Chapter 2414: The Grand Hunt Begins
Even the Hidden Spirit Clan had to activate their starship's protective barrier to resist such blazing high temperatures!
Otherwise, the starship would be melted!
Yet Jiangnan and the others standing on the deck felt no heat at all!
Beneath the increasingly enormous azure flame planet, the Mechanical Empire warship seemed to shrink in comparison!
However, Xiao Chuihuo still held the star with one hand, showing no sign of strain.
Jiangnan swallowed hard. *Grandpa Xiao, just how powerful has he become now?*
*How can this fireball be so absurdly large yet still be controlled with such fine precision?*
Zhong Yingxue looked on in disbelief. As a fire specialist, she understood the weight of this feat better than anyone.
Even now, she couldn't fathom the depth of Xiao Chuihuo's understanding of flames.
*What kind of insane fire control is this?*
Odin laughed heartily:
-`╰(˵ಠꇴಠ˵)╯´-"With me, Odin, here, who allowed you all to have light?"
"Light belongs only to me! Come to me, all of you!"
With a grand gesture, all light in the starry sky began converging toward the azure flame planet!
The surroundings fell completely dark—whether it was the energy fireworks from Ju Lang City's explosion, the skill lights from various sequences, or even the starlight emitted by the Celestial Star Clan—
Everything flowed here. For a moment, the starry sky dimmed, leaving only light!
That azure flame planet undoubtedly became the most dazzling existence in this stretch of space, with even a curtain of colorful auroras forming on its surface!
The next moment, streams of blazing flame meteors shot from the planet's surface into the starry sky—hundreds, thousands, countless!
They became like a meteor shower flowing upward, scattering across the cosmos. Finally, the azure planet vanished!
But each meteor that had burst forth turned into the most brilliant stars in the sky, radiating incomparable light, shining exceptionally bright!
"Boom!"
In an instant, countless dazzling stars linked into one, and the entire starry sky was thoroughly ignited!
A single spark can start a prairie fire; a cluster of stars can burn the whole sky!
At last, the flames dissipated, leaving the starry sky pristine. The entire audience was dead silent!
There was no denying that everyone had been thoroughly impressed by Xiao Chuihuo's display. *How was that a fireworks show? That was clearly a full-blown movie!*
*And one with a clear message!*
The meteors bursting from the blue star were obviously alluding to human powerhouses!
Yu Gen squinted at Xiao Chuihuo, his face dark.
*I will endure again, and again, and again!*
Jiangnan was thrilled: (*ﾟﾛﾟ) "Oh? Grandpa Xiao is amazing! That was epic! What kind of ultimate move was that? So cool! By the way, Grandpa Xiao, what level have you reached now?"
Xiao Chuihuo smiled and tousled Jiangnan's hair:
(〃⌒ᴗ⌒)ھ "It's not an ultimate move—just some small tricks with fire control."
"You little rascal need to work hard. Don't let an old man like me snatch the top spot in the Star Hunt. I may be old, but I still have some ambition this time!"
*The strongest Star Breaker? I'd like to try that.*
Jiangnan broke out in a cold sweat. *Damn, why do I feel an immense pressure?*
Odin scowled. *Why doesn't anyone praise me? I was pretty cool just now too!*
Innocent glanced coldly at Jiangnan's group:
(￢_￢) "Hmph! Boring."
"Let's go! Everyone! Enter with me! Take back the glory that already belongs to us! It's that simple. Understood?"
"Yes, Lord Innocent!"
Led by Innocent, the ten thousand representatives of the Bose Clan headed straight for the Eternal Platform before the Chuangjie Daxu.
Various race delegations stepped onto the platform one after another. Jiangnan also led his people charging up, his face beaming with irrepressible smiles.
Meanwhile, the races with lower sequence rankings were red-eyed, their expressions ferocious.
The Titan Clan leader raised his hand and slapped his own cheek hard, leaving two bright red palm prints.
"There's nothing to fear! What joy is there in life? What fear in death? Those of us standing here today aren't here to be cowardly and disgrace ourselves!"
"Reputation, power, wealth, recognition—everything we desire is there! Go fight! For our race!"
"Born beneath the stars, far from home; what matter if we die in the ruins? The starry ruins are all alike—just treat it as drifting in a foreign land!"
"Charge!!!"
Roars shot into the sky—roars of those who had placed life and death aside.
Clearly, they had already made their resolve.
Even if the survival rate of the Great Hunt was less than 30%, even if they were destined to become scores for other races, they still wanted to go in and fight.
If they didn't strive, they would have nothing.
At that moment, no one retreated. Everyone stepped forward. From the moment they stood here, they were already heroes of their race!
On the Eternal Platform, all representatives of 10,868 sequences stood arrayed, gazing at the broken Chuangjie Daxu before them.
Through the boundary wall, they could faintly see the scenery inside—
a lifeless, dead starry sky, shattered stars, disturbed galaxies—utterly ruined and silent. Jiangnan even spotted floating continent fragments in space, square and round, exuding a primal desolation.
It was a world completely different from the current starry sky. Once entered, it was like entering another world.
Except this world was already dead…
Although the Chuangjie Daxu was 100,000 light-years in diameter, its interior was far larger than that number. After all, it had once been a small world.
Yu Gen stood up and said, "Since everyone's here, let's begin. Everyone prepare—the process might be a bit uncomfortable."
With that, he exchanged glances with Di Chou and the others. Three massive streams of Bose particles surged directly into the fourth dimension.
The next moment, countless runes lit up on the broken Eternal Platform. An extremely intense spatial fluctuation came, locking onto all targets that needed teleportation.
"Shwoosh!"
A dazzling white light flashed. The Eternal Platform, once crowded with race representatives, was now empty.
All race representatives had been teleported into the Chuangjie Daxu!
Just then, Zhiyin raised her little hand:
✧*｡٩(ᵒ̴̶̷ꇴᵒ̴̶̷*)و✧*｡ "Ee-yay! I declare the Cosmic Grand Hunt officially begins!"
"Xiaoli and I will be providing full commentary throughout, not missing any exciting showdown. In the early stages, what strategies will the major races adopt? How will the various sequences respond?"
"Let's wait and see!"
As she spoke, the 666 planets of Ju Lang City all projected enormous starry screens—truly gigantic.
As representatives were teleported in, a series of images began to link and generate.
But it wasn't entirely accurate to say the Eternal Platform was empty.
Zhang San stood there, utterly baffled…
…୧(⑉་⍸་⑉)…
Staring at the empty Eternal Platform, he froze.
(๑•᷄ࡇ•᷅) "Huh? Th-that's it? They're done teleporting? Where's my ride? I didn't get on yet! I'm a race representative too, a participant!"
(งᵒ̌皿ᵒ̌)ง "Can you people from the Sacred Law Council be a bit more professional? Hey! I'm talking to you! If you screw up my chance to kill enemies, can you compensate me?"
"You two Star-Swallowers named Di Chou and Yu whatever—open a teleport just for me! Or else, I swear I'll mix rat poison into your tea!"
But no one paid Zhang San any attention. All the Star-Swallowers sat down to chat. Even Yueli and Zhiyin started introducing seed contestants from various races and zooming in on the footage.
Only Zhang San was left standing alone.
Zhang San pouted:
(￢～￢) "I know you can't hear me, but I can't help complaining. What a piece of crap! Ptooey!"
"The Chuangjie Daxu's boundary wall probably has some holes, right? I wonder if I can squeeze through them. Tsk, joining this competition is tough!"
Muttering to himself, Zhang San trotted off toward a hole in the Chuangjie Daxu's boundary wall.
ﾚ(ﾟ～ﾟ;)ﾍ=З=З=З "Damn it! When I kill people, will the life plaque ignore me and not count the points? That's very possible! I~%?…;#*’☆!"
……
In a desolate gravel wasteland, with a pitch-black starry sky overhead—clearly lacking any atmosphere.
A flash of white light, and Jiangnan's figure suddenly appeared there.
Somewhat dazed, he looked around. Everywhere were decaying black shale rocks.
Jiangnan stroked his chin: (͡°ก͡°) "Random teleportation, huh? Where is this? Some dead star?"
Just then, three centimeters beside Jiangnan, another white light flashed out.
A Hidden Spirit Clan warrior materialized right next to him!
The two locked eyes, both filled with terror.
Σ(｡･ˇ△ˇ･)(Ŏ◊Ŏ‧̣̥̇)
The Hidden Spirit Clan's eyes nearly popped out.
*Holy crap? Jiangnan? Have I been cursed with the worst luck?*
"Cur…"
"Boom!"
Blade light flashed countless times in an instant. The Hidden Spirit Clan member and a thousand miles of gravel behind him were directly sliced to pieces.
[From Zhou… (≖～≖) Hmm…]
In a split-second reaction, Jiangnan had slashed how many times using Warp Drive?
A super giant pit appeared on the spot. Simultaneously, a Void Black Hole emerged, compressing the gravel and the Hidden Spirit Clan's remains into a bead, leaving no chance for recovery.
[(งᵒ̌口ᵒ̌)ง⁼³₌₃ Way too fast! As a Southern Man, you can't be that fast!]
The grievance points hadn't even finished ticking up—the guy was already gone!
Jiangnan: (￢◡￢) *Huh? Mind your own business.*
The Void Black Hole floated there, not disappearing, as if waiting for Jiangnan's command.
He didn't leave any survivors. Jiangnan was no bleeding heart.
Compassion wasn't meant for here.
Jiangnan lowered his head curiously to examine his life plaque.
Humanity: Total Points 17
Jiangnan Personal Points: 1
Opening the Star Hunt Rankings, the first place was Innocent, with personal points already at 225 and still rising. In just a few seconds, it jumped to over 270.
Jiangnan clicked his tongue: (•́益•̀٥) "Damn! How long has it been? Fifteen seconds since we entered?"
Pursing his lips, Jiangnan shot up into the sky with a Warp Bubble, hoping to see the full view of the dead star he was on.
But the bubble flew for a while without seeing the whole star.
The landmass kept expanding, seemingly endless.
Jiangnan was stunned. *My starting point isn't on a planet? It's a broken continental fragment?*
*Damn, is it that big? Like the Lost Kingdom?*
Then he noticed white light falling like raindrops across this black, dead continent.
Jiangnan's expression gradually turned devilish.
(´◞ิ⥎◟ิ‵) "Sorry, but you guys just have bad luck!"