed stars, yet still able to contend with him for so long even while enduring the erosion of the currents?

How was that possible?

He didn’t know why the man wasn’t corrupted by the strange power of space and time!

Countless questions flared through the mind of the expert who arrived until he suddenly noticed Shang Xia exhale in relief. The tension in the young man’s gaze visibly loosened as he looked back at him, which immediately made him jolt back to his senses.

Sending his divine soul outwards, he tried to detect anything new. Despite the fluctuations of the Star River and the disruptions caused by the power in the surrounding stars, he had absolute confidence in his ability to detect danger.

Too bad for him, he felt nothing. The danger he expected to come failed to manifest. Only the star he had avoided earlier started to hover in the distance after it was displaced.

No... That wasn’t right. The star that had been pushed earlier...