Once a cultivator reaches the Fifth Rank, the Earth Fiend Realm, the path forward becomes steep, a wall that only the rarest can climb.
Even within the greatest lineages, it often takes a thousand years of accumulation to produce a single Star-Seizer.
Immortal Earth Fiends are many, but among ten thousand of them, only one might break through.
For if a cultivator's foundation is shallow, their essence unstable, their accumulation insufficient, then all their cultivation is nothing but a pile of damp firewood: no matter how fiercely they burn the Fiendfire, it will never give birth to Immortal Spirit Qi.
Only those who stand at the very pinnacle can bridge that gulf: they must temper their entire power base in flame, refining their own Dao force until it becomes a single thread of Immortal Spirit Qi, and only then can they begin seeking a celestial star to align with.
Sensing a star, resonating with it, and fusing one's own Immortal Spirit Qi with that star's essence to form a unity that, too, is a trial bordering on the impossible.
But Shang Xi was no ordinary man.
He was the Pure Yang Master, tempered by three millennia of Fiendfire; blessed with a high-grade divine title, awakened to seven Heavenly Mandates, and armed with two swords and one eye, three second-rank Spirit Constructs bound to his soul.
His Fiendfire power had long since refined into a vast and flawless Immortal Spirit Qi.
This Immortal Spirit Qi is the purest form of Dao energy, the ultimate distillation of a cultivator's lifetime of cultivation.
It forms the foundation of every realm above the Fifth Rank:
Star-Seizer, Heaven-Mender, and even the near-divine Second Rank.
Ordinarily, an Earth Fiend cultivator can only condense a faint prototype of Immortal Spirit Qi after perfecting their foundation and preparing for ascension.
When that nascent energy spills beyond the realm barrier and merges with the breath of the void, it truly takes shape.
Then, by letting the Immortal Spirit Qi fall upon a Fate Star with a rich spiritual core, the cultivator draws that star's essence into themselves.
Through this bridge, the Qi flows back into the Sea of Primordial Breath, where it is endlessly washed and purified until the transformation is complete.
That moment marks the birth of a Star-Seizer.
Even among them, Immortal Spirit Qi remains precious beyond measure.
It must be condensed drop by drop, at great cost in time and essence.
From the Star-Seizer Realm onward, all cultivators' power is composed purely of Immortal Spirit Qi.
The difference between realms is no longer quality, but quantity, the depth of their accumulation.
To hold more Immortal Spirit Qi, one must awaken Heavenly Mandates in the vessels that contain it.
A Star-Seizer without any Heavenly Mandates can bear only a single thread of Immortal Spirit Qi, the minimal capacity granted by the realm itself.
Without a mandate, they hit a ceiling the instant they ascend; they cannot ever condense a second strand.
Each additional Heavenly Mandate grants another vessel, another current of Immortal Spirit Qi.
Thus, for a Star-Seizer, the number of Heavenly Mandates determines not only strength, but destiny itself.
Pure Yang Master Shang Xi possessed seven.
His foundation dwarfed all others.
Within his Xiwei Sword Casket, drifting in the void, lay the prototype of his Immortal Spirit Qi, a blazing embryo of ascension.
When it reached the Main Star five hundred million li away, the Immortal Spirit Qi plunged straight into the stellar core, beginning the vital process of fusion and transformation.
From that instant onward, Shang Xi's journey to ascendence had truly begun.
His Immortal Spirit Qi was immense, dozens of times greater than that of ordinary Earth Fiends.
Such energy could never be borne by scattered or broken stars.
Only a Main Star, its core vast enough to contain worlds, could serve as the foundation of his Dao.
The Xiwei Sword Casket descended upon the star, piercing into its spiritual heart, and through that core, leapt into the boundless Sea of Primordial Breath.
There, it would undergo its final refinement.
When it returned, Shang Xi would rise as a Star-Seizer.
...
In the capital of the Divine Dynasty, Yingdu, within the grand Palace of the Human Emperor, the reigning sovereign Emperor Yingkun was seated before a strange mirror.
By his side stood his nephew Yinghao.
Through that mirror, the two watched the battle raging upon the membrane of the realm itself.
The Impermanence Cavern was already gravely damaged, and now, with two second-rank powerhouses clashing within it, the Mother Yaksha and the Heavenly Gang Tower, it was on the verge of total collapse.
Seeing this, Yinghao frowned.
"Uncle," he asked, "that Mother Yaksha fights far too fiercely.
She doesn't look like someone whose strength has been drained after three thousand years of suppression.
The Heavenly Gang Tower's four guardians can't keep her down. Shouldn't we intervene?"
The Human Emperor gave a cold chuckle.
"That fool Tianyan," he said, "has always relied on his title as Heaven-bestowed Third Rank Spirit Officer to ignore imperial commands.
Let him suffer a bit first.
In fact, I'd rather see the Mother Yaksha tear the Impermanence Cavern apart and give them all a good lesson."
Then, narrowing his eyes, he continued:
"In those days, the Pure Yang Heaven managed to suppress two second-rank fiends, not just the Mother Yaksha, but also the Wu Zhiqi beast.
I'd wager that Shang Xi struck a bargain:
Traded Wu Zhiqi's remains in exchange for the Mother Yaksha's aid."
Yinghao hesitated before asking:
"Then… what about Shang Xi's ascension, Uncle?
If he truly succeeds, Pure Yang Heaven will rise again from its ashes.
For centuries to come, it might never be destroyed.
And what of the Yanfu Dao? It's revived. The Yanfu Son has reappeared within the realm.
Should the Divine Dynasty not respond?"
"If we had just waited a little longer, both Shang Xi and the remnants of Yanfu Dao would have perished quietly.
Now everything's been overturned overnight.
How will our Ying Clan explain this to Her Majesty of the Northern Heavens, the Empress of Wujitian?"
Emperor Yingkun laughed, his voice sharp as a blade.
"Explain? To them?
Yinghao, you're still too young.
You've never been to the Boundless Heaven Court, so you don't know what kind of birds nest there.
Why should we bear the karmic debt of Pure Yang Heaven and Yanfu Dao?
We've guarded these Dao-ancestral lineages for seventy thousand years, our service, our sacrifices none can deny it.
If Wujitian isn't satisfied, let them send their own people to kill the new Yanfu Son."
He looked directly at Yinghao, his tone calm but heavy.
"When you inherit my throne, you'll understand the Ying Clan's greatest value lies right here,
standing guard at the Yingfutu Realm,
watching over the prisoners known as Pure Yang and Yanfu.
If one day the prisoners are gone,
then tell me what use is there for a jailer?"
"As for these two sects, Pure Yang Heaven and Yanfu Dao, we shall not meddle. Let them fight, rise, or fall as they please.
For countless ages, we've kept our silence, never once suppressing them even in their decline.
That goodwill is already worth more than gold."
"Frankly, I'd like to see what Wujitian does once these two begin to rise again."
The Ying Clan had seen enough of Wujitian's hypocrisy during the last great calamity.
They had already resolved upon their strategy to raise the wolves and feed their own strength.
Bound by duty, they could not openly aid Pure Yang Heaven or Yanfu Dao.
But if those two ancient lineages were to claw their way back to power, the Ying Clan would not stop them; indeed, they would quietly rejoice.
Yet as the two emperors conversed, a sudden shift rippled across the Yingfutu Realm.
The Human Emperor's face darkened, and his voice thundered through the hall:
"How dare they!"
In the next breath, the entire Palace of the Human Emperor lifted off from Yingdu, rising straight into the sky.
...
Meanwhile, within the Blood Pool Cavern, Jing Qian was enjoying his triumph to the fullest.
He had feasted upon an entire top-tier spiritual domain, devouring every last fragment of its foundation into his Sumeru Dimension.
The influx of energy was so immense, he could scarcely absorb it fast enough.
At this point, over ninety-nine percent of the Blood Pool Cavern had been consumed into his private world; only a thin layer of its outer membrane remained, still faintly fused with the Yingfutu Realm's barrier.
But for the Lord of Myriad Phenomena Sumeru, a single layer of spatial film was nothing.
He could craft a new one with a thought.
He placed the devoured Blood Pool Cavern directly beneath the Void Realm, then forged a qi channel connecting the two.
The cavern's vast spiritual core began to pour its power upward into the Void Realm.
Compared to the Blood Pool Cavern, the Void Realm was but a seed of his true foundation, tied to his Life Furnace, rooted through Good Corn, and now being nourished with divine essence.
The first surge of energy alone was enough to transform it.
The Void Realm expanded tenfold, its diameter surpassing thirty li, no longer a mere pocket dimension, but the beginnings of a true minor world.
The transformation resonated through Jing Qian's entire being.
His spatial arts grew sharper, his Sumeru Ghost Skin thickened and solidified, and even the Sumeru Immortal Sword Embryo in his hands gained another sliver of Fate Power without consuming any lifespan.
The black jade blade now gleamed with refined edges, its structure denser, its connection to Jing Qian deeper than ever before.
Satisfied, he glanced toward the distant Boundless Sea where Blood-Robe was still locked in battle against Good Corn and the Ghost Phoenix, waves rising like mountains beneath their clash.
The Blood-Robe had never imagined that leaving his cavern for a short while would lead to his entire sect's ancestral domain being eaten clean, nothing left, not even bones.
Now, stripped of his root domain, his cultivation plummeted, and he was barely holding even with the Ghost Phoenix.
Jing Qian raised his Immortal Sword, his Three-Life Eye expanding to cover the battlefield.
He was just about to teleport in and deliver the killing blow when he froze.
His eyes widened.
Something unexpected appeared in his vision.
Abandoning Blood-Robe, he looked upward, face suddenly grave.
High above, at the location of the Blood River Sect's Main Star, three mysterious figures had materialized.
They formed a triangular formation, encircling the star.
That Main Star was the foundation of Shang Xi's ascension, the very chance his master and he had fought so hard to seize.
If anything happened to it, the consequences would be catastrophic beyond words.
And then, before Jing Qian could even react, a light burst forth from the three figures.
Three torrents of devastating power struck the Main Star head-on.
A deafening roar followed.
The Main Star shattered like glass, and the brilliance of its destruction lit the heavens.
Shang Xi's ascension to the Star-Reacher Realm was brutally cut short.
...
Inside the collapsing Impermanence Cavern, Ling Ling the Mother Yaksha was fighting like a storm unchained.
With each exchange, her power swelled, her aura rising higher and higher as she crushed the Heavenly Gang Tower beneath her blows.
The four guardians trapped within the tower struggled desperately, unable to break free.
She was shedding the last remnants of suppression left by the Great Wei Sword, her strength recovering to a terrifying peak.
After devouring the essence of Wu Zhiqi, her power had even surpassed what it had been before she was sealed by the Bodhisattva Miaoyin.
Just as she was about to unleash one final strike to shatter the Heavenly Gang Tower completely, a familiar voice rang out across the cavern, calm, mocking, and laced with ancient warmth:
"Ling Ling, so you managed to free yourself after all?
I was about to come save you personally, thought I might earn a favor while I was at it."
Neither Ling Ling nor the tower's guardians had noticed when it happened, but a woman had appeared within the cavern, silently watching the battle unfold.
She was tall and striking, her beauty edged with danger.
A cascade of crimson hair, bright as molten lava, tumbled down her back, each strand flickering with tiny tongues of golden flame.
She wore a heavy red gown woven from fire and blood, its hem roiling like a burning sea.
The skin of her exposed legs shimmered with molten-gold patterns, and wherever her bare feet touched the ground, the stone beneath her crystallized into translucent glass.
The newcomer was no ordinary being; she, too, was a second-rank great fiend.
The Drought Demoness Huo Huo.
Rank: Second Grade
Nature: Fiend Ancestor of Fire and Drought
She was equal in power to the Mother Yaksha, but of an opposing nature
Huo Huo was pure yang; Ling Ling was pure yin.
Together, they were the twin progenitors of the zombie lineage, the sun and moon of the undead.
Seeing the red-haired woman, Ling Ling's lips curled into a sardonic smile.
"Elder Sister," she said slowly, "you finally show yourself.
I've waited a long time.
It's been three thousand years, tell me, have you finished razing my old lair to the ground?"
The Drought Demoness laughed lightly, her voice clear as a silver bell.
"Ah, you always did know me best, little sister.
Our hearts are one, as ever."
"Seven hundred years ago, I wiped every trace of you from Corpse Mountain.
Otherwise, how could I come here to 'rescue' you with a straight face?"
"But I was merciful to your core elder corpses, I spared them.
I cast them into the void to fend for themselves instead of killing them outright."
Ling Ling's expression darkened.
The two sisters had fought for over ten thousand years, battling for control of a sacred undead sanctuary.
But after Ling Ling's defeat and three millennia of imprisonment in Pure Yang Heaven, it was clear who had won.
"I don't need your rescue," Ling Ling said coldly.
"Don't pretend to come here under that banner.
I've finally escaped the heavens' prison if you break the pact and drag the High Goddess of Egao's wrath down upon us, and she hauls me back in chains, I'll make you regret it."
The Drought Demoness only laughed again, rich and mocking.
"Now, now, don't get so cross, Sister.
I wouldn't have come without the temple master's leave.
The High Goddess of Egao has agreed not to meddle between our Ancient Sea of Monsters and your Yingfutu Realm anymore."
"If you don't believe me, look up.
I didn't come alone.
The last three lords of the Sea, Huodou, Suanni, and Liefeng, have arrived as well."
Ling Ling looked to the heavens, and her heart clenched.
High above, three colossal figures, her old acquaintances, had already joined forces and crushed the Main Star in their grasp.
To a second-rank being, a mere star was as fragile as glass.
Destroying one was effortless.
But only Ling Ling truly understood what this meant.
Her eyes widened in horror.
Before she could react, Huo Huo moved first.
With a sweep of her arm, an ocean of blazing demonic fire roared forth, washing over the battlefield and surging toward the Heavenly Gang Tower.
"I must thank you, Sister," Huo Huo called over the roar,
"for breaking open this cavern and drawing the Tower's guardians here.
Once we destroy this artifact together, nothing will stand in the way of us five dividing the Yingfutu Realm between us."
Her flames filled the skies, but before they could engulf the tower, a radiant purple-gold palace descended from beyond the clouds.
It struck the ground like a falling sun, snuffing out the inferno in an instant.
The Human Emperor Yingkun had arrived.
"Drought Demoness Huo Huo!" he roared.
"Our realms, the Yingfutu Realm and your Ancient Sea of Monsters, were reconciled by the Empress Herself.
Our karmic debts are cleared, our wars ceased.
How dare you trespass upon my domain and run wild here!"
Huo Huo smiled scornfully, her eyes gleaming like molten gold.
"So you're this generation's Human Emperor?
How disappointing you're nothing like your ancestors."
"Do not delude yourself, little emperor.
A 'reconciliation' is not the same as surrender.
The war between our realms was never over, only postponed."
Her voice rose, resonating like thunder through the void.
"Three thousand years ago, your Yingfutu Realm, wielding the authority of the Mountain World, shattered my Ancient Sea of Monsters, shaming us before the heavens.
Today that debt shall be repaid in full!"
As soon as the Drought Demoness finished speaking, she raised her arms and summoned a roaring sea of fire.
Without another word, she hurled it straight toward the Palace of the Human Emperor.
Yingkun, the reigning Human Emperor, had ascended to the throne not long ago.
His personal cultivation was only Third Rank, Heaven-Mender Realm,
But while within the Yingfutu Realm, and wielding the Second-Rank Palace of the Human Emperor, he could temporarily elevate his power to the Second Rank.
Even so, this only allowed him to barely withstand Huo Huo's infernal onslaught; it was a stalemate at best, certainly not a quick victory.
Yet this was merely the beginning of the true catastrophe.
Three more great fiends, each exuding an aura no weaker than the Drought Demoness, had just shattered Shang Xi's Main Star and were now descending together upon the Yingfutu Realm.
It was a moment of life and death for the entire world.
Three thousand years ago, the Ancient Sea of Monsters had invaded with six second-rank demon lords, two more than today.
But back then, the Yingfutu Realm had powerful Dao successors still alive.
The Third-Rank True Miao and the Fourth-Rank You Bing, fighting alone, each suppressed two demon lords, creating the legendary battle where the Mountain Realm crushed the Sea Realm.
That victory shook all of Wuji Heaven and reminded the Northern Emperors of the terrifying depth that still lingered in the legacies of the ancient Dao Masters.
Even more so, the Lady of the Ying Clan of that era, who sacrificed her purity to forge peace and end the war with love, became a figure of awe and sorrow throughout the realm.
But now?
The Ying Clan's scion had long vanished from public sight, the Pure Yang Master was old and dying, and the Yanfu Son was still but a fledgling.
The three demon lords hurtling toward the realm
bore the very posture of apocalypse itself.
Yingfutu stood at the edge of annihilation.
Inside the Palace of the Human Emperor, Yingkun fought the Drought Demoness with all his might.
Though his strength could rival hers for now, he dared not divert even a fraction of focus.
But as half-master of the realm, his divine sense extended across every inch of Yingfutu, and he could feel the approach of the three other fiends as clearly as a blade at his throat.
Still, the Ying Clan was no fool; they had not ruled seventy millennia without contingency.
The old foxes of the court had long prepared for this day.
While battle raged outside, Yinghao, lacking the strength to fight,
slipped into the palace's deepest chamber.
There stood a colossal, ancient, silent, sacred.
From his body leapt Yan Mara, transforming into a molten warhammer.
Yinghao seized it in both hands, raised it high, and brought it crashing down upon the bell.
BOOM!
A single toll rolled through the heavens, its sound spreading across every mountain, river, and sky of the Yingfutu Realm.
It was not a mere alarm;
It was a call that awakened the realm's very foundation.
When no Dao child stood before the storm,
then all must stand together.
At once, countless fires ignited across the land from the endless lattice of destiny-fields, and flames rose from every Life Furnace.
The earth's breath coiled upward; every furnace, every cultivator, poured forth their stored Life-Fire without hesitation, even those in foreign-ruled lands, even the black cat hidden in the Void Realm, none withheld their flame.
The billions of Life-Fires converged into the Hearth Realm,
where waiting Hearth Spirits, great and small, received them, fusing the flames into one immeasurable current.
That current flooded into a single figure a portly cultivator with a jovial face and body like Maitreya himself, a cleaver in one hand and a rolling pin in the other: the current Head Cook of the Kitchen God Hall, the grand-uncle of Luo Tian.
As the Life-Fire entered him, his Third-Rank power exploded upward, his form expanding into the divine body of the Kitchen God himself.
He burst from the Hearth Realm, rising into the sky as a blazing titan of flame.
The demon lord Huodou, a black-furred hound wreathed in karmic fire, saw the Kitchen God ascend.
Its eyes gleamed wickedly as it lunged, fangs and flame clashing against the god's blade.
Two ancestral masters of fire met head-on, and the heavens themselves trembled as they fought.
Then, from the void above, a crystal fishhook materialized out of nothing, gleaming like starlight. It slanted downward and caught the mountainous demon lord Suanni, hooking him fast and dragging him to a standstill outside the realm's barrier.
The Angler of Zhuoling Cavern had struck.
He rarely revealed himself within the Yingfutu Realm, but long ago, he had sworn to the Emperor that he would lend his aid when the critical hour came.
At the same time, from the Sea of Wraiths, the Hall of Yellow Springs rose into the sky. Within it sat the Ghost Emperor of Wuchang, wreathing himself in endless ghostly mists and hurling them against the storm demon lord Liefeng.
Having returned from the Great Wood Cavern, the Ghost Emperor had set aside all personal grudges, even his sister's tragedy, and thrown himself wholly into the fight.
With his arrival, the battle lines were finally complete.
Now, ten second-rank powers clashed in pairs, their combat raging outside the Yingfutu Realm, turning the heavens and earth into chaos incarnate.
Yet on closer look, the realm's defenders, the Human Emperor, the Kitchen God, and the Heavenly Gang Tower were all borrowed second-ranks, their strength propped up by external forces.
They could hold their ground for now, but the longer the battle stretched, the greater the risk of collapse.
Everyone present, wise, seasoned veterans all knew this could not last.
They were already searching for a way to break the deadlock.
...
Meanwhile, Jing Qian's vision projection descended near the Pure Yang Cavern, where Shang Xi sat cross-legged, calm amid the chaos, his Eye of Insight and Rebirth gazing toward the distant heavens where ten divine lights clashed.
Before Jing Qian could speak, Shang Xi sighed and said:
"Chixiao, our luck truly is cursed.
In my calculations, the chance of interference on this scale was less than one in ten thousand, and yet, here it is.
Since the day I joined the sect, good fortune has never once come my way.
Disaster after disaster, while our forebears roamed the seas with their swords
I've sat here for three thousand years, only to be mocked by demons and beasts.
If I survive this calamity,
I'll personally visit the Ancient Sea of Monsters and see what kind of arrogance the Seven Celestial Seas of the North truly possess."
Jing Qian could only give a wry smile.
When it came to bad luck, no one in all the realms could match his master.
"Master," he asked, "with your Fate Star destroyed, what of your ascension?
Is there still a chance to recover?"
Shang Xi nodded.
"The Main Star may be gone, but my Xiwei Sword Box still floats within the Sea of Primordial Qi, nurturing the Immortal Spirit within.
If we can find another Main Star and draw the Sword Box back before its energy is spent, then there is still hope."
"This tribulation isn't over yet."
Just as he finished speaking, a streak of starlight descended from the horizon.
A youthful-looking Star-Seizer cultivator appeared before them, the sect master of Star Dou Kuishan, Master Douzong.
"True Master Shang Xi," he said solemnly,
"Our Kuishan Sect lacks the strength to aid you in battle, but we have accumulated some stellar essence.
Please accept it to complete your ascension."
He waved his hand.
The illusory veils surrounding them dissolved, revealing seven radiant stars, each one a true Main Star, glittering like jewels in the sky.
In moments of external crisis, even old rivals knew the value of survival over pride.
If Shang Xi could succeed in his breakthrough, his rise to Star-Seizer, backed by the legacy of Pure Yang Heaven, could turn the tide of the entire war.
And so the opportunity he had sought fruitlessly for three thousand years was suddenly placed right before him.
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