Volume 1, Chapter 199 – Starfall Ancient Domain

At first light on the seventh day.

The white jade square before Soaring Dragon Hall in the Longteng Dynasty.

Several figures stood in silence.

Sovereign Longteng wore his purple-gold dragon robe, his bearing regal and imposing. Beside him stood the gentle, serene Sacred Lord Yaoguang.

The Desolate God was dressed in coarse hemp robes, bold and uninhibited, his entire body radiating a wild aura.

Venerable Baiyun still wore the same azure Confucian robes, a scroll in hand, his demeanor transcendent.

Empress Qingxuan, meanwhile, had changed into attire better suited for travel. Her dark hair was tied high, giving her less of her usual languor and more spirited, heroic grace.

Gu Han, Empress Lingshuang, Buddha Lord Wufa, Demon Lord Wutian, and Old Man Tianji stood a short distance away.

They had come to see the others off, though they would also accompany them to the outer reaches of the Abyss at the Edge of the Star Sea.

“It’s time. Let’s go.”

Sovereign Longteng spoke in a deep voice that carried across the square.

Without another word, the ten of them transformed into streaks of multicolored light and shot skyward, straight into the firmament!

The Longteng Dynasty rapidly shrank beneath their feet. Mountains and rivers spread out before their eyes, only to disappear behind them in the blink of an eye.

Before long, the azure sky gradually deepened to an inky blue. Pinpricks of starlight began to appear, growing larger and brighter.

They had now left the bounds of Canglan Continent entirely and entered the void beyond the heavens!

Empress Qingxuan flew at the forefront, the Red Emperor Heaven-Scorching Lotus in her palm emitting a faint crimson halo.

Like a beacon guiding their way, it illuminated the space ahead and dispelled the gloom weighing on everyone’s hearts.

She seemed intimately familiar with this region of the void, weaving nimbly through the narrow gaps between its many dangers.

At times, she detoured around a miniature black hole silently collapsing in on itself. At others, she twisted aside to evade a spatial rift that appeared without warning.

The others followed closely behind, each employing their own methods to protect themselves while inwardly marveling at the strange and unfathomable dangers of the void beyond the heavens.

After roughly three days of flight, the scene ahead changed abruptly!

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A vast, boundless “ocean,” seemingly composed of billions upon billions of stars, stretched across their entire field of vision!

When Gu Han finally entered the region known as the Abyss at the Edge of the Star Sea and saw the sight before her clearly, even with her current composure and state of mind, her heart reeled and her pupils contracted sharply!

Before her lay a vast ocean formed from an endless expanse of dazzling stars!

Everywhere she looked, above, below, and in every direction, celestial bodies drifted and flickered.

They varied in size and color. Some were crimson as flame, some deep blue as water, some emerald green as jade, and others ocher-yellow as dust…

Following trajectories too profound to describe, they slowly revolved and moved, radiating immense auras and Dao Resonance of varying strengths and attributes.

The space between the stars was not an absolute vacuum. Rivers of multicolored starlight and spiritual energy flowed through it, visible to the naked eye and seemingly tangible.

These “rivers” meandered between different stars, connecting them like the veins and arteries of the star sea and nourishing all things.

Farther away, starlight gathered into hazy nebulae, resplendent with color and dreamlike in their beauty. Thunder faintly formed and faded within them as laws manifested, as though new stars and worlds were being nurtured inside.

“So… this is the Abyss at the Edge of the Star Sea?”

The Desolate God’s eyes widened as he exclaimed in his booming voice.

“That’s right.”

Empress Qingxuan’s voice came from ahead, tinged with emotion.

She stopped at the edge of a relatively stable river of starlight and hovered there, turning to face the others.

“What you see before you is the true form of our ‘star domain.’”

Her gaze swept across their astonished faces before finally settling on Gu Han. The corner of her lips lifted as she pointed in the direction from which they had come.

“As for Canglan Continent, where we live…”

Gu Han followed the direction of her finger.

There, within the endless “ocean” of stars and far from their current position, a medium-sized star floated quietly, radiating intertwined pale-blue and turquoise light.

It was wrapped in a thick layer of atmosphere and spiritual mist. The outlines of continental plates could be faintly discerned, along with hazy traces of mountains and rivers.

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Over it lay the unique fortune and fluctuations of laws belonging to an entire world.

That was their home, Canglan Continent.

Yet from here, it was merely one of billions of stars in this vast star sea, and not a particularly conspicuous one at that.

“It is merely one part of this sea.”

Empress Qingxuan’s words struck everyone’s heart like a hammer blow.

Though they had already suspected as much, seeing it with their own eyes was still profoundly shocking.

Venerable Baiyun’s face was grave and contemplative. Gazing at that familiar star, he murmured softly to himself:

“On Canglan Continent, we styled ourselves sovereigns and ancestors and looked down upon all living beings. And yet, this is what we truly are.”

Sovereign Longteng clasped Sacred Lord Yaoguang’s hand tightly. When their eyes met, each saw the other’s astonishment.

The world was far vaster than they had ever imagined. Perhaps that also meant there was more hope on the road ahead.

A trace of surprise likewise flashed through Empress Lingshuang’s eyes, but her gaze soon left the distant star and settled on Gu Han beside her.

Gu Han had been stunned only at first, then swiftly regained her customary calm.

Only the deepening light in her clear eyes revealed that she was processing this astonishing information.

Gu Han was indeed processing it rapidly.

Almost the instant she saw the star sea clearly, the System’s notification rang out in her mind:

[Ding! Host has come into contact with basic star-chart information regarding the Starfall Ancient Domain!]

[Comparing data with the database… Comparison complete!]

[Within the Starfall Ancient Domain, there are a total of 132 stars possessing stable life and cultivation civilizations. Of these, ten meet the energy-level standard of a “medium-sized world.”]

[Canglan Continent energy-level assessment: one of the Ten Worlds.]

[Notice: Natural void barriers and defensive mechanisms exist between the Ten Worlds. Passage is impossible except through specific nodes.]

Just as she had thought!

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Realization dawned on Gu Han.

The “Ten Worlds” the System had mentioned before did not refer to ten completely separate and unrelated worlds.

They were the ten worlds within this vast star sea with the highest energy levels and the most flourishing cultivation civilizations!

Canglan Continent was one of them.

In that case…

Gu Han’s gaze involuntarily shifted toward the very center of the star sea.

There lay the region where the starlight shone most brilliantly and the fluctuations of laws were most immense.

A colossal star several times larger than Canglan Continent hovered there in silence, like an emperor surrounded by a court of lesser stars.

Despite the immense distance between them, they could still sense the indescribably vast pressure and supreme Dao Resonance emanating from it.

It was as though that star were the heart of the entire star sea, the source of all laws, and the center where myriad Daos converged!

Gu Han needed no introduction from Empress Qingxuan to understand.

That had to be Xuanhuang Continent!

“Everyone, look over there.”

Empress Qingxuan’s voice came at just the right moment. She, too, was gazing at the colossal central star, complex emotions flickering in her eyes.

“That star is Xuanhuang Continent, the ‘central great world’ of this star sea.”

She paused, her tone turning solemn.

“According to Xuanhuang Continent’s most ancient texts, as well as certain secrets I learned during my travels back then…”

“In an age so distant it can scarcely be imagined, this entire star sea fell under the jurisdiction of a single immortal domain.”

“Later, for reasons unknown, an unimaginably terrible war erupted, shattering the starry sky and severing the Great Dao.”

“After the war, perhaps to prevent the surviving worlds from falling into conflict once more and bringing about the complete extinction of cultivation civilization…”

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“Or perhaps for some other unknown reason, mighty experts from the Immortal Realm joined forces to establish a grand formation encompassing the entire star sea.”

“Not only did it reinforce the void barriers between the worlds, but it also established special protections and rules.”

Empress Qingxuan’s gaze slowly swept across the star sea before them. It appeared to flow freely, yet invisible pathways and restrictions lay hidden within it.

“One of those rules is what you now see: the various worlds cannot be reached directly by conventional means.”

“The star sea may appear calm, but it is actually filled with invisible ‘world barriers’ and ‘turbulent currents of laws.’”

“To cross them by force, one would need to have reached the legendary realm of a ‘True Immortal’ and become capable of disregarding the rules.”

“Otherwise, even people like us would be stopped by the world barriers, torn apart by the turbulent currents, or lost within them, never to escape for all eternity.”

The Desolate God frowned deeply as he listened and could not help asking:

“Qingxuan, if what you say is true, doesn’t that mean there’s no way to reach Xuanhuang Continent at all?”

“Then how did you get there back then? And what exactly is this ‘void node’?”

“A good question.”

Empress Qingxuan did not seem surprised. The illusory image of the Red Emperor Heaven-Scorching Lotus appeared over her fingertips once more.

“These ‘void nodes’ are formation cores within the grand formation. Or, to put it another way, they are passages.”

“The locations of these nodes are exceptionally well hidden, but they are also effectively the only ‘legitimate’ and viable means of passage.”

“Back then, I stumbled upon one such node by sheer chance. After narrowly surviving countless dangers, I finally managed to pass through by luck.”

She pointed toward the center of the star sea, at a deep region between Xuanhuang Continent and Canglan Continent that appeared empty, though the starlight there was subtly distorted.

“That is our destination. By passing through it, we can reach Xuanhuang Continent.”

“But as I said before, while crossing, we must endure the pressure and scouring of the laws of both worlds. It will be extraordinarily dangerous.”