Volume 1, Chapter 313 – Life-Bearing Star

Crack—

That crisp sound seemed to strike straight against the hearts of the several men.

The giant blood-red cocoon slowly began to split apart. More and more cracks spread across it, and the sound of a heartbeat grew clearer and clearer. The martial artists could not help holding their breath as they focused and kept their guard up.

“Kree—”

A clear cry suddenly rang out, sharp enough to split gold and crack stone, like a divine bird breaking free from its shell. An invisible gale swept through the stone chamber, stirring up dust that filled the air. The sight of the martial artists was obstructed, and they instinctively extended their divine sense.

But the moment their divine sense drew near the cocoon, they were hit by a burst of pain.

Boom!

The giant cocoon shattered into pieces. A blood-colored figure with wings on its back shot straight into the sky, smashed through the stone roof overhead, soared upward, and headed directly for the heavens above.

“Chase it!”

“Don’t let it get away!”

Streak after streak of escape light tore through the clouds and shook the sky as they followed in pursuit.

Shi Lan was left speechless. At this moment she was not wearing a thread, with only a thin veil of blood and qi covering her body. Once she fought someone and that veil of blood and qi was shaken apart, the consequences would be too horrible to imagine.

Thinking of that terrifying possibility, Shi Lan pushed her speed up another level. The blood-red wings behind her spread fully, slicing through space. A single beat of those wings carried her a thousand li away.

Tianbai hid in Shi Lan’s arms and did not dare move in the slightest. He could tell that Shi Lan was in a rather bad mood right now.

One martial artist after another was thrown behind by Shi Lan. Even great cultivators of the Nascent Soul Realm could not keep up with her speed. They were shaken off by ten thousand li and could only watch helplessly as Shi Lan fled into that brilliant starry sky above the nine heavens.

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…

Inside the stone chamber.

That great cultivator of the Nascent Soul Realm stood by the blood pool with a gloomy expression, staring at the dried-up pool, his gaze uncertain.

When Shi Lan left, she had also taken away most of the fragments of the giant cocoon. Only a few scraps remained in the pool now, and the fragments of Emperor laws wrapped around them were almost nonexistent. They no longer held any value.

“Elder Feng, this was found by the edge of the pool.”

A Myriad Phenomena Realm martial artist stepped forward carrying a pile of clothing.

Looking at the heap of women’s clothing before him, Feng Xu’s expression grew even darker. They had searched with all their might, only for someone else to get there first.

“Elder Feng, what should we do now?”

“Report it truthfully and ask the Emperor Lord to decide personally!”

“Yes!”

…

A few days later, an ancient bronze war chariot arrived above Ancient Phoenix City.

A pale golden figure stepped out from the carriage and, with a single stride, crossed into the City Lord’s Manor.

He was a middle-aged man dressed in a dark gold brocade robe with silver patterns, wearing a purple-gold crown in his hair. Emperor’s might spread all around him. At first glance his eyes seemed dim and lightless, but in the next instant they resembled a vast starry river, unfathomably mysterious.

“Greetings, Xuan King.”

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Feng Xu stood with his hands lowered at his sides, a faint trace of cold sweat seeping down his back. He had assumed that at most a Heavenlord would come. He had never imagined that this matter would bring a king here in person.

A Human King could not be mentioned in the same breath as the demon race’s shape-shifted Demon Kings. Such a being was one who had been granted land and a kingly title in the Vast Land of Shenzhou. Even among Emperor-level experts, those granted kingly rank were not common.

“Was there any other gain?” Xuan King asked with his hands clasped behind his back.

“I am incompetent. There should originally have been a full pool of Divine Phoenix blood in that blood pool, but it had already been taken completely. That person was too fast, and we let them escape.” Feng Xu looked somewhat ashamed.

“The phoenix blood is not important.”

Xuan King shook his head and said,

“Were there any other objects left behind?”

“Yes!”

Feng Xu answered at once and quickly presented the set of clothes Shi Lan had left behind.

Xuan King frowned slightly.

“There were no other discoveries?”

Feng Xu shook his head awkwardly.

After sweeping a glance over the clothing, Xuan King’s brow relaxed slightly.

“Fortunately, the aura has not completely dispersed yet.”

Xuan King reached out and made a grasping motion. In his eyes, stars rose and fell as Emperor laws surged forth. That set of clothing began to move without wind and slowly spread open. After a few breaths, it outlined a slender figure in the air.

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“Bring paper and brush!”

Feng Xu came back to himself and hurried off. Soon he returned with spirit paper and a talisman brush.

“Rise!”

With a low shout from Xuan King, the clothing ignited on its own and turned into a wisp of blue smoke that attached itself to the talisman brush.

The spirit paper unfurled in the wind, and brilliant light burst from the talisman brush. Seized by an invisible hand, it began painting across the page. After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, a portrait of a peerless beauty appeared on the paper, identical to Shi Lan’s true appearance in every detail.

Xuan King glanced at it, then, using the portrait as a medium, performed another great divine ability.

Brilliant divine radiance erupted from his eyes and pierced through the void. A vision condensed in the air, reflecting a deep starry sky. Between the stars, a figure was moving through it.

The vision was like flowers in a mirror and the moon in water, extremely blurry. It lasted only a few breaths before vanishing without a trace.

“This person carries a great secret. Perhaps there is a supreme treasure on her that can obscure the workings of heaven and interfere with divination. It is impossible to determine her precise location.”

If he could determine her location, he could strike across the void right now and suppress her directly.

Xuan King frowned deeply and stood in thought. Only after a long while did he slowly say,

“First investigate her identity and background in secret. We will discuss the rest afterward.”

He rolled up the portrait and tossed it to Feng Xu. Xuan King’s figure vanished instantly, and the ancient bronze war chariot hovering above also shifted through space and disappeared.

Feng Xu unfurled the portrait, ground his teeth inwardly, turned around, and began mobilizing manpower.

…

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Shi Lan’s figure halted in the void, uncertainty in her expression. For a brief instant just now, it had felt as though she had been targeted by some primordial beast, and an involuntary chill had run through her body.

She remained frozen in place for a moment before recovering. Her wings beat once behind her, and she continued on her way.

After absorbing that entire pool of phoenix blood, Shi Lan’s Divine Phoenix Body had completely awakened. Not only had her strength advanced greatly, several dark red demonic markings had also appeared on her body.

Most notably, a flame mark had appeared between her brows. Through that mark, Shi Lan’s affinity with fire laws had become extraordinarily close, allowing her to cultivate with half the effort for twice the result.

Aside from these changes, Shi Lan had awakened another innate divine ability. She named it Divine Phoenix Wings. With one spread of those wings, she could attain speed surpassing even great cultivators of the Nascent Soul Realm.

That was also the reason Shi Lan was now able to travel through the Illusory Star Domain. The Illusory Star Domain was simply far too vast, even larger than the entire Vast Land of Shenzhou. The distances between life-bearing stars were extremely remote.

Moreover, the spiritual qi in this starry sky was not especially dense. There were not only life-bearing stars here, but also many dead stars.

Divine Phoenix Wings consumed a great deal. After traveling for several days, Shi Lan had to stop for a short rest and recover her true qi.

The days of travel were exceedingly monotonous, but with Tianbai accompanying her, they were not too boring.

Only after more than a full month had passed did Shi Lan finally reach a life-bearing star within the Illusory Star Domain.

This star was not especially large, with a diameter of only a little over twenty thousand li.

The instant she passed through the clouds, the spiritual qi of heaven and earth surged sharply upward, not much inferior to that of the Vast Land of Shenzhou. All of that vast spiritual qi was locked to the surfaces of these life-bearing stars by an invisible barrier.

Unfolding her divine sense, Shi Lan quickly discovered more than ten cities. After comparing them briefly, she chose the largest and headed toward it.

There might be transmission formations on these life-bearing stars that led to other life-bearing stars.