When they slipped past the barrier and descended, the sight left them dumbfounded. Blue Star wasn't the backwater world in the records. In the last few days it had changed swollen, reshaped, as if the planet had been reforged. The old Blue Star would have been a thousand times smaller. Huai had poured in resources without restraint, expanding continents, raising new seas, stitching cities and academies into every region. He had moved the entire Eternal Sect to the central region and anchored it like a heart.
Blue Star was now one of the strongest planets in the Red Lotus Galaxy. Fourth-tier forces couldn't compare.
Beside Yao Lingxi stood her family's physician, a renowned fourth-tier healer named He Qingyuan . He had been with the Medicine Gatherer Pavilion since Lingxi was a child, one of the pavilion's most trusted elders. His realm was Star Venerable , an entire major stage below the white-bearded gatekeeper outside.
On her other side was a young protector, twenty-five or twenty-six, named Luo Chen . He stared at the world below with horrified eyes. The Blue Star they knew from the charts had been a backwater. How could it become this?
A figure in Eternal Sect robes approached them in the air. Another elder of the sect, calm and courteous, bowed slightly. "Welcome to Blue Star," he said. "The Sect Master has already informed me to escort you to our Eternal Sect."
Lingxi nodded, and with He Qingyuan and Luo Chen followed him down. On the way they passed sweeping landscapes and bustling markets that were more advanced than anything on their home world orderly avenues, arrays lighting the streets, academies with courtyards full of disciples, and trade districts where rare materials flowed like water.
After a few minutes, the escort brought them to the Eternal Sect. The sight stole their breath. Nine peaks rose like pillars, brushing the sky. Palaces and pavilions clung to the mountainsides, their materials and craft beyond anything Lingxi had seen even in the most advanced galaxies. It felt as if they had stepped out of Blue Star and into another world entirely.
Yao Lingxi and her companions arrived at the foot of Eternal Peak and ascended on foot to the summit. The elder who had guided them announced their presence at the hall doors. From within, Huai's voice said, "Enter."
They stepped inside. The guide elder did not follow; he bowed and withdrew, returning to his duties in the bustling central city.
The hall was spacious and quiet, light falling through high windows onto polished floors. At the far end, Huai sat drinking tea. Wuhe stood nearby, arms folded, watching. Both turned their gaze to the newcomers.
Huai had already dimmed the starry sky view inside the Eternal Hall so visitors wouldn't be overwhelmed. He sat at ease, a white veil covering the lower half of his face, and looked toward the three.
"You asked for me?" he said. "What is your reason for coming here?"
Yao Lingxi bowed deeply. She could tell these two were not ordinary. Even with the detection treasures she carried, she couldn't gauge their realms at all. The same was true for her protectors He Qingyuan and Luo Chen were both at Star Venerable, yet neither could sense the true level of the man and the one beside him.
Cold sweat beaded on their foreheads. Lingxi stammered, "Your Highness... are you the Divine Physician?"
Huai said nothing. He simply took out an emblem token given by Goddess Nexus. On one side it read Holy Level Citizen; on the other, Divine Physician.
All three stared at the emblem with horrified eyes. They had searched for the Divine Physician for more than a month and found nothing. Now, on this backwater planet that had changed beyond recognition, the Divine Physician sat in front of them.
But He Qingyuan's expression was wrong. He was trembling more than the others, and fear flickered plain in his eyes and the tightness of his hands.
Huai asked again, "You came here for your disease, right?"
Yao Lingxi nodded and introduced herself. "Your Highness! I am the young miss of the Medicine Gatherer Pavilion, a fourth-tier force in the Red Lotus Galaxy Yao Lingxi. These are my protectors; He Qingyuan, a fourth-tier physician who has been with me since childhood, and Luo Chen, my personal protector."
"Since childhood I've carried a disease that makes my realm and my apparent age regress. By count I should be twenty-six or twenty-seven this year... but my body is eight."
"My family searched the whole federation for medicine and treatment. We even consulted holy-level physicians. None could cure me. Please help me, my lord."
Hope steadied her voice. She had never met anyone with an aura like Huai's.
Huai smiled at her, then glanced at Wuhe. "Wuhe."
Wuhe moved. To Lingxi's eyes he vanished and reappeared in an instant standing beside her, one hand locked on He Qingyuan's shoulder, pinning the old physician in place.
Yao Lingxi went rigid. Luo Chen surged forward to shield his young miss.
Wuhe smiled, calm. "Don't worry. I'm not going to attack you or your young miss."
Lingxi immediately bowed to Huai. She knew only he could stop Wuhe. "Your Highness! He has been my force's personal physician for a very long time. He's like family to me. If he has done something wrong, please forgive him."
"I am ready to apologize in his place."
Yao Lingxi waited for a response. Her protector, Luo Chen, was also confused. He never imagined they would be attacked after entering this place.
Huai moved. By the time he stopped, Wuhe had already bound He Qingyuan with a shimmering rope, forcing him to his knees. Wuhe hadn't even let the man twitch.
Huai came to stand before He Qingyuan. "Are you going to admit it, or do I need to do it myself?"
He Qingyuan glared at Huai, gritting his teeth. "What the hell are you talking about? Release me this instant or else..."
Huai chuckled. "Or else what? You'll throw that Nether Water at me?"
He Qingyuan froze. He never imagined he'd be caught so easily. He gritted his teeth. "What are you talking about?"
Huai ignored him and turned to Lingxi, who was staring, dumbfounded. "Actually, young lady, you don't have a disease at all."
Lingxi was baffled. What did that mean? Her body had been regressing for years, and now the Divine Physician himself was saying she wasn't sick?
Huai chuckled. "Don't worry. I'm right." He placed a hand on her shoulder and sent a stream of pure divine aura into her. In a mere second, he pulled something from her dantian.
The moment the object left her body, she felt a profound sense of release. In just a few minutes, she started to grow, her body aging from eight to ten, then fifteen, seventeen, twenty, twenty-two, twenty-six, and finally settling at twenty-seven. Her realm, which had been stagnant for so long, stabilized, though it didn't increase much.
She looked at Huai, dumbfounded, her eyes filling with tears of joy. Luo Chen watched it all in horror.
She dropped to her knees and kowtowed. "Your Highness! Thank you! Thank you for helping me!"
Huai lifted her with his power. He chuckled again. "Don't you want to know what happened to you?"
She had regained her composure and nodded firmly. Of course she wanted to know what had plagued her for all those years.
Huai opened his hand. Everyone looked. In his palm, a black, caterpillar-like bug struggled against an invisible force.
Lingxi's eyes went wide. "What... what is it?"
This time Wuhe answered. "A Soul Stealing Gu."
Everyone looked to him for more details, so he continued. "This bug was controlled by someone, continuously stealing your cultivation and even your soul..."
Now it was all clear. Everyone turned their gaze to the bound He Qingyuan.
The old physician went still, then began to laugh, a wild, maniacal sound that filled the hall. "Hahahaha! Hahaha! So it was true! Divine Physician... we can't let you live. You need to die!" He glared at Huai, his face a mask of madness.
Wuhe didn't let him finish. He slapped He Qingyuan so hard four teeth flew from his mouth. "Do you even deserve to mention his shoes? And you want to kill him in front of me..."
He Qingyuan's head buzzed from the blow, but he still glared at Huai with his ruined face. "When did you find out?"
That confession settled it. Yao Lingxi and Luo Chen looked at He Qingyuan with utter disgust. This man had been their force's physician?
Huai chuckled. "From the scent of Nether Water on you. Do you think Nether Water is that common in the universe? If those filthy extraterrestrial races hadn't given it to you..."
He Qingyuan snarled, "You! You dare call them filthy? Hahaha, I want to see your face when you meet them yourself... Wait! Wait for our master's revenge!"
He got another slap from Wuhe. Two more teeth clattered to the floor. Wuhe sneered, "So what if he calls them filthy? They are filthy to begin with. I can say it too."
He Qingyuan stared at Wuhe in horror. Yao Lingxi stepped forward and said quickly, "Your Highness! Please don't take offense, but can you tell me how Nether Water relates to this Soul Stealing Gu?"
Luo Chen nodded, just as lost.
Huai shook his head and explained, "To control a Soul Stealing Gu, there is only one way; you need the mother soul bug. And the mother soul bug only eats Nether Water."
That simple. Lingxi and Luo Chen turned on He Qingyuan, wanting to crush his skull then and there.
Huai asked, "But why did you target her?"
He Qingyuan sneered, blood on his chin. "She's the sole daughter of the Medicine Gatherer Pavilion in the Red Lotus Galaxy. If we control them, we get an unlimited supply of medicinal herbs..."
Huai nodded. "But you failed. Such a pathetic villain."
Huai moved in front of He Qingyuan, released a sliver of domineering aura, and with his own qi dragged the mother soul bug out of the man's body.
He Qingyuan coughed blood and stared at Huai in horror.
Huai crushed the mother bug in his fist. The Soul Stealing Gu in his other hand screeched and turned to dust in seconds.
All the power it had siphoned over the years rushed back to Yao Lingxi. Her realm surged, breaking through until she settled at Star Venerable. Then it steadied.
She looked at Huai with even more reverence.
He Qingyuan looked at him, horrified. "How...how did you do this? Master told me no one can control the mother bug without Nether Water. How could you pull it out of my body?"
Huai smiled. "Aren't you too much of an idiot to be a spy for those extraterrestrial fools?"
"No one can do it doesn't mean I can't do it. I can. That's how I did it."
He stretched both hands after saying that, as if it were that simple.
He Qingyuan forced a grin through his bloody mouth. "So what if you found out? You can't prove it to the Human Federation. They won't believe you. And if you kill me, you'll have to face the Federation in the future."
Huai smiled at the threat. Wuhe laughed and muttered, "Idiot."
Huai looked up toward the ceiling, as if at the sky itself. "If you've seen enough, take this fool with you."
Yao Lingxi and Luo Chen glanced up in confusion. The air rippled, and a beautiful girl in a long blue dress stepped out of the void. Data-light rippled around her.
"Your contributions keep increasing, Citizen Huai," she said, voice calm. "If you want, I can offer you a position at the Federation headquarters."
Huai sneered and cut her off. "Take your position and sell it to those fools. I don't need it. Just take him with you."
He Qingyuan's face drained of color. How could a fourth-tier force leader speak to Goddess Nexus like that as if they were old friends?
Yao Lingxi and Luo Chen stared at Huai in horror, then dropped to their knees. "Greetings, Your Highness! Nexus Sovereign!"
Nexus nodded once, paid them no further attention, took He Qingyuan by the collar, and vanished into the void.