Chapter 2222: Practice Run

When Shang Xia drew back the Crimson Soul Tablet and the origin qi from the Gathered Sea of Stars surged violently through the void passage he had opened, his face still held a trace of astonishment.

He had only meant to test it, following the faint resonance of the Gathered Sea of Stars’ origin qi within his dantian, yet he had never imagined that he would so easily pierce through the barrier between the Chaotic Sea of Stars and another Star Field.

His surprise quickly gave way to understanding. Though he indeed possessed the power to penetrate the barrier between both Star Fields, the sheer ease of it could mean only one thing. The barriers separating the eight foreign Star Fields from the Chaotic Sea of Stars had already grown extremely thin.

That thought reminded him of the time when the Star Origin Lord had brought an Essence World back from the Illusory Sea of Stars. As the void passage collapsed, the void passage around the Void Mirage had reflected the Illusory Sea of Stars within its space, as though only a single sheet of glass remained between them, ready to shatter at a touch.

As he pondered, the passage he had pierced with the Crimson Soul Tablet began slowly closing, and the torrent of origin qi streaming from it grew turbulent before abruptly ceasing.

Though a considerable amount of essence had flowed out in that short time, it was negligible compared to the magnitude of an entire Star Field.

Yet from that brief event, Shang Xia felt an idea begin to form.

He proceeded to sense each of the remaining seven strands of origin qi of the foreign Star Fields within his dantian. Following their resonance and the faint guidance of intuition, he used the Crimson Soul Tablet to pierce through the void one after another. The Simple Sea of Stars, Illusory Sea of Stars, Nightmare Sea of Stars, and the others were quickly connected. Before each could restore itself, he drew forth immense quantities of origin qi from them all.

These flows of energy, though grand, held little immediate use for him aside from what the Crimson Soul Tablet could absorb.

At his current level, there was nowhere left for his cultivation to advance, unless he could step across the threshold into the Eight Trigram Realm.

𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

He knew that drawing that origin qi alone could hardly accelerate the merging of the eight Star Fields in any meaningful way.

But then, as the eight void passages hovered together around him, something wondrous began to happen.

The surrounding space, saturated with the origin qi of eight Star Fields combined with that of the Chaotic Sea of Stars itself, began to seal itself off from the surrounding void, forming an independent space.

As the influx continued, this space expanded outward, and the concentration of origin qi within kept growing ever denser.

In that instant, inspiration struck.

Shang Xia raised his Crimson Soul Tablet and started to swing it around, stirring the nine different types of origin qi around.

At the center of that fusion, he infused a single spark of his inner qi produced from his Big Dipper Star Origin.

That was the final touch. Instantly, the once-chaotic mixture of origin qi began to transform, his inner qi serving as a catalyst for evolution.

The transformation was an ascension. It was a full-spectrum refinement, and Shang Xia recognized the sensation at once.

He had personally witnessed, over the past several decades, multiple instances of world ascension. From Azure Worlds to Spirit Worlds. From Spirit World to Essence Worlds... From there, even the establishment of Heavenly Fields had his personal touch.

Compared to those, this evolution was on another scale entirely. It was more immense, more profound, far more powerful. The qualitative leap it implied was unimaginably vast.

Could this be the collective ascension of the Star Fields themselves?

He instinctively thought so, but quickly rejected the notion.

No... That’s impossible. The evolution of a Star Field can never occur so abruptly or so easily.

Still, as he felt the majestic, accelerating transformation around him, and the restless stirring of energy within his dantian where the items required for advancing to the Eight Trigram Realm, it was as though the universe itself were mocking his disbelief.

"Perhaps... This is only a localized evolution, a partial ascension..."

The convergence of origin qi from nine Star Fields, together with the isolation caused by the void passages, had created a sealed space that appeared capable of reaching the next level.

But such localized ascension, born from an incomplete foundation, could never last. As the process deepened, the expanding space would eventually become unsustainable and collapse, its transformation ending prematurely.

Even so, Shang Xia understood that the fleeting phenomenon could serve as a rare opportunity, a chance to rehearse the process of his advancement.

Determined to make full use of it, he devoted part of his strength to stabilizing the expanding space, prolonging its existence and allowing the transformation to continue.

For him, it was not difficult. With the Crimson Soul Tablet in hand, he unleashed his sixth martial intent, Six Harmony Supporting the Heavens. He reinforced the spatial structure and anchored its foundations.

Most of his focus, however, remained inward, fixed on his dantian. There, the various requirements for his advancement formula began gathering by instinct, drawn toward the center.

That was where the Big Dipper Star Origin resided, surrounded by seven auxiliary stars representing the seven stars of the Dipper Star Formation in the Star River.

As the materials needed gathered, the Starlight Curtain, which had transformed into a delicate astral film within his dantian, began to unfold slowly around everything, spreading beyond the Big Dipper Star Origin and the various stars before folding inward again, as if to wrap everything within.

Though the final qualitative transformation had yet to occur, and Shang Xia could not allow it to happen under these conditions, he had already gained a wealth of insight into the intricate details of the ascension process.

What he failed to notice, however, was that after he reinforced the spatial foundations with his martial intent, the isolated space continued expanding, fed by the unceasing influx of nine different origin qi, until it spanned over 100,000 miles. It didn’t stop there. It continued to grow as he continued to experience the feeling of its ascension.

The tremendous distortion and thunderous resonance that accompanied the anomaly soon drew the attention of every Sage within the Heaven Observation Star Region’s Heavenly Fields, including the Star Origin Lord himself.