C1227 The Myriad of Changes

Within the semi-transparent body of the Starbeast possessed by Qiyan, numerous walnut-sized thunder balls could be faintly seen.

The lightning within these thunder balls wove together, the inherent laws of thunder wreaking havoc from within, destroying the venomous rivers Qiyan had painstakingly refined.

The seven toxic rivers within the beast's body emitted smoke and gradually dissolved.

The fiend, born from the Rainbow Ocean, wailed mournfully, its eyes burning with flames and flickering with a light of pain and desperation for help.

After being captured by Wei Zhuo, it finally recognized the extent of Yu Yuan's mercy towards it.

Occasionally, it would glance at Yu Yuan with longing eyes.

Yu Yuan remained unaffected.

He didn't even spare an extra glance for Qiyan's reappearance, merely looking at Wei Zhuo briefly before his gaze returned to Pei Yuling.

Yu Yuan had an intuition that Pei Yuling, who appeared uncompetitive and detached, was in fact his most formidable adversary—not Cao Jiaze or Xu Jingyao.

"Sorry, I encountered this creature on my way and it took some effort to capture, so I arrived a bit late," the Unbound cultivator from the Thunder Sect said, full of apologies, as he greeted Xu Jingyao. He tossed the Starbeast aside as if it no longer posed a threat of escape.

Crackle!

The next moment, dozens of lightning torrents shredded the dazzling net of light created by Gheirat's bloodline power!

Wei Zhuo steadied himself amidst the exploding Starborn battleship, poised to strike.

Boom!

A colossal figure, a thousand feet tall and wrapped in thundersnakes and lightning dragons, like the Divine Visage of a Thunder God, shattered the starlight and emerged.

The Divine Visage clapped its hands, and clusters of stars extinguished like snuffed flames.

Xu Jingyao and Pei Yuling stood upon the shoulders of the Divine Visage, one on each side.

Xu Jingyao, gripping the Flame Spear, was about to exert his strength when the Thunder Sect's powerhouse arrived. He relaxed with a smile and said, "I'll leave Gheirat to you."

"Alright!" Wei Zhuo responded promptly.

His immense Divine Visage casually kneaded the void, sending thunder balls hurtling into the surrounding starry sea like hailstones.

An earth-shattering explosion rippled out from the shadows, countless crystals and meteorites summoned by Gheirat. They should have overwhelmed the area where Xu Jingyao and Pei Yuling stood, but instead, they were obliterated by the thunder balls Wei Zhuo had masterfully crafted.

The Starborn general, clad in heavy armor, had two swirling nebulae deep within his eye sockets.

Wei Zhuo's majestic Divine Visage, bursting with millions of starlight streams, could not sustain itself and collapsed in an instant. Yet, in just a moment, the Divine Visage reformed.

Clearly, Gheirat's onslaught had failed to inflict any significant damage to Wei Zhuo's Divine Visage.

Roar!

Simultaneously, from the depths of the Absolute Darkness, a howl echoed—the Platinum Shura, Demian, of the Dark Realm.

The Quasi-sacred Weapon, the Heartthumper Drum, was beneath Demian's feet, lifting him from the darkness into the air.

Wave after wave of lethal vital energy, amplified by the drum, transformed into an array of blades and spikes, assaulting the fiery orb conjured by Zhu Huan.

Ciara, wielding the Frost Well, reached out and pulled, and the dense darkness rolled towards Zhu Huan like a black carpet.

Pei Yuling's Mirror of the Infinite remained aloft, continuing its suppression of the other dimension. Yet, it did not adapt to counter the piercing cold darkness attacking Zhu Huan.

Thus, Zhu Huan found himself alone against the combined forces of Demian and Ciara, the two Platinum Shura.

Puff! Puff! Puff!

The roaring flames released by Zhu Huan burst like tinder upon meeting the darkness from the Dark Realm, exploding into cinders.

Within the depths of the crackling flames, Zhu Huan uttered a stifled groan, seemingly under strain.

"Mr. Pei?" Xu Jingyao called out.

"This..."

Pei Yuling, having pulled him out of the fray between Gheirat and Wei Zhuo, stood atop a shattered stone.

He spoke with a hint of sheepishness, "I ventured to Kuvrepros merely to lend a small hand, to help your people quickly converge."

"You must understand, stepping in to suppress the Shura's Frost Well and keeping Sabonis at bay was already beyond my initial commitment."

"Look, the Frost Well within Ciara's body has always struggled to connect to the Dark Realm, right? I've done everything I'm supposed to do. You're not expecting me to fight to the death for you, are you?" Pei Yuling grumbled, his face twisted in displeasure, yet he made no further move.

The so-called "Mirror of the Infinite" remained suspended over Ciara, severing the link between the Frost Well and the Blood King.

"I'm really not cut out for combat. You should find someone else for life-and-death battles. What I can assure you is that if you don't want someone to escape, I'll make sure they can't," Pei Yuling declared.

Xu Jingyao's expression turned grim.

He had assumed that Pei Yuling, heavily recruited by Zhu Huan, would join forces with Zhu Huan to subdue the two ninth-level Platinum Shura. To his surprise, at this critical juncture, Pei Yuling pulled this stunt.

Zhu Huan, in the late period of the Unbound Stage, possessed greater combat prowess than either Demian or Ciara. But if the two were to join forces...

"Eye of the Dark Star!"

Beru, upon entering the fray of the fiercest battlefield, pressed his hands against his chest and began to chant in the ancient Starborn tongue.

Blood seeped through his fingers, seemingly connecting him to the hidden pathways of the stars.

Puchi!

Cao Jiaze, concealed within a resplendent palace, suddenly began to cough up blood, with blood also streaming from his eyes and nostrils.

The usually composed prodigy of the Ebon Star was utterly staggered, his face a picture of horror.

In the center of the five majestic palaces, akin to the abodes of deities, chunks of broken stone materialized out of nowhere.

These massive, luminous fragments tumbled chaotically, disrupting the arcane circles and diagrams within the palace and warping the core power generated by the five palaces.

As the bearer of the seals, Cao Jiaze's soul was intimately linked to the five Mark of the Celestials, and he suffered immediate and severe damage.

No matter his prowess, he was still a cultivator at the Solar Spirit level, relying on the five Mark of the Celestials to battle the superior Otherkin.

Beru, a ninth-level veteran and a wily old creature, had many tricks up his sleeve to inflict grave injuries on Cao Jiaze—or even destroy him—once he had sabotaged the formations within the Mark of the Celestials.

Cao Jiaze was not a Solar Spirit; rather, his true form had arrived. Should he perish in the extraterrestrial realm, the chance of rebirth would be severed.

"You're intent on killing Leo, yet two of you have come—both sect prodigies as significant as he is."

Beru's hands were still dripping with blood, yet his demeanor remained eerily calm. "Kid with the surname Cao, I'm aware you have life-saving items. Bring them all out."

"Cao Jiaze, where are your people?" Xu Jingyao bellowed from a distance.

Standing alongside Yu Yuan, the Starborn prodigy flashed a radiant smile upon hearing the shout. "I've learned that you orchestrated the plot to assassinate me in the Kuvrepros. Well then, show me your strength. I'm eager to test the arcane secrets of the stars that I've mastered."

With those words, Leo left Yu Yuan's side and took his first step. The cosmos shifted.

Next to Yu Yuan, a nondescript stone materialized, and Leo had vanished. Xu Jingyao let out a piercing scream as he suddenly found himself in a vast and enigmatic unknown starry expanse.

Pei Yuling was nowhere near him.

"Guard me for a moment," Leo's voice emanated from the stone.

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