The Stars Beyond

Boom!

In the Land of the Undying, the Great Barrier was shattered, and the highest laws unfurled. Fang Yuzhu, brandishing a sacred relic, unleashed a dazzling divine rainbow from her bracelet, incinerating the void and causing asteroids and planets alike to plummet from the cosmos.

With supreme beings unleashing their fury, even the tranquil Fang Yuzhu was swept into a tempest of wrath.

With a resounding clash, the bracelet, dotted with crystalline white sparks against a dark fabric matching the cosmos, struck the Sauntering Boat. At that moment, supreme laws surged tumultuously, gods fled in terror, immortals bled profusely, and countless divine beings below wailed in fear.

Alone, Fang Yuzhu contended against the founders of the Supreme Palace and the Emperor Gouchen Palace. The Cosmic Bracelet hammered against the Sauntering Boat, marking a deadly struggle among beings of transcendent might.

Far away, the Taoist and Buddhist sects allied to subdue the Divine Palace were not faring well either. Their sacred relic turned against them, and had it not been for their formidable prowess, the boundary would have been stained with the blood of both Buddhists and Taoists.

Meanwhile, the Undying Umbrella struggled violently. Two shadowy figures wielding ancient covenant artifacts aided Empress Yan Yan in her suppression efforts. To everyone’s surprise, the subdued sacred relic roared violently again, seeking to break free.

Crucially, the Life Pool also made its presence felt. Previously seeming neither friend nor foe, it now crashed down, instigating chaos in the Divine Palace and the Undying Umbrella.

"I will drain you, Life Pool, to see what secrets you hide within!" the shadowy couple roared, distraught as Empress Yan Yan continued to cough up blood.

They wrapped the ancient covenant around the stem of the Undying Umbrella, ascended into the sky, and manifested their true forms. They then wielded the massive black umbrella and launched an assault on the Life Pool.

The area exploded into chaos.

At a critical moment, the Feathered Banner also appeared, shedding terrifying brilliance, intent on seizing a second sacred relic.

"Who dares cause turmoil? I too possess a sacred relic!" Zhang Daoling’s hair fluttered wildly, his eyes fiercely piercing as he brandished a copper mirror, challenging the gods.

On another battlefield, he was surrounded by the most potent gods and immortals, with Ming Xue by his side, both drenched in blood. Zhang was not merely boasting. His mirror shattered, leaving only a small fragment emanating the aura of a sacred relic, which he pinched between two fingers like a throwing knife. With a swift motion, he hurled it, piercing through the brow of a nine-tiered grand realm god, slaying his spirit instantly.

Onlookers were astounded. At such levels, it was rare for mighty beings to be slain outright—it typically required prolonged battles to achieve such a result.

Now, with a supreme deity slain in a single stroke—remarkably, by what was claimed to be merely a piece of a mirror—uproar ensued.

"Surround and kill him! That god-slaying dagger must have drained him significantly; his power has weakened," an immortal shouted.

With a swish, the mirror shard twisted through space and time, reappearing between Old Zhang's fingers as he stared down the gods.

"Hold off, I too wield a sacred relic!" the Hades Blood Patriarch bellowed, his fingers laden with mirror shards, each pinched like a dagger.

The gods and immortals exchanged glances and then, undeterred, surged forward in a thunderous assault.

"Who are they trying to fool? There were only so many shards of the Cosmic Mirror, and they couldn't possibly all be in their hands," they reasoned, converging to obliterate the two men.

"You feather-headed deities, do you not know who Patriarch Zhang is? I have faced scores of your kind alone, why should I fear confronting you now?" Zhang roared defiantly.

His entire being radiated light, and had Wang Xuan been present, he would have recognized the supreme martial technique that Old Zhang was using—it was from the very same five pages of the golden scripture that detailed combat arts.

Old Zhang's aura blazed brilliantly, his form monstrous as he pushed forward, each movement a killing blow. His divine powers and spells erupted spontaneously from him, his presence unmatched.

"Thinking of ganging up on us without asking me first? Kill them!" At that moment, the Hades Blood Patriarch unleashed his nine true spirits, which then transformed into a horde of his own duplicates, and further, into a multitude of Old Zhangs.

Patriarch Zhang lamented, "Everyone impersonates Ming Xue; rightly so, he must often transform into others when he's unoccupied."

Together, they unleashed a fury that turned the battlefield chaotic, their combined forces a spectacle of divine prowess and cunning, as they faced the onslaught of gods and immortals.

Amidst the chaos, the Hades Blood Patriarchs and Old Zhang transformed magnificently into forms of immortals and undying beings as they charged into the midst of the gods. Despite the prowess of the supreme beings to discern truth from deception, this elaborate guise still demanded their spiritual focus.

"Xiao Zhang, Old Ming, I've joined the fray!" Xu Fu, the Grand Alchemist, appeared wielding an incomplete divine relic—the Space-Time Mace—distorting the fabric of the cosmos and blurring timelines. In an instant, deities bled out, and some were obliterated outright.

However, Xu Fu's entrance was not without its own troubles. His instincts screamed as a radiant disc clashed with his Space-Time Mace—a collision with another nascent divine relic.

Elsewhere, the most ferocious battle raged around Fang Yuzhu, who was surrounded by phantoms of Transcendental Bamboo, a golden rain of light around her. She challenged the Roaming Ark once again with her divine relic.

The Roaming Ark, powered by the combined might of the occupants from the Superlative Palace and the Emperor Gouchen Court—both being entities of unparalleled might—shuddered under the assault. Despite their formidable powers, the arrival of the Cosmic Bracelet still sent shivers through them, as if a dark universe had propelled a barrage of stars directly at them.

With a thunderous crash, the Roaming Ark was sent reeling, nearly capsized, dislodging two immortal beings who plummeted from its deck.

Their divine forms disintegrated under the brilliant glow of the divine relic; not even a grunt escaped them as both spirit and flesh were scattered by the overwhelming light, obliterated completely.

"The Roaming Ark can travel anywhere, possess the highest speeds in existence, even trace back through time to smite her!" shouted the two progenitors in fury as they fought desperately.

Yet, blood trickled from their noses and mouths during the clash.

"How can she be so powerful, almost rivaling that madman, standing at his level?!" they muttered incredulously.

Meanwhile, the Feathered Banner flickered in and out of visibility within the Great Barrier.

Further in the distant outer reaches, a seemingly sane figure with the Worldly Sword approached. His gaze was ice-cold, his aura ferocious enough to drown an entire Great Barrier in blood. Subduing his raging aura, he advanced silently, a lone figure with a sword moving toward the fiercely contested barrier.

……

But the magnificence of the battle was not sensed by mortals, while mythical beings could feel the turmoil.

Under a crescent moon, atop a desolate mountain scattered with rubble and overgrown grass, Jiang Qingyao stood solemnly beside the Life Essence Furnace, her celestial sword slung across her back. She gazed into the depths of the starry sky, her voice carrying a weight of resignation, “It’s indeed accelerating. Probably only a few weeks left now. The age of myth is ending, to fade into eternal silence.”

Wang Xuan's eyes snapped open upon hearing her words. The end was drawing near more swiftly than expected. The last time he had heard, there were about three months remaining—nearly a hundred days. Now, according to the Celestial Sword Maiden's estimation, only forty to fifty days were left. A month and a half for the supernatural to recede so rapidly, leaving no room for anyone to adapt.

All previous predictions had failed; no one had anticipated such a terrifying collapse of the celestial path, catching everyone off guard.

“How are you?” The younger Qingyao approached, peering at Wang Xuan’s patchily rejuvenated skin with a hint of distaste. “Are you a snake or something? Every time I see you coming out of seclusion, you're shedding skin!”

“Stage thirteen complete,” Wang Xuan replied with a frown. “But my attempt to break into the Free Roaming realm was blocked, oddly, by my new primordial spirit.”

This outcome was indeed beyond his expectations. A being who had breached the limits, one beyond the tenth stage, should be able to step into the Free Roaming realm effortlessly. Yet, deep within him, the three points of his primordial spirit, flesh, and inner landscape vibrated intensely, unleashing a force far surpassing the external manifestations of his spirit, flesh, and inner realm.

"What’s going on?" Wang Xuan mused, frustration evident in his voice. "This dormant point is stronger than the thirteenth stage of my primordial spirit and flesh, yet it won’t transform and is even blocking my path."

"See, I told you, you’re on the wrong track!" the younger Qingyao teased, playfully alarming him again.

"It might not be a bad thing," Jiang Qingyao interjected, her tone serious and thoughtful. "With your qualifications at the eleventh stage, stepping into the Free Roaming realm places you among the rare few in this mythic era. After all, this world has never seen a twelfth stage, and here you are at a complete thirteenth."

Such a claim, if ever spoken aloud, would surely be scoffed at by gods and immortals alike as unbelievable and utterly irrational.

"The path you’re on, see where these three points of light will ultimately take you," the Celestial Sword Maiden advised. "The Life Essence Furnace has revived your depleted primordial spirit, flesh, and inner landscape twice already. I doubt it would do so a third time; it can’t always defy common sense."

The younger Qingyao widened her eyes. "Does that mean the thirteenth stage isn’t his limit? What exactly will these three points of light transform into?"

Jiang Qingyao considered her words carefully. "Based on what you’ve said, these three points have accumulated a dense origin force from the spiritual blood pool, along with other potent essences. Could this be your true self’s subconscious preparation for the terrifying supercelestial winter? Or perhaps, are these points gathering the final essence, preparing for a true rebirth?"

The seriousness of the situation dawned on the younger Qingyao. "The great trend is irreversible. Your external primordial spirit, flesh, and inner landscape might be the sacrificial elements, adapting to this unique era. They will decay, but those three points of light are already preparing for new life."

Both Jiang Qingyao and the younger Qingyao's eyes widened with realization. "Could it be that they're adapting to a unique era, meant to emerge in such a stringent environment, and then, after the eternal night falls, you might continue to cultivate, possessing powers beyond the ordinary?"

Wang Xuan was not overly optimistic but pondered the situation seriously. Then, he felt the aftershocks of supercelestial resonance still vibrating around him, a testament to the intensity and cruelty of the battle that must be raging to cause such continued clashing of supreme treasures.

"I wonder if the spiritual blood pool would be useful for the Shadow Couple, Fairy Fang, Old Zhang, the Demon Lord, and Lord Ming Xue," he pondered, considering the potential of those others to benefit from such a trial.