Chapter 2214: Unstoppable Force vs Unbreakable Wall

The void passage at the Void Mirage had not completely collapsed after the Star Origin Lord’s clone destroyed it upon exiting. Thanks to Shang Xia’s two consecutive martial intents, the damage had been contained to just the section near the exit.

Facing the collapsed passage, Shang Xia chose the most dangerous option. He forced his way through.

Even with his cultivation having reached the absolute peak of the Seven Star Realm, brute-forcing his way across a spatial ruin of collapsing void was an ordeal beyond measure. The tremendous spatial pressure shattered his domain, sent his inner qi into violent turbulence, and even left his internal organs shaken.

When he finally burst into the Chaotic Sea of Stars, the countless shards of space swirling around him and the rippling void made it impossible to accurately sense his surroundings with his divine soul. Yet even before he could stabilize himself, a suffocating sense of mortal danger arrived.

He had been ready for it. The instant he realized he had entered the Chaotic Sea of Stars, he swung the mace transformed from the Crimson Soul Tablet. Endless starlight streamed down through the void as he unleashed Dipper Vortex, creating six rotating whirlpools of gathered starlight around him. They rapidly dissolved the unstable spatial debris and deflected several incoming ambushes that had followed him through.

However, those attacks he could easily nullify weren’t the real threat. The true danger came from the Star River! It was a strike that tore through the barrier around it and pierced the void itself!

Shang Xia didn’t sense the attack through his instinct alone. What first alerted Shang Xia to the danger was not even his divine soul, but the Dipper Star Formation within the Star River itself. The lethal strike originated from beyond where anyone could see, from that very star he had once attacked and suspected to be none other than the Star Origin Lord’s Fate Star.

Previously, his suspicions about that star had been only speculation. But later, when the damage caused by his lucky strike in the Illusory Sea of Stars had been redirected by the Star Origin Lord onto his clone, he was basically sure of it. Now, with the retaliatory blow coming from the Star River, the Star Origin Lord had effectively revealed the location of his Fate Star.

Yet that revelation did not make the strike any less terrifying. In fact, it was the most powerful attack Shang Xia had ever faced since his first encounter with the Star Origin Lord. It was so powerful that he felt, for the first time, the imminent threat of death.

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Even if he used the Crimson Soul Tablet itself, an Eternal Weapon, as a shield, he doubted it could completely neutralize the blow.

At the brink of life and death, his body reacted before his mind. Shang Xia stirred the Crimson Soul Tablet, drawing on the boundless starlight cascading through the void. The stellar link started to resonate with the Dipper Star Formation deep within the Star River.

In an instant, seven radiant streams of starlight fell from different directions, penetrating the barrier around the Star River and the Chaotic Sea of Stars, intertwining perfectly around his mace. Three more faint traces of light flickered deeper in the void, and together, at the last possible moment, they slammed into the Star Origin Lord’s cosmic strike.

The Void Mirage vanished into nothingness and the void passage connecting both Star Fields disintegrated entirely.

Sage Dong Jin had just emerged from the tunnel on his Eternal Golden Boat when half his ship’s bow was obliterated.

As he panicked, he immediately pulled his vessel back into the collapsing tunnel, retreating desperately toward the Illusory Sea of Stars before it was completely annihilated.

Even the surrounding void began to collapse under the clash between Shang Xia’s martial intents and the Star Origin Lord’s Fate Star. Yet, against all odds, Shang Xia managed to withstand that blow from the Star Origin Lord himself.

But at that very moment, realization struck him, his Dipper Star Formation had been exposed as well. Perhaps that had been the Star Origin Lord’s plan all along. Even if his strike failed to kill, it would still force Shang Xia’s hidden constellation to reveal their position.

Previously, when Shang Xia had used the Dipper Star Formation to attack the Star Origin Lord’s Fate Star, it had been a sudden ambush deep within the dense cluster of the Star River. Locating its exact position had been nearly impossible.

However... If the Star Origin Lord had prepared his counterattack in advance, then the moment Shang Xia formed a connection to the Dipper Star Formation, every Star Observatory and Stargazer in the Six Essence Heavenly Field would already have been standing by, ready to trace and pinpoint the location of his Fate Stars.

The barrier around the Star River might hinder their sight, but the Star Origin Lord’s existence made Shang Xia far from confident. No one knew whether the Star Origin Lord himself was also a Stargazer. If he were, his achievement in the art of stargazing might well have reached the seventh rank. Perhaps even the peak of the seventh rank! A Stargazer at that level could very well locate Shang Xia’s Dipper Star Formation even with the barrier in his way.

The Star Origin Lord’s Fate Star had already been exposed. Even if the attack failed to harm Shang Xia, simply discovering one or two of Shang Xia’s Fate Stars would still count as a victory for the Star Origin Lord.

But Shang Xia soon realized he had still underestimated his enemy’s cunning. This confrontation had not only been about uncovering his hidden cards.

During the process of void annihilation, the collapsing energy had also begun to erode the spatial barrier separating both Star Fields.

Dong Jin’s Eternal Golden Boat had managed to retreat to the Illusory Sea of Stars in time, but the two Heavenly Fields that had entered the void passage were not so fortunate. Too vast and heavy to maneuver like the Eternal Golden Boat, they were hurled out amid the collapse.

The immense Heavenly Fields could not withstand such devastation. Their structures shattered instantly. Earth Stars and Barbaric Worlds disintegrated before they could be thrown into the void. Azure Worlds broke apart into fragments and only a few floating continents retained a trace of vitality.

Spirit Worlds, integral parts of the Heavenly Field, suffered the same fate. Their heavenly screens cracked, and their world origins leaked away. Though they still maintained the outward shape of a world, within, they had already become apocalyptic wastelands.

Even the main Essence World, protected by both the Heavenly Fields and auxiliary worlds, fared little better. Though several Sages guarded it, the heavenly screen was also torn and bleeding. Its internal factions were mostly destroyed. Few cultivators above the Martial Void Realm survived the backlash of the World’s Will.

When the clash between both existences invincible under the Eighth Order, finally subsided, Shang Xia turned back to look.

The barrier separating the Chaotic Sea of Stars and the Illusory Sea of Stars had not yet been fully broken, but through the thinning veil of space, he could already see the Illusory Sea of Stars itself slowly pressing closer, as if the two vast cosmic oceans were being drawn together.