Volume 1, Chapter 318 – Ancient Starry Road

“Even if there is a transmission formation, the Zheng family has definitely already found it.”

Shi Lan shook her head. With Heaven-Man experts carrying out that kind of carpet search, no secret could possibly remain hidden on this star.

“That formation is hidden inside a secret realm and connects to an Ancient Starry Road. It’s extremely well concealed, so it won’t be easy to find. This trip was meant to rescue him and then withdraw beyond the domain,” Li Canglan assured her.

“Where is he?”

Shi Lan did not waste time dwelling on it and asked directly.

Even in a second-rank force, a great cultivator of the Nascent Soul Realm would be at the elder level, and there would definitely be a soul lamp left behind for him. She had killed Zheng Tianlun, so the Zheng family would certainly know by now. There was no time to waste.

“Not far from here. Less than three hundred li.”

Tianbai very knowingly leapt onto Shi Lan’s shoulder. Shi Lan spread her Divine Phoenix Wings, grabbed Li Canglan in one hand, and headed in the direction he pointed.

…

A distance of three hundred li could be crossed by Shi Lan in an instant.

Li Canglan had not even reacted when Shi Lan had already stopped.

The uprising here had not yet been suppressed only because the Zheng family had not sent absolute top-tier force. There was only one Myriad Phenomena Realm martial artist here, accompanied by more than ten Heavenly Astral Realm cultivators.

Among the rebels was also a Myriad Phenomena Realm cultivator, a tall middle-aged man.

Behind him, a group of people protected a sixty-year-old elder at the center while fighting and retreating.

The methods cultivated by both sides were drastically different from those of Lingyang Realm. Clearly, they were all native cultivators of Yaoyun Star, now killing one another.

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“That’s him.”

Li Canglan pointed at the old man and spoke urgently.

Shi Lan did not hesitate. She struck at once. The flame mark at her brow shimmered, and primordial true fire wrapped around the Heaven Extremity Seal as it came crashing down, collapsing a section of the void.

The thousand-zhang giant palm swept through, and more than ten cultivators, including that Myriad Phenomena Realm cultivator, exploded on the spot.

The middle-aged man who had been locked in bitter combat stood there dumbfounded. Only after he saw Li Canglan hanging in Shi Lan’s hand in the distance did he barely recover his senses.

“Canglan, this is…?”

“She’s not from Yaoyun Star, and she’s not with the Zheng family either. She just wants to borrow the route out of here.”

Li Canglan hurriedly explained a few words, then added,

“We’ll talk after we leave. The Zheng family will definitely send people to suppress this place again.”

The middle-aged man nodded. He had gathered only a few dozen people, all elites among elites, the hidden embers Xuansheng Palace had deliberately preserved.

Xuansheng Palace had not launched this revolt without preparation. They had long since readied a miniature warship capable of traversing the void for extraction.

After everyone boarded the warship, the middle-aged man remained outside.

“Elder Tang, you…”

Li Canglan already had a vague premonition, and his eyes reddened.

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“Go. If I stay here, I can still draw some of their attention.”

The middle-aged man waved his hand, then faced Shi Lan and gave her a great bow.

“No matter the reason, Xuansheng Palace is grateful for your help. We thank you here.”

Behind him stood several hundred people, all willing to remain behind and die here.

Shi Lan’s gaze flickered slightly, and she sighed inwardly. Because of differing positions, many things were difficult to judge as simply right or wrong.

In the end, only sufficient strength could bring status and power.

“Go!”

Li Canglan did not waste another word. He turned and activated the warship at once. To waste time now was to treat everyone’s lives as a joke.

The warship passed through the void and vanished in an instant.

…

Feeling the warship’s speed, Shi Lan could not help frowning. Compared with a Myriad Phenomena Realm martial artist, this speed was naturally as swift as a meteor, but in front of great cultivators of the Nascent Soul Realm, it was somewhat lacking.

After asking for the rough direction, Shi Lan directly stepped out of the warship. Blood and qi condensed into a phantom dharma body, which lifted the warship itself and carried it through the void into the distance.

After all, Yaoyun Star was only a low-grade life-bearing star, and the Zheng family had not left behind any top-tier forces to guard it. The journey went unexpectedly smoothly.

They ran into a few martial artists on the way, but Shi Lan shook them off with the extreme speed of the Divine Phoenix Wings in just a few moves.

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A little over an hour later, Shi Lan came to a halt above a vast ocean.

“It’s here…”

At those words, Shi Lan extended her divine sense and swept across heaven and earth. One gateway after another appeared in the void, all of them spatial nodes for traversing space, but she found no trace of any secret realm.

After sensing for a while with his eyes closed, the sixty-year-old elder sat cross-legged in the void and began reciting an obscure and ancient incantation.

Ripples spread through the void, layer after layer of seals peeling away. After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, a vortex appeared.

“Hurry!”

The old man was drenched in sweat. Clearly, maintaining this entrance was no easy task.

The warship entered the vortex, passed through a spatial node, and entered a secret realm.

This realm was not large. It held only a continuous stretch of mountains, no more than a few dozen li across, though the spiritual qi was much richer than outside, nurturing quite a few spiritual treasures and exotic beasts.

Shi Lan sized up this world and felt a little astonished. Although her understanding of the law of space had only just begun, she could still make out a bit of the foundation of this place.

Strictly speaking, this place did not yet count as a small world. It should have been left behind by a cultivator at Great Perfection of the Nascent Soul Realm, one who was likely only a single step away from the Heaven-Man Realm.

This place could support living beings, but it could not independently give birth to new life. Its laws were incomplete.

For cultivators, the Heaven-Man Realm was another leap in the level of life itself. Between it and the Nascent Soul Realm lay a vast, impassable gulf.

At that stage, the space one created would completely transform toward becoming a world, evolving the four calamities of heaven and earth.

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At such a time, a cultivator had to possess the mighty power to stabilize earth, water, wind, and fire in order to cross that step. Otherwise, they would certainly die to the backlash of the four calamities of heaven and earth.

“This is the place…”

The old man led the group deep into the mountains. An ancient transmission formation lay there, more than half covered by yellowed fallen leaves and blanketed with moss.

In the grooves of the formation were nearly a hundred gray-white spirit crystals, but all the spiritual qi within them had already dissipated.

“The last time I came here was more than fifty years ago…”

The old man’s expression turned somewhat sorrowful. He removed spirit crystals from the warship and went forward to replace them one by one.

Li Canglan and the others all stepped onto the ancient transmission formation, but the old man remained outside it.

“I only know how to activate it, not how to conceal it. The entrance here has already developed flaws, and it’s only a matter of time before it’s discovered. You go first. I’ll clean things up here and follow after.”

The moment his words fell, the old man directly activated the formation. A pillar of light shot into the sky, illuminating a sea of stars and opening up an Ancient Starry Road.

“Thank you for your trouble.”

A voice transmission sounded in Shi Lan’s mind. Outside the formation, the old man suddenly dropped to his knees and kowtowed heavily to Shi Lan.

Standing within the ancient formation, Shi Lan gave a slight nod. Beside her, Li Canglan lifted his head slightly and clenched his fists.

Boom!

As the beam of light slowly faded, the figures of the group disappeared with it, entering that unknown Ancient Starry Road.