C1218 Heartthumper Drum

A meteorite streaked through the void like a cold, ghostly bolt of lightning.

The Great Sage Beru wore a solemn expression, his gaze stern as he observed the slowly emerging piece of shattered land. In a deep voice, he declared, "The Ebon Star's Mark of the Celestials!"

To them, the fragmented land was merely the size of a palm, with four majestic palaces perched at its corners like lanterns. They were small, yet they radiated a brilliant, treasure-like light.

As a Starborn Great Sage, Beru, along with the cultivators from the major sects of the Everlands, had engaged in countless battles of varying scales. He was well-acquainted with the three major upper sects of the Everlands. Naturally, he was no stranger to the Mark of the Celestials, capable of morphing into towering palaces and shining with infinite divine brilliance.

The simultaneous appearance of four Marks of the Celestials on a fragment of the Shattered Continent within the Kuvrepros Astral Domain was astonishing. How could he not be taken aback?

Beru speculated that perhaps a cultivator at the Unbound level from the Ebon Star had encountered a formidable adversary upon arriving in the Kuvrepros, due to Xu Jingyao's strategic planning. Otherwise, it was unlikely they would brazenly unveil all four Marks of the Celestials at once to deter their opponent.

"I..."

From the bottle Gheirat held, a feeble voice emanated from the tortured, slender river of deadly poison. It was the fiend's weak cry.

Beru and Leo's attention, however, was fixed on the Shattered Continent, which appeared to grow larger as they drew closer. They paid no heed to the fiend's plea.

With a dark scowl, Gheirat, who was already in a foul mood, had ripples dancing in one of his eyes, with specks of starlight shining through. He was on the verge of unleashing his hidden blood magic, ready to cast it into the bottle and discipline the fiend once more, teaching it the meaning of pain.

"I, I know what's happened!"

The fiend, sensing danger, amplified his voice, desperate to avoid further torment by Gheirat. He urgently explained, "My other part is with Yu Yuan and the others on that wrecked warship. They've run into a group of cultivators led by the Ebon Star!"

"There's a junior named Cao Jiaze. I've never heard of him before, but he summoned four Marks of the Celestials, transforming them into four palaces!"

"Additionally!"

The fiend tactfully ceased speaking.

Beru and Leo, as anticipated, were captivated by the information he had revealed. They shifted their attention from the fractured earth and turned to face him.

"What else?" Gheirat demanded.

"I want his assurance that he will return this one-seventh of me to my other parts." Inside the bottle, the toxic river solidified into a dark-brown, elongated arm.

The arm stretched out, morphing into the shape of a hand, complete with an eye in its palm.

This eerie eye fixed its gaze on Leo, awaiting his decision.

The fiend was inherently sly. He distrusted Beru and Gheirat, placing his faith solely in Leo.

He had sensed that this Starborn prodigy, blessed by the constellations, was still pure-hearted and true to his word.

"I give you my word!"

Leo nodded with grave sincerity.

"There's a Shura legion commanded by the Heartthumper Drum! They nearly encountered Yu Yuan and the others before, but were steered clear by a Shura maiden named Elena. Now, because the four Marks of the Celestials have been revealed, another Shura legion, previously in a different location, is converging on that shattered terrain," the fiend quickly clarified.

Within a certain range, his seven parts could communicate with one another.

It's akin to how the Human Race's Lunar Spirit and Solar Spirit, even when separated from their original bodies, can still interact freely within a reasonable distance, aware of each other's circumstances.

Though weakened, this fiend had managed to receive the remnant souls from his other six parts, thanks to Gheirat and the others' relentless pursuit and Yu Yuan's group's navigational path, which had drawn closer due to Yu Yuan pausing for Cao Jiaze and his companions.

"Shura!"

"Heartthumper Drum!"

Beru and Gheirat exchanged a glance, their expressions growing increasingly grave.

Clearly, they could infer the might of the Shura legion and even knew which platinum Shura was at the helm of the Heartthumper Drum.

"Between the Shura and us, who will reach the destination first?" Leo inquired.

"By all accounts, if you proceed with full force, you'll be slightly quicker," the fiend responded.

After a brief hesitation, Leo instructed Gheirat, "Let's not rush. We'll decelerate our pace and observe the turn of events once the Shura legion arrives."

Leo pointed at the fiend in the bottle and said, "He is our eyes. He can tell us everything that's happening over there."

Gheirat responded respectfully, "I'll slow down now."

With those words, the meteor they were racing on began to decelerate.

Yu Yuan's expression was detached as he gazed at Chu Yao, who was huddled among the group of Solar Spirits, his head bowed.

The moment he laid eyes on his once dearly loved disciple, the emotions he had been suppressing suddenly surged forth.

He had deliberately chosen to stir up trouble, deciding to unleash a tumultuous wave upon this fractured land.

Whoosh!

The Dragon Slaying Stage, concealed within an acupoint, transformed into a long, gray stone slab and was summoned into his palm.

"Dragon Slaying Stage!"

Weixian, from the Thunder Sect, who had been blustering about taking drastic action, changed his expression the quickest upon seeing the Dragon Slaying Stage.

"One piece or two?"

Cao Jiaze was momentarily taken aback, a wave of unease washing over him. The Dragon Slaying Stage that had reemerged seemed fundamentally different from the one he had encountered in the Moonfall Sanctuary.

Unbeknownst to him, the Dragon Slaying Stage had fused with the violet gold eggshell of the Titan Spinosaurus in the Nirvana Realm, resulting in a strange transformation.

All he could sense was that the Dragon Slaying Stage had become even more enigmatic, which only heightened his anxiety.

"I have no other intention; I just want you all to cool down and not rush to attack me," Yu Yuan said with a toothy grin, lifting the Dragon Slaying Stage casually. Although he appeared to be addressing the present Solar Spirit cultivators, his full attention was on the wrecked warship and Chen Qinghuang within.

What he truly wondered was whether Chen Qinghuang would awaken because of this.

Despite the Solar Spirit cultivators being on high alert and ready for anything, Chen Qinghuang still did not emerge from the open cabin.

Yu Yuan let out a quiet sigh of relief. Holding the Dragon Slaying Stage, he flew unhurriedly toward Elena.

"An army of Shura is on its way. I hope your powers are sufficient to stand against them," he said, his voice betraying a desire for chaos yet sounding utterly composed. "If you all perish, do me a favor and preserve Chu Yao's soul."

Upon hearing those words, Chu Yao felt a cold shiver run through him as he stood among the crowd.

Memories of his master's extreme actions at the end of his life three hundred years ago surfaced, sending a shiver of dread through the Divine Healer.

"It looks like we're in for a tough fight."

Cao Jiaze let out a resigned sigh. Noticing the odd expressions on the faces of the cultivators from the various sects, he chuckled and reassured them, "Don't panic. We're not as unlucky as we might seem. You're all aware of my status within the Ebon Star, and because of that, a cultivator from the Unbound realm has been discreetly following me."

"It is, after all, my first venture into the extraterrestrial."

He appeared somewhat sheepish.

The tense atmosphere among the crowd eased considerably with his words.

...

"Yu, Yu Yuan. The approaching Shura army might be even more of a problem than you anticipate."

Elena, poised at the front of the cabin, shuddered involuntarily. She glanced back at the ship, as if pondering when Chen Qinghuang would awaken, and suggested, "Shall we keep moving? The Heartthumper Drum has detected me, but they have a much clearer target."

She gestured towards Cao Jiaze, the four towering palaces, and the numerous Solar Spirits.

Together with Weixian, Jiang Xingwen, and Chu Yao, they formed a formidable group of over a dozen Solar Spirits.

This was no small force, and with the Mark of the Celestials and the increasingly renowned Cao Jiaze, the incoming Shura army would surely not overlook them.

Elena believed that the controller of the Heartthumper Drum might overlook her and the ship she was on if they were unaware that Yu Yuan and Chen Qinghuang were aboard the warship.

After all, she was a Shura too, and the adversaries might even speculate about her identity.

"How much trouble are we talking about?" Yu Yuan inquired with curiosity.

"Quite formidable."

Elena grimaced as she attuned her blood magic to the situation, her expression growing graver. "I don't want them to be... slaughtered. Nor do I want..."

Her gaze kept returning to the cabin, her emotions a mix of concern and apprehension. She feared Chen Qinghuang waking up and going on a rampage, and she was equally worried for Yu Yuan's safety.

Suddenly, five greenish-brown streaks of light became distinct against the distant backdrop of the Star River. These were the Shura battleships, nearly a hundred meters in length, shaped like flat fish with prominent ridges.

As the Shura battleships rapidly closed in, a muffled drumming sound echoed, "Boom, boom!" The drum seemed to wield a power that suppressed both bloodlines and vital energy, coupled with a mental evil energy that conjured images of thousands of soldiers locked in battle within Yu Yuan's mind. An uncontrollable urge for slaughter and combat surged from deep within him, igniting his eyes with the fire of war as his once tranquil Heart Lake erupted into turmoil.

"Heartthumper Drum!" Cao Jiaze exclaimed. He had thoroughly researched the various races' champions and holy weapons before embarking on this extraterrestrial training, so he immediately recognized the drumming as the Shura's Quasi-sacred Weapon, the Heartthumper Drum.

In the next instant, he noticed Jiang Xingwen's expression shift ominously, signaling impending trouble. With a whoosh, Jiang Xingwen of the Abyssal Dawn, her mind muddled by the Heartthumper Drum's sound, lost her composure and was the first to soar into the sky, charging directly at Yu Yuan.

This woman, who had once fought alongside Yu Yuan in the Land of Terror, now harbored deep resentment towards him and was deaf to Cao Jiaze's attempts to stop her. She initiated the attack.

Yu Yuan, equally influenced by the Heartthumper Drum, struggled to contain the inferno within. Upon seeing Jiang Xingwen's hate-filled approach, his mind detonated in a burst of fury. With a sinister chuckle, his eyes blazed with an insatiable hunger for battle.

"Court death!" he snarled.

The Baneblade, Bloodhell, materialized in an instant. With a swift swing, orbs of Bloodwraiths burst forth, morphing into seven crimson vortexes. They then coalesced into seven gore-drenched suns. Countless blood-red specks, like crimson stars, filled the space before Yu Yuan, casting myriad tiny dots upon the Solar Spirit Body of Jiang Xingwen as she plunged into the fray.

"Idiot!"

Cao Jiaze muttered under his breath, unswayed by the corrupting influence of the Heartthumper Drum within the grandeur of the palace. His spiritual wisdom remained clear and sharp.

Whoosh!

A towering palace, as if yanked by divine forces, plummeted suddenly.

It descended into the bizarre, blood-soaked force field that Yu Yuan had conjured in front of him with the Baneblade, Bloodhell.

The arcane circles and patterns etched on the other two majestic palaces subtly shifted, forming a new array that emitted a brilliance to purify the soul and cleanse the mind. This radiant light spread across the Shattered Continent, reaching both Yu Yuan and Elena.

Those bathed in the light slowly began to withstand the Heartthumper Drum's influence.

"Huh, what's happening? Can you hear the drumming?"

"Just now, I had the urge to kill many, but all I saw were Yu Yuan and that Otherkin girl!"

"There must be an evil holy weapon of the Otherkin nearby!"

The now-alert warriors from all sides scanned their surroundings and fortified their inner spiritual defenses to avoid further corruption.

Jiang Xingwen, jolted awake within the bloody force field, noticed seven orbs of bloodlight continuing to ravage her Solar Spirit Body.

"Yu Yuan, isn't it time to stop?" Cao Jiaze demanded, clearly displeased.

"You're not in a position to call for a halt," Yu Yuan retorted.

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