Chapter 1447: Human Stars Shine Bright (Nine) (Two-in-One)

Chapter 1450: When Humanity's Stars Shine (IX) (Two-in-One)

Author: Sanjiu Yinyu

Word Count: 2677

Zangyun Realm.

Dense lightning coursed beneath the dark clouds, vaguely resembling a deep-blue dragon weaving through them.

Wangzai, which had originally covered the sky, abandoned its "high-altitude advantage," folding its absurdly large hide back into a human-like silhouette and scuttling rapidly across the ruined ground on all fours. Just as Zangyunjun had said, when fighting him, the closer one was to the sky, the faster one died. Even Wangzai didn't want to experience the sensation of five hundred million lightning bolts striking its head again.

But Wangzai, having reverted to its "human" silhouette, no longer held back. As it scuttled forward with bestial speed on all fours, every inch of its skin opened into beast-like eyes, surveying every corner of its surroundings from all angles. Wherever it passed, every building, every inch of ground, was stripped away and annihilated... like an eraser peeling and gutting reality, wiping a long, empty streak across a chaotic blackboard.

"Little Qi..."

"Where exactly are you hiding..."

Eerie, mimicked voices emanated from Wangzai's body, its countless beast-eyes constantly shifting as if searching for Zangyunjun's location. It did not notice that two streets away, a figure, seemingly enveloped by wind, floated silently in the air. Zangyunjun's black and blue tie fluttered soundlessly, his eyes tightly shut, as he sensed the flow of every "breeze" within the realm. In this realm, he was like an omniscient god; as long as air existed, he could perceive everything.

Therefore, whenever Wangzai approached, he would silently float to a new position, then "accidentally" release some aura, causing Wangzai to turn and pursue, as if engaged in a large-scale fishing game.

"There are still survivors in that direction; I can't let it go there," he murmured, his eyes closed.

The next second, in the void where Wangzai was advancing, a terrifying mass of energy exploded out of nowhere! Zangyunjun's "lightning" was not like natural lightning; it was the instantaneous release of extreme magnetic energy from the surface of a neutron star... a "magnetar flare." Dark matter particles annihilated instantly in the void, releasing energy comparable to that of the sun. Even though no flash or ripple was visible to the naked eye, the terrifying energy directly overturned Wangzai, which was charging in that direction, sending it flying a great distance like a cannonball!

But Zangyunjun, perceiving this scene, showed no joy on his face; instead, he grew even more solemn... The destructive power of the magnetar flare was far more than what was demonstrated. At the moment this invisible "thunderstorm" erupted, Wangzai used its gaze to strip away the energy it generated layer by layer. Ultimately, only a tiny fraction of the energy was able to penetrate its visual blockade and harm Wangzai itself.

"It can strip away not just matter, but even energy?" Zangyunjun rubbed his temples, "That's truly perverse..."

Amidst the diffusing dust, Wangzai slowly crawled out of the ruins, a patch of beast hide on its chest charred black by the electricity. It seemed to be thoroughly enraged by Zangyunjun's tricks and realized that as long as Zangyunjun didn't want to be caught, it couldn't be apprehended in this realm. It let out a low growl, directly changing direction and charging straight towards the humans battling in the sealed battlefield of the "Bitter Flesh Turbid Forest."

Seeing this, Zangyunjun's heart turned cold.

"Damn it..."

Who said this Wangzai was dull-witted? It knew it couldn't find him, so it would try to force him out! Watching Wangzai charge towards those battling the Bitter Flesh Turbid Forest disaster, Zangyunjun could no longer hide. Once Wangzai intervened in the battle, it would be a one-sided slaughter. He could not, under any circumstances, allow the people he protected to be stripped to death.

He no longer concealed his figure, soaring into the air. At the same time, his sleeve twirled slightly, and an extreme cold wave, as if from the Ice Age, spread wildly around him! The cold wave triggered by Zangyunjun was even colder than the Frozen Sea of the Forbidden Ocean. Thick, visible frost covered the ground, instantly transforming the area into a snow-covered land. Even Wangzai's distant charging body was frozen...

But the next moment, the frost on Wangzai rapidly melted, peeling off layer by layer, until a slight shake caused it to completely shatter! All the beast-eyes on its body simultaneously looked behind it! In this world of ice and snow, a massive mist, mixed with ice crystals, swirled upwards. A figure seemed to be concealed within it, but it was indistinct.

Zangyunjun knew very well that when fighting Wangzai, he absolutely could not let its gaze fall upon him. Once his true form was exposed, even for a second, it could strip him down to his bone marrow... But even with the ice mist for protection, it wouldn't deter Wangzai for long.

The dense beast-eyes on Wangzai's surface continually contracted. The ice mist, several kilometers in radius, was stripped away in the blink of an eye until only a fifth remained. Wangzai's pseudo-human body crawled along the ground, then its four limbs shattered the earth as it charged towards the ice mist like lightning!

Crackle—crackle—crackle!! Countless bolts of lightning, like swords of judgment, mercilessly struck Wangzai's body, yet they did not delay it in the slightest. The eight beast-eyes on its back dealt with all attacks from the sky, while the seven beast-eyes in front ruthlessly stripped away the ice mist before it. With fifteen eyes open, it was like a mobile law of nature; any attack charging towards it would be weakened to a minimum.

However, when its body pierced through the ice mist, it discovered...

...the ice mist was empty.

"Hehehe."

A faint, teasing laugh came from a distance. Wangzai turned its head in bewilderment, discovering ten identical masses of ice mist rising from different directions around it, each seemingly concealing a figure!

"You..."

"Are you... playing with me????"

Wangzai was utterly enraged. This time, it was so furious it even forgot to mimic human speech. A sound, unidentifiable as that of a monkey, horse, or deer, erupted from its body. Its pseudo-human form exploded, expanding wildly, as more and more beast-eyes constantly appeared on its hide!

Sixteen eyes, seventeen eyes, eighteen eyes... twenty-five eyes... thirty eyes... thirty-five eyes...

As its hide expanded, within mere seconds, the number of Wangzai's eyes nearly doubled compared to before. The chilling beast-eyes covered almost every direction, and a terrifying aura of doomsday surged outwards! The ice mist was annihilating, the dark clouds dispersing. Even Zangyunjun, hidden within a ruined building, felt the reinforced concrete above him rapidly disintegrating!

*You like to hide, don't you? Then I'll strip everything here into nothingness. I don't believe you still won't come out!*

Under the combined effect of thirty-five eyes, all matter around Wangzai began to dissipate. Zangyunjun, witnessing this, couldn't help but murmur:

"Chu Changqing, oh Chu Changqing... I can't hold out much longer. If you don't make a move soon, I fear the entire Zangyun Realm will be gone..."

Before Zangyunjun's words finished, a colossal, comet-like shadow carved out spatial ripples in the void fifteen kilometers outside the Zangyun Realm, then accelerated again, hurtling precisely towards a certain doomsday entity within the ruins!

Wangzai, in its state of fury, seemed to sense something, and half of its eyes simultaneously turned towards the northwest! A dazzling white light rapidly magnified within its thirty-five beast-eyes!! Under the effect of the thirty-five eyes, the white light was instantly weakened by more than half. Even so, the terrifying kinetic energy it carried still roared as it collided with Wangzai's body. The world-shattering aftermath of the impact swept across the Zangyun Realm, directly shattering nearby flesh-and-blood plants into fragments!

At that moment, Wangzai was like an antelope struck by a speeding truck, instantly thrown tens of kilometers away!! Its body, like a meteor, streaked out of the Zangyun Realm's core area, then slammed heavily onto the peripheral ground, sending up vast clouds of dust... Before it could recover, a second "comet" seemed to have anticipated its landing spot, hurtling towards its face!

Another earth-shattering collision. Even with Wangzai's thirty-five eyes fully open and prepared this time, it still couldn't weaken the "comet" much. Its body was directly uncontrollably sent flying out of the Zangyun Realm, plummeting onto the barren land of the Grey Realm!

The two comets, having struck Wangzai out of the Zangyun Realm's boundaries, instantly shocked the entire realm!

"What's going on? What happened?!"

"Wangzai was just knocked away like that? How is that possible??"

"I don't know... perhaps another Nine Monarch has made a move?"

"But did you see anyone?"

"No... but the comet that struck Wangzai seemed to come from the northwest."

"Northwest?"

"Could it be..."

Dust spread across the Grey Realm's land... The enraged Wangzai slowly crawled out of the cracked earth, every beast-eye trembling slightly, as if about to explode with rage. All its eyes frantically searched for a target, but even when it extended its vision to its furthest extent, it saw no enemy presence. At that moment, a hint of confusion simultaneously appeared in Wangzai's enraged eyes...

Where, exactly, was the enemy?

One thousand eight hundred kilometers away.

A gentle breeze rustled through the mountains and forests. A figure with slightly curly hair stood before the gate of the Lingxu Ancient Temple, gently picking up a pebble from the ground.

"During this period of hibernation, I dreamt of many past events."

"The funniest among them was when we discussed the hibernation plan... Do you remember? Old Lu proposed the plan, and I was the only one who refused."

"Your expressions changed when you looked at me then – shock, confusion... You must have been thinking, 'How could someone like me, who lacks opinions, initiative, and passively accepts everything, refuse Old Lu's suggestion?'"

"I remember Old Lu patiently and seriously asked me why..."

"I said, because I'm afraid of the dark, and I have claustrophobia."

"Hahaha... I still can't forget your wonderful expressions back then!"

"Indeed, who would have thought that a Nine Monarch protecting a region would be afraid of the dark and confined spaces... At that time, Ji Xuan and Qi Muyun were the ones who laughed the loudest. As for you, I remember you, you laughed too, covering your mouth and secretly chuckling."

"Later, Old Lu built this temple for me – a temple with excellent natural light and open ventilation."

"He said... the hibernation pod's shell was transparent. As long as I was placed here, I would see the temple, the swaying tree shadows outside, and the moon as soon as I opened my eyes, so it wouldn't count as a confined space."

"...He was always like that."

"You said you made a mistake and would disappoint him. While I don't know what happened to you, one thing I can be certain of... is that Old Lu would never blame you."

"If making mistakes led to his disappointment, then he should have been utterly disappointed with me long ago."

The white-haired figure lay supine on the wooden planks before the ancient temple gate, Chu Changqing's hands folded over his chest, as if deeply asleep... Shifting tree shadows cast streaks across his body, his pale face serene and peaceful.

Before the ancient temple gate, Wu Tongyuan, still holding the pebble in his hand, glanced at him and spoke calmly:

"Old Lu said a large part of the Red Star's return was because it sensed living beings attempting to control its power. The doomsday entities of the Grey Realm and humanity's Nine Monarchs are all targets it wishes to destroy."

"Our choice to enter hibernation, besides prolonging our lives, was more importantly to slow down the Red Star's return by suppressing our life fluctuations, giving humanity more time to breathe."

"Old Lu also didn't want you to awaken us before the Red Star's return because once we were roused, his calculations of the Red Star's trajectory would become inaccurate..."

"So, without awakening us, for just a few of you to fight against those doomsday entities and hold on until now... it's already quite remarkable."

Wu Tongyuan walked to the sleeping Chu Changqing, his gaze somewhat complex:

"If Old Lu were still here, not only would he not blame you, he would probably pat your shoulder and say... 'You've worked hard.'"

Chu Changqing's eyelashes trembled subtly for a moment. Then fell silent once more.

"Rest easy, I'll handle things from here." Wu Tongyuan's gaze pierced through the shifting tree shadows, looking towards a distant direction...

"They've been arrogant for long enough... it's time for them to pay the price."

He suddenly tightened his grip on the pebble...

Then, he violently flung it in that direction!

Numbers danced in the void, the mass-energy equivalence equation warped by the Lingxu Coefficient. The pebble he had thrown violently scraped out a spatial ripple in the void, then accelerated forward, its mass and velocity beginning to increase exponentially! Then came the second acceleration, the third acceleration... When the pebble scraped through the void for the third consecutive time, the energy it contained already surpassed that of a nuclear weapon. In an instant, it traversed tens of kilometers, then surged again at a certain spatial node!

If someone were to look down from space, they would find that after several accelerations, this pebble had transformed into a shimmering star! This was the "skipping stone" of the God of Mathematics. And after seven consecutive "skips," the original pebble had transformed into a world-destroying comet, flashing before Wangzai, one thousand eight hundred kilometers away, with astonishing speed!!

At that moment, Wangzai's body extended once more, its original thirty-five beast-eyes surging to fifty! The fifty beast-eyes overlapped, all gazing at the comet hurtling towards its face. The dazzling light was furiously stripped away in the void, while its body, as if weightless, rapidly dodged to the side, causing the "comet" to almost graze its body as it passed!

Even so, a corner of Wangzai's beast hide was shattered by the impact. No one visible for thousands of miles, yet its hide was damaged... This was Lingxujun's ultra-long-range strike, and an ultimate provocation to Wangzai!

Roar—!!

Wangzai completely abandoned its human disguise. It furiously stared towards the northwest, where the "comet" had come from, and its body shot out with astonishing speed, like a weightless afterimage traversing the Grey Realm, heading directly towards Lingxu Mountain!

"So, he finally made his move..." Zangyunjun, seeing this, finally let out a sigh of relief. He looked towards the northwest and chuckled softly, "Coward, if you don't show this doomsday entity what for today, I'll look down on you."

Meanwhile, before the Lingxu Ancient Temple, Lingxujun Wu Tongyuan, seemingly sensing Wangzai's approach, smiled faintly:

"Beast..."

"You're truly seeking death."