C1729 Destroying Authority!
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Demon Gods and Dark Deities, towering like mountains, vanished into the gaping maw of the Crucible of Evil, scattering like moths across the sky.
Meanwhile, Yu Yuan's Divine Visage, so powerful it made the blood of all beings run cold and their hearts nearly burst, began to retract before soaring into the heavens atop the Dragon Slaying Stage.
Above Ebon Star, the breach in the sky buzzed with the joyous hum of sword light as it first shredded the arcane circles of the Nine Palaces Array, then, as if under new orders, darted away like a school of lightning-fast fish.
The sword light found its way back to the Sword Cave, where the sword spirits of the Spirit Swords and Divine Swords leapt for joy as if avenged.
Every Sword Immortal within the Sword Sect could sense their elation through the resonant hum of the swords.
It dawned on them that these sword spirits, whose masters had passed away millennia ago, had harbored a deep resentment towards Han Miaoyuan of Ebon Star.
The nine floating palaces bore deep cracks in their rocky walls, with rubble strewn across the floors.
Magic diagrams painstakingly drawn and then infused with spiritual energy, along with the embedded Soul Crystals and Psicrystals, lay shattered and exploded.
The Nine Palaces Array had been breached!
This seventh-level formation, built over centuries and patched countless times, stood as a symbol of Ebon Star's and Han Miaoyuan's supreme authority on the Euwrea Continent. Now, it had been vanquished.
The rupture of the Nine Palaces Array seemed to signal the end of Han Miaoyuan's dominion over the human race and his decisive role in the fate of the divine. His era had come to an irreversible close.
Ebon Star was enveloped in silence.
There were no cries of anguish, no one fell to the sword light, only Cao Jiaze, who had merged with the Nine Palaces Array, lay in a pool of his own blood.
His gaze, filled with a bittersweet relief, lifted to the vast expanse of the Everlands, watching as Yu Yuan and the Dragon Slaying Stage diminished to a mere speck of light and vanished.
Beneath the torn sky, the statue of Han Miaoyuan holding the Exquisite Pagoda stood motionless, as if sculpted from stone.
Gazing at the gaping hole left by the Heaven-Opening Sword Array, Han Miaoyuan was lost in thought, experiencing a mix of emotions that made him want to both laugh and cry.
The Heaven-Opening Sword Array, a creation of the Sword Sect, owed much to his contributions. It was a formidable sword array he had developed alongside the former Sword Sect Master. This array could not only shield the Sword Sect but also be deployed extraterrestrially to vanquish formidable foes.
Many a notorious extraterrestrial power had fallen to the Heaven-Opening Sword Array. It was the Sword Sect's hallmark, a weapon of doom that struck terror into the hearts of the extraterrestrial elite.
He took pride in its legacy.
Yet, he had never anticipated that the Ebon Star's Nine Palaces Array would be breached by the very Heaven-Opening Sword Array he had helped conceive with the Sword Sect Master.
He came to the realization that the initial, massive sphere formed by the sword light, which had been manipulated by indistinct wraiths, was in fact the Heaven-Opening Sword Array. However, its operation was not fluid, and the sword's will guiding the sword light lacked finesse, failing to unleash the array's full might.
The second, significantly smaller sphere of sword light unleashed by Yu Yuan was the true embodiment of the Heaven-Opening Sword Array. It was this very array, single-handedly executed by Yu Yuan, that shattered the Nine Palaces Array, the symbol of Ebon Star's authority, leaving Han Miaoyuan disgraced.
Dazed, Han Miaoyuan struggled with the irony that the Heaven-Opening Sword Array he had pondered into existence had demolished the Nine Palaces Array he had crafted, and this was a bitter pill to swallow.
If he found it hard to accept, it was only natural that the elders and disciples of the Ebon Star would feel the same. Consequently, their bewildered stares involuntarily turned towards him.
"Han, Mr. Han?" Qin Luo of the Ruby Hand whispered tentatively, hoping to rouse Han Miaoyuan from his stupor.
Qin Luo, who had come from the extraterrestrial realm to provide support, had been ready to join forces with Han Miaoyuan. He had expected Yu Yuan to replicate the devastating strategy used against the Thunder Sect, employing the fierce sword light of the Sword Cave along with Dark Deities and Demon Gods to inflict severe losses upon the Ebon Star, dooming them to the Thunder Sect's fate.
Yu Yuan had surprisingly extended some courtesy to Cao Jiaze, which caught Qin Luo off guard.
It seemed that Yu Yuan was aware that a full-on assault on the Ebon Star would shatter the landscape for thousands of miles around.
The Ebon Star Sect, unlike the Thunder Sect, had deep ties to the surrounding mountains and rivers over its tens of thousands of years of existence.
Destruction of the Ebon Star Sect would have repercussions on nearby sects and living beings, potentially bringing calamity to both the Starmoon Sect and the Forgeroses.
In a crucial moment, Yu Yuan regained his composure and actually retreated to the extraterrestrial, ready to wait in the vast expanse of space for Han Miaoyuan to seek him out for battle.
"Hmm?"
Before Han Miaoyuan could speak, Qin Luo, upon witnessing a breach in the Nine Palaces Array, suddenly realized something.
Wei Zhuo was not in the Everlands!
In his effort to fend off the sword light's invasion, he had lost his connection with the outside world, which is why he hadn't noticed Wei Zhuo's departure.
"He was convinced to leave by me."
Zu Ann's gentle whisper emerged beside Qin Luo's ear, revealing what had transpired.
The presence of a breach meant the Nine Palaces Array's sealing power had vanished. Zu Ann, now in possession of the Supreme God, could send his messages with precision.
Qin Luo's face turned grave.
Without Wei Zhuo's assistance, he would have to confront Zu Ann himself, leaving Han Miaoyuan to face Yu Yuan alone, beyond the Everlands.
"If you venture into the extraterrestrial, I'll continue to block your path, allowing Mr. Han and Yu Yuan to engage in an unbridled battle. You should be aware, Qin Luo, that Mr. Han draws his strength from the divine force of the Everlands. Outside of it, his power will diminish."
"Hehe, I'm curious to see if Mr. Han dares to venture beyond the Everlands."
Zu Ann's tone was clearly one of schadenfreude, his cold mockery of Han Miaoyuan palpable to Qin Luo.
Yet...
Qin Luo found himself looking at Han Miaoyuan once more, wondering internally, "What will you decide, Mr. Han?"
Your most formidable sword has been dispatched to Ionodios in the extraterrestrial realm, to intimidate the God-King of the Boulderdawn, ensuring those God-Kings cannot return to the Everlands.
You probably couldn't have imagined that a junior in the Unbound Realm could throw all your plans in the Everlands into disarray.
Qin Luo fell into silent contemplation.
...
"Would Han Miaoyuan dare to venture out?"
"Yu Yuan is already beyond the extraterrestrial. Unlike his annihilation of the Thunder Sect, he didn't command the sword lights in the Sword Cave to slaughter the innocent after the Nine Palaces Array shattered. He's already out there waiting, but what is Mr. Han thinking?"
"Yu Yuan has humiliated him, piercing through the formations of the Ebon Star. Can he truly bear it?"
"If he can truly bear this, then Han Miaoyuan might as well forget about commanding the respect of the mighty in the future or having the supreme experts willingly follow his lead."
"Perhaps, with the collapse of the Nine Palaces Array, Han Miaoyuan's era has come to an end."
"Sigh, a new era might be upon us. It seems it's time for change."
"..."
In the Land of Quiescence, the Skyreach Consortium, Ruby Hand, Taintborn, Bloodbrawlers, Ghost Witch Sect, Artifact Sect, and Order of Healing, along with the Seven Great Lower Sects of Euwrea and the declining Sunlit Order, as well as the various empires of Aetherius, were all abuzz with low-voiced discussions among the cultivators who were aware of the recent events.
The breach of the Nine Palaces Array marked the end of an era, signaling that Han Miaoyuan's dominance over the human race in the Everlands had been forcefully disrupted.
What would the future hold?
Many were already considering whether it was time to shift their mindset and embrace the return of the Boulderdawn, or to simply bide their time and see how things unfolded.
...
In the extraterrestrial realm, as the Dragon Slaying Stage passed through the wall, it immediately began to conserve its cosmic energy.
The cosmic energy of the Star River outside the Everlands was much sparser compared to the Ashlands. Yet, after its confrontations with the Thunder Sect and the suppression of Wei Zhuo, this awe-inspiring Divine Artifact had expended a considerable amount of power.
The Dragon Slaying Stage's energy could be replenished by the cosmic energy of the extraterrestrial, but naturally, the process was not as efficient as within the Ashlands.
"Han Miaoyuan."
Yu Yuan sneered. Even from his vantage point in the extraterrestrial Star River, he could still see Han Miaoyuan beneath the gaping hole in the sky above Ebon Star.
He had refrained from continuing his spellcasting partly due to Cao Jiaze's entreaties, and partly because of the deep connections between Ebon Star and the surrounding cosmos.
The Nine Palaces Array, with its nine majestic palaces, was intertwined with the mountains, rivers, and the very earth itself. If it were to collapse, the foundation of the Euwrea Continent would be severely damaged.
Han Miaoyuan had been cautious since the construction of the Nine Palaces Array, linking it to the fate of the Euwrea Continent to deter any rash actions.
He chose not to merge with the Nine Palaces Array himself but had Cao Jiaze do it instead. Perhaps this was a contingency plan for a time when a formidable enemy might attack from outside or if chaos erupted within the Everlands. Cao Jiaze would be at the forefront, masterfully controlling the array.
Han Miaoyuan's role was simply to assist by channeling spiritual energy.
He had left no stone unturned.
Now that the array was breached, Han Miaoyuan had not suffered significant harm. Instead, it was Cao Jiaze who had regressed from the Unbound state to a Solar Spirit, his body and soul riddled with fissures.
"Live well."
Yu Yuan gazed down at Cao Jiaze lying in a pool of blood and murmured to himself.
Though Cao Jiaze had fallen from his previous state, his foundational cultivation remained intact, leaving the door open for a future resurgence and the possibility of leading Ebon Star once again.
Yu Yuan didn't want any harm to befall Cao Jiaze. He wished for him to survive and thrive because he hoped that the future of Ebon Star would rest in Cao Jiaze's hands—not Han Miaoyuan's.
"I never saw it coming, truly I didn't."
Across the dimensional barrier, the state preceptor, clad in white, hurried to Yu Yuan's side as he stood upon the Dragon Slaying Stage, Titanblade in hand.
Though both were in the extraterrestrial realm, they had been quite distant from each other. Yu Yuan had been aware of the state preceptor's presence after emerging, but he had not made any move to approach him.
Choosing not to initiate a meeting was also in Zhou Cangmin's best interest, to spare him any discomfort.
In contrast, Zhou Cangmin approached with an air of nonchalance, his expression one of fascination as he remarked, "Seeing you now, I hardly know how to interact with you. Sigh, when did you acquire such overwhelming combat prowess?"
