Undying Life

Chapter 1008: The Great Star Explosion

Dushe Palace.

Within Dushe Palace, the Jade Emperor and the Supreme Lord Laozi were intently observing the miniature formation within the alchemical pool.

At first, the two deities were merely curious, intrigued that someone would dare to challenge the formation. Soon after, a hint of surprise emerged on their faces, as the intruder had already passed through three key points—such luck must be extraordinary.

However, their initial curiosity turned into pity for the intruder, as once someone entered this grand formation, there was no turning back. Undoubtedly, the one who could manipulate the formation so skillfully was a true master of formations. Even more impressive was the fact that this person had continuously passed through three critical points with nothing but sheer luck.

Of course, the two deities never considered that this might be the work of someone with mastery over fortune itself. Typically, those who practice the art of fortune-telling can indeed avoid misfortune and seek out fortune, but it is usually a vague concept—such as a period of upcoming disaster or fortune—but nothing as precise as what Zhong Shan was exhibiting.

Zhong Shan merely needed to think of a notion, and the Red Luan Heavenly Scripture would instantly determine fortune and misfortune, an ability so abnormal that even saints would be compelled to act in unholy ways if they were to learn of it.

Each time Zhong Shan's group passed through a key point, the Supreme Lord Laozi and the Jade Emperor felt a twinge of pity.

But as they passed through twenty key points, the two deities no longer felt pity but instead became fully focused. The gates of Dushe Palace opened, and the Jade Emperor even flew outside, gazing at the distant starry sky.

Twenty key points, thirty key points.

Inside Dushe Palace, a subtle excitement could be seen in the eyes of the Supreme Lord Laozi.

Thirty key points—this was no longer a matter of mere luck; it indicated that the intruder might truly be capable of breaking the formation.

Breaking the formation? Today?

Could such an impossible formation truly be broken by a genius of this level?—

In the Celestial Court.

Hao Meili was incessantly cursing the frozen statue of Erlang Shen. A group of noble women approached, led by one dressed in a phoenix crown and golden robe, exuding unmatched dignity.

"Greetings, Queen Mother of the West!" The officials nearby immediately bowed to the noble woman in front.

Hao Meili ignored the Queen Mother of the West and continued cursing the ice sculpture.

"Enough, Hao Meili!" The Queen Mother of the West suddenly called out.

"What do you mean, enough?" Hao Meili, consumed with anger, seemed to pay no heed to the Queen Mother's reprimand.

"Lift the curse on Yang Jian," the Queen Mother of the West said sternly.

"I won't!"

"Yang Jian is a key minister of the Celestial Court. How can you curse him like this? What kind of conduct is this?" the Queen Mother of the West scolded.

"He harmed my friend, my benefactor, my family—he deserves to die!" Hao Meili stubbornly retorted.

"Yang Jian must have realized his mistake by now. After all, he is your cousin," the Queen Mother of the West tried to persuade her.

"I don't care! Unless you can bring Zhong Shan back now!" Hao Meili shouted.

"It's impossible to contact the Supreme Lord Laozi, and the formation cannot be closed. Everything now depends on luck. As for Yang Jian, you should release him first. After all, Zhong Shan may not be dead yet!" the Queen Mother of the West urged.

"You want me to lift the curse on this scoundrel? Forget it! Old man, let's go to Li Hentian and wait for Zhong Shan. If Zhong Shan is dead, I'll make this bastard accompany him in death!" Hao Meili said angrily.

With that, she turned and led Xidu Emperor back into the palace, heading once again to Li Hentian.

The Queen Mother of the West could only smile wryly, as this was Hao Meili's bottom line. Hao Meili leaving without continuing to curse Erlang Shen was already giving her some face.

"Summon the Plague God!" the Queen Mother of the West commanded.

"Yes!"—

Li Hentian.

Zhong Shan and his group pressed forward through the endless starry formation.

"We've reached the forty-eighth key point, Sacred King. It seems this grand formation is on the verge of being completely unraveled!" Nangong Sheng said, his voice tinged with excitement.

But beneath the excitement, there was a deep sense of tension. To an outsider, Zhong Shan's continuous success in breaking through forty-eight key points would have been enough to instill confidence in anyone. However, for Nangong Sheng, the feeling was quite the opposite.

Having traversed forty-eight key points, Nangong Sheng felt even more anxious. It was as though he was walking on the edge of death, with each step being a life-or-death decision. Rather than becoming numb to the danger, the tension only grew more intense, as every move now determined his very survival.

"Let's take a break, calm our minds, and then continue," Zhong Shan advised, his tone reassuring.

"Yes, Sacred King," Nangong Sheng responded, wiping the sweat from his forehead before sitting down cross-legged to restore his mental energy.

An entire day passed before Zhong Shan instructed Nangong Sheng to resume dismantling the formation.

"Continue!" Zhong Shan commanded.

"Yes!"

The formation continued to unravel, with the stars around them erupting in dazzling light. As Zhong Shan and his group advanced, they drew ever closer to the center.

Finally, after another day had passed, they came to a halt.

The stars all around them suddenly began to rotate, swirling around the center as if forming a cosmic vortex. At the heart of this vortex was a massive blue star.

The blue star emitted an incredibly dense spiritual energy, so powerful that it seemed to penetrate the soul, even from a great distance.

"Sacred King, this is the final key point! It's also likely the most difficult one," Nangong Sheng said.

"Oh?" Zhong Shan responded, intrigued.

"This is the foundation of the entire formation. It absorbs the power of all the surrounding stars. If we can move this blue star, the entire formation will collapse," Nangong Sheng explained.

"All we have to do is move it?" Zhong Shan inquired.

"Yes, but moving it is no simple task. The blue star is anchored by the power of all the surrounding stars. It's as if it's fixed in place, immovable even if the surrounding space were to collapse into a black hole," Nangong Sheng affirmed with certainty.

"Let me handle this!" Luo Xingchen suddenly spoke up.

Reaching out, Luo Xingchen retrieved the Xuanyuan Bow. Throughout their journey, whenever they encountered small stars that needed to be destroyed, Luo Xingchen had always handled them with a single arrow. Now, at this final point, Luo Xingchen stepped forward once again.

Drawing the Xuanyuan Bow, he released a blood-red arrow.

As the powerful arrow shot forth, the very fabric of space trembled slightly.

The arrow, carrying an immense force, hurtled towards the blue star.

"Boom!!!"

After the deafening explosion, silence fell over the group. Luo Xingchen's incredibly powerful arrow had struck the blue star, yet it had failed to destroy it. The blue star didn't even tremble, and there wasn't even the slightest dent on its surface.

Luo Xingchen's face flushed with embarrassment as he admitted, "Sacred King, I have yet to fully master the Xuanyuan Bow!"

"This is not Luo Xingchen's fault," Nangong Sheng interjected. "The blue star has been tempered by the power of all the surrounding stars. By now, it has become a treasure of the Zuxian level—a Grand Immortal Artifact. Its hardness is beyond imagination."

"A Grand Immortal Artifact?" Zhong Shan's eyes widened slightly.

"Indeed, a Grand Immortal Artifact. But this artifact is so enormous that it's nearly impossible to wield. It's ten times larger than the Lingxiao Celestial Court, and even a Grand Immortal would find it exceedingly difficult to carve formations into it. They might even exhaust themselves to death in the process," Nangong Sheng said, shaking his head.

As soon as Zhong Shan finished speaking, everyone turned to look at him, as if they had all thought of the same thing. Indeed, Baji Tianwei suddenly appeared from nowhere, rushing forward with its mouth wide open.

"Bigger, bigger, bigger!" Baji Tianwei's form expanded rapidly, especially its mouth.

Even though Nangong Sheng and the others had considered the possibility that Baji Tianwei could grow very large, they had only imagined it in their minds, thinking that this enormous star was simply too large to handle. However, the scene unfolding before them left everyone astonished once again—Baji Tianwei had indeed grown to match the massive blue star in size.

Although Baji Tianwei's form became somewhat blurred as it grew, as if it were transitioning from physical to ethereal beyond its limits, it eventually reached a size comparable to the blue star.

With its massive mouth, Baji Tianwei swallowed the star whole.

The group could only watch in a state of numb disbelief—this divine beast of the Sacred King was truly extraordinary.

The star was indeed incredibly solid. After swallowing it, Baji Tianwei's mouth was stretched to its limit, and it could neither move nor swallow further.

"Boom!"

A distant explosion echoed as two stars were dislodged from the formation and veered off course.

"Did Baji Tianwei really manage to digest that star?" Nangong Sheng remarked with a strange expression.

Indeed, Baji Tianwei was frantically attempting to digest the blue star.

It truly lived up to its reputation as the most massive and resilient Grand Immortal Artifact. Baji Tianwei was struggling to digest it.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

More and more stars began to drift off their paths. Although sound is hard to transmit in the vacuum of space, the spatial vibrations carried the reverberations clearly.

Stars shone brightly as they veered off course, and in some places, two stars collided in bizarre explosions, creating dazzling starbursts.

The grand formation began to tremble. The mightiest formation of the Celestial Court was being dismantled with each tremor.

"Boom!"

Another massive explosion followed as Baji Tianwei was forcefully shaken away from the blue star's position. However, Baji Tianwei refused to let go, clinging tightly to the now half-digested blue star and returning to Zhong Shan's side.

In the spot where the blue star had been, space seemed to collapse inward. An endless stream of white energy from all directions began to converge, gathering more and more, rushing toward the center, making it glow with an unparalleled brilliance.

"Boom!" The sound of starbursts filled the area as the entirety of Li Hentian descended into chaos.

At Dushe Palace, the two gatekeeper boys stared in disbelief at the surrounding stars. Their mouths hung open in shock. The once peaceful starry sky of Li Hentian had suddenly turned into a scene akin to a fireworks warehouse explosion in the mortal realm. Meteors shot in all directions, explosions lit up the sky everywhere—it was both dazzling and exhilarating! The two boys were utterly entranced.

Meanwhile, the Jade Emperor and Supreme Lord Laozi had vanished from Dushe Palace, heading towards the center of the chaos.

Hao Meili and Xidu Emperor stood at the edge of Li Hentian, gazing at the starry sky that resembled a grand explosion, both of them equally stunned.

"Old man, do you think... do you think this great star explosion was caused by Zhong Shan?" Hao Meili asked, her eyes lighting up with excitement after her initial shock.

"Perhaps," Xidu Emperor replied, unsure of how to answer.

"It must be! It's definitely Zhong Shan! Wherever Zhong Shan goes, he always causes a huge commotion!" Hao Meili exclaimed, her excitement growing.

At the center of the explosion, Luo Xingchen and Baji Tianwei were continuously shielding the group, as the starry sky grew increasingly violent. No one had expected such intense turbulence, as if the entire space was boiling over like water.

At the original foundation of the formation, the black hole was now being filled with a growing beam of white light, so intense that it seemed ready to fill the black hole entirely. A vast and majestic aura radiated from the white light.

Zhong Shan stared intently at the center of the white light, for everyone could feel that something extraordinary lay at its core.

"Old Lord, is this the reformation of your original Supreme Fate?" A sudden voice echoed throughout the area.

To read the manga version, please click the YouTube link https://youtu.be/GnU613H6xm8