Chapter 1024: A Twist of Fate
“Why is this ancient star so strange?” Dragon Horse exclaimed in surprise. The ground was covered in huge holes everywhere, even the distant rocky mountains were pitted and riddled with cavities.
Several of them couldn’t help but show strange expressions. This region was too bizarre, filled with enormous holes everywhere, as if it had been struck by a meteor shower, with deep pits and large cavities dotting the landscape.
“Something’s not quite right. These shouldn’t be impact craters from meteorites. They look like tunnels burrowed by some kind of creature, but such a large area is truly unusual.”
When they gazed into the distance, they discovered that many areas on this planet were like this. Nearly half of the ancient star was covered in such holes, and they had no idea what was going on.
“Forget about that for now. Let’s find that Five-Colored Altar first and leave this place as soon as possible. Maybe the next stop will be the Big Dipper Star Domain.”
They split up to search. Such a cross-star-domain teleportation platform was extremely precious and would generally be guarded by formations. Without a secret method, it couldn’t be found at all.
“Damn it, the Five-Colored Altar has been moved by someone. It’s not here anymore.”
They discovered the ancient formation, but it had been damaged. The area was pitted and full of sinkholes. The Dao patterns and such were all incomplete. This formation was already destroyed.
Their expressions all changed. They had a bad feeling about this. Such a dead star had no foundation for survival. If they were trapped here, it would be like walking down a dead-end road.
“Who took the Five-Colored Altar?” They were all alarmed and uncertain. This was not a good omen. Thinking about being stranded on a dead star, they all showed worried looks.
“Let’s split up and look around. I think this star is very unusual. These strange holes look like something burrowed them out.”
They began to act separately, each charging in one direction, extending powerful divine thoughts to conduct a carpet search, looking for a glimmer of hope.
From this, it wasn’t hard to see the insignificance of individual power. Once trapped on a dead star, it was like having one’s path cut off, possibly dying in the cosmic starry sky.
Only by reaching the Sage realm did one have a slight possibility of traveling through the universe. Otherwise, one was ultimately an ant, unable to cross the starry sky by relying on one’s own strength.
“Hum~”
Suddenly, Ye Fan heard the sound of wings flapping, very piercing, like a Dao sword lightly trembling, with a faint fluctuation of power that could pierce metal and split rocks.
A sharp divine light slashed toward him from the night sky. He saw a creature shaped like a pterosaur, several meters long, diving down and spitting a dazzling light blade from its mouth.
“Bang”
Ye Fan extended a finger, and a blazing golden light flew out, instantly piercing the creature’s brow. It died on the spot, its corpse falling from the high sky.
However, things didn’t end there, because the sound of flapping wings above the clouds was incessant. Then, the same kind of creatures came down in overwhelming numbers. Dozens or hundreds of pterosaur-like creatures spat out a barrage of light blades, slashing down.
“Everyone, gather together!” Ye Fan shouted. He was worried that Zhang Qingyang and Long Yuxuan would be isolated and killed by these unknown creatures. The number of these things was incalculable.
“Break for me!”
Ye Fan let out a soft shout. A flash of light came from between his brows, and a cauldron flew out, vast and majestic, directly shaking toward the high sky. In an instant, flesh and blood flew everywhere. Hundreds of pterosaur-like creatures all turned into bloody mist, killed in the sky.
Divine Knight, Zhang Qingyang, and the others all rushed over. They gathered together, looking up at the sky, treating it cautiously, because there couldn’t be only this many.
They were now convinced that the reason this ancient star was riddled with holes was definitely related to these creatures. Nearly half the star had been hollowed out, which was simply unimaginable.
“Look, what’s that?” Long Yuxuan pointed to the end of the sky.
The mist there was thick and impenetrable. On this starry night, it felt especially oppressive, surging like a mountain flood, making one feel suffocated.
“A giant warship?!”
At the end of the sky, a large shadow truly blotted out the sky, blocking even the starry sky. It quickly arrived before their eyes, pitch-black and extremely oppressive, making their blood feel like it was about to freeze.
“This is a giant island, actually able to hover in the air and fly!”
Calling it an island wasn’t quite right either. Perhaps it could be called a floating continent, like a divine kingdom high above, overlooking everything on the ground.
“Hum”
The sound of flapping wings shook the night sky. Tens of thousands of powerful pterosaur-like creatures dove down, all casting spells together. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled, wind and rain raged, and various sword lights danced.
Any single one of them would be hard-pressed to harm them, even Zhang Qingyang and Long Yuxuan could fight them. But so many combined together was too terrifying. Ants could kill an elephant!
“I’ll handle this!”
Dragon Horse’s four hooves rose into the air as he ascended to the sky. Opening his mouth, he let out a great roar. Surging flames shot up. A Dao-Severing King throwing a tantrum was extremely terrifying. In an instant, a large number of “pterosaurs” fell, densely packed, like dumplings being boiled.
In the sky, flames raged, and the smell of roasted meat spread. Dragon Horse rampaged in all directions, unstoppable, fighting in mid-air. Tens of thousands of monsters were almost completely wiped out.
“This situation isn’t good!” Ye Fan frowned, staring at the continent floating in the sky. No matter how he looked at it, it seemed like a mother nest.
Sure enough, a piercing screech rang out, spreading to the ground. The earth’s crust immediately boiled, spewing out various colors of light. One creature after another rushed out from underground.
“Damn it, this ancient star is full of these monsters everywhere. There are too many of them. We can’t kill them all!”
These pterosaur-like strange beasts had all been sleeping, but now they all awakened from deep within the earth’s crust, each scrambling to be the first to attack Ye Fan and the others.
“How many are there? From the sky to the ground, they’re everywhere!” Even Dragon Horse felt uneasy.
This was no longer just tens of thousands. It was simply uncountable. Densely packed, from under the earth’s crust and on the continent in the sky, wave after wave of dark clouds rushed in, blotting out the sky and covering the earth.
“Humans, how rare. So many years have passed, and we meet again.” A powerful divine thought fluctuation appeared on that continent.
Then, a group of five-colored “pterosaurs” rushed out, many times stronger than the previous ones, and their numbers were in the tens of thousands.
Ye Fan quickly put Huahua into a spatial artifact. Together with the others, he rose into the air, fighting with all his might. If they didn’t kill all these creatures, there was no way to survive.
“Pfft”
Divine Knight fought fiercely in all directions. The long spear in his hand had truly become a dragon-slaying spear, flying in all directions. With each move, a group of powerful creatures fell, blood blossoms blooming continuously.
Dragon Horse also fought desperately, killing who knows how many tens of thousands of “pterosaurs.” His whole body was dyed red with blood, but they just couldn’t be killed off, because the number was dizzying.
“All of you, die!”
Dragon Horse opened his mouth and spat out a bowl, a damaged Saint weapon obtained from Mount Meru. This ancient weapon had immense power, carrying the pressure of a Sage. In an instant, a full hundred thousand pterosaurs turned into bloody mud, dying in mid-air.
However, various colors of light shot up from the continent above. Seven dragon-shaped monsters leaped out, their bodies radiating seven-colored light. Together, they activated a powerful forbidden artifact and struck.
“Boom”
A dazzling strong light illuminated the entire ancient star, like snow covering the ground, or like ten suns exploding together. A powerful wave of energy spread out, transforming into a peerless sword energy that slashed over.
“Clang”
The bowl trembled, and then with a crisp “crack,” a huge crack appeared on its surface, almost splitting it in two. It was clearly a forbidden artifact left by an ancient Sage, which had damaged even this incomplete Buddhist weapon.
“Pfft”
Dragon Horse coughed up a large mouthful of blood, suffering not insignificant injuries. The power of the forbidden artifact was extremely formidable, causing him to take a great loss.
“Humans, I have been waiting for you for a long time. Have you come for this altar?”
A nine-colored dragon-shaped creature appeared in the sky, even larger, like a small mountain, standing on that continent. It was definitely a powerful Dao-Severing cultivator.
Between its fingers, a Five-Colored Altar rose and fell, flowing with five-colored light. It was precisely the ancient star-domain teleportation formation that Ye Fan and the others were looking for.
“How about we cooperate? You tell me the method to activate the formation, and I provide this altar platform. We leave together.” This was clearly the king of the mother nest. All the pterosaurs in the sky were its subjects.
Ye Fan said they could talk, showing no fear. He let Divine Knight and the others wait there while he ascended to the sky alone.
“Do you know how to activate this altar?” the most powerful dragon-shaped creature asked.
“Of course I do.” Ye Fan stared at the altar and found that it wasn’t damaged. The reason it couldn’t be activated was simply that a few stones had lost their luster, having exhausted their internal power. He wasn’t worried, though, because he also had this kind of five-colored stone and could extract this special spatial power to inject into the altar.
“In that case, you can stay!” the dragon-shaped creature said coldly, producing an even more powerful forbidden artifact to suppress and kill downward. It wanted to destroy Ye Fan’s physical body and keep his primordial spirit.
However, with a flash of light and shadow, this Ye Fan disappeared instantly. This was the One Qi Transforms into Three Purities technique. Ye Fan had let this wisp of pure qi disperse in advance. His true body had already landed on this continent, activating the cauldron to suppress and kill with full force!
“Boom”
Since his Dao Severance, he hadn’t encountered a true great enemy. This time, he activated the Primordial Qi Cauldron with all his strength. Divine power surged, vast and boundless, instantly smashing this continent-sized mother nest into pieces.
In that moment, who knows how many tens of thousands of creatures turned into bloody water, falling in droves. The entire sky was dyed red with blood.
This nest exploding was like poking a hornet’s nest. Everywhere, in the sky and on the ground, there were powerful pterosaur-like species. All of them roared, their eyes turning red, chasing after Ye Fan together.
“Let’s go, head to outer space!”
Ye Fan felt this was very bad. These creatures couldn’t be killed off. The ones under the earth’s crust and in the sky combined together became a vast ocean. They were completely submerged!
Fortunately, he, Divine Knight, and Dragon Horse were strong enough to fight their way out, charging out of this planet. Only after reaching outer space did they shake off the pursuers.
“There are too many of them. Unless we destroy this ancient star, we can’t kill them all. What the hell are these things?” Dragon Horse said angrily.
Divine Knight said, “Ancient books record this. They are Ant Dragons. They have strong vitality and reproduce very quickly, comparable to ants. Their living environment is completely different from humans. They directly devour ores and such to extract what they need for life.”
“Although this planet is small, nearly half of it has been devoured by them. That’s still a bit ridiculous. I wonder how many generations they’ve survived here.”
“There are too many. The entire ancient star is full of these strange insects. We simply can’t kill them all. We can only go after the strongest ones and snatch the altar.”
However, they were somewhat hesitant, afraid of accidentally destroying the altar while targeting the insect kings.
“These Ant Dragons have been breeding on this ancient star for who knows how many tens of thousands of years. A few of them have definitely severed the Dao and are also wielding forbidden artifacts from ancient Sages. They’re really hard to deal with.”
Ye Fan thought for a moment and said, “Let’s use the faith power inside my cauldron to deal with them.”
With that, he inverted the Primordial Qi Cauldron. Inside was endless faith power, cascading down like a great waterfall, flowing toward this not-so-large ancient star.
“Boom”
It was like a vast ocean descending. For those who believed in the Heavenly Court, this was the purest sacred power, but for others, it was karmic fire!
When all the faith power fell, the area below turned into a sea of fire. Hundreds of thousands of divine insects all roared, turning into torches of flame!
“Take the chance to kill those Ant Dragon Kings!”
They charged down again. Ye Fan took out the Black Arrow and fired continuously, shooting down several giants and blocking the Sages’ forbidden artifacts.
Without the dense swarm of divine insects blocking them, directly facing the few giants was relatively easier, but they still fought until the sun and moon lost their light. This wasn’t a contest of personal strength; it was a battle of Saint weapons against forbidden artifacts!
One side was hesitant, while the other side wielded powerful forbidden artifacts. They engaged in a tug-of-war battle, but it was still earth-shattering, with ghosts crying and gods howling, fighting to a fever pitch.
Although forbidden artifacts had limited uses, each use consuming part of the artifact’s lifespan, they were still extremely terrifying, with sharp and unmatched power.
Dragon Horse’s bowl was almost shattered, which pained him greatly. He roared in anger, wishing he could kill all those insect kings cleanly.
Relying on the formidable power of Ye Fan’s Black Arrow, which had extremely high killing power, they had already destroyed two forbidden artifacts. If not for their concern about the altar being destroyed, they might have already succeeded.
“That insect king’s forbidden artifact is too terrifying. It was personally refined by an ancient Sage, even sharper than ordinary Saint weapons!” Divine Knight frowned. After fighting for so long, he was severely injured.
In the end, all forbidden artifacts were destroyed.
At a critical moment, Ye Fan’s primordial spirit merged with the Dao. Time in the world seemed to freeze. Only a golden little figure, embracing the cauldron, flew out. Under the insect king’s incredulous gaze, it suppressed and killed it.
This was a forbidden technique he had used before. After the Divine Form, the primordial spirit merged with the Dao, embracing the cauldron to become the “one that escapes,” transcending the world, achieving a brief time freeze.
The Five-Colored Altar was recaptured, nearly destroyed by the insect king in its fury and humiliation. They finally obtained the star-domain teleportation platform as they wished.
This ancient star was almost leveled. After many days of tug-of-war battles, Ye Fan and the others finally got what they wanted.
“Time to hit the road!”
However, the next stop still disappointed them. It wasn’t the Big Dipper Ancient Star Domain. They had arrived at another dead star.
And in the following six months, they only crossed eight or nine ancient stars. Each time, they encountered fierce battles, consuming a huge amount of time. Their hearts were extremely heavy. This was most likely the path leading to the “Flying Immortal” ancient star.
“Sigh!” Ye Fan let out a long sigh.
On this day, they silently stepped onto the Five-Colored Altar. When they appeared in another world and stood on the ground, Ye Fan’s expression shook. He lost his voice and said, “Immortal Mountain!”