C1966 Messing Around!

At the edge of the starry sky lies Stellar Oblivion, a shared frontier for the Dawnbringers and the Starborn, whose leaders' close friendship has united these two extraterrestrial races on a single tract of land.

Within a spire-shaped palace, the Dawnbringers' Cardo, Canli, and Chen Liangquan, alongside the Starborn's Ballo, Beru, Denise, and Gheirat, convened in solemn assembly. Each individual was a formidable presence, either at the pinnacle of the tenth level or a seasoned ninth level warrior, their nobility beyond question.

The Ashlands had forged them in fire; no Blood Warrior below the ninth level would dare leave its safety to stand sentinel here. Each one had been tempered by countless battles, honed between life and death.

"You shouldn't have come," Great Sage Beru reproached Denise with a frown. "No one can predict when the Beast Gods of the Wasteland might launch an invasion. Not even the Boulderdawn Sect can pinpoint the Wasteland's movements."

"As a potential tenth level Heir of Blood, you belong in the Ashlands, not here in Stellar Oblivion." Beru shook her head, a look of regret etched on her face. "Leo is lost to us; you are the future of our Starborn!"

Gheirat glared at Denise, his voice stern, "We have plenty of ninth level Blood Warriors. For most, the dream of reaching the tenth level will never be realized; if they fall in battle, it's a loss we can bear. But you, Denise, you are the seed of our Starborn."

Leo, once hailed as the Starchild, had suffered a grievous loss. In an attempt to manifest the coordinates of the Starpierced Armor deep within the Ashlands, he was overwhelmed by the Will of the Deep. The resulting eruption of his Altar of Rebirth stripped him of his innate gifts.

With Leo's brilliance extinguished, Denise had emerged as the Starborn's most promising candidate to ascend to the tenth level after Ballo. Beru, fearing for Ballo's safety in the looming conflict, had forbidden Denise's journey. Yet, defying his wishes, she arrived alongside Canli of the Dawnbringers.

"I need the crucible of combat to accumulate experience," Denise murmured.

"You fail to grasp the gravity of the situation," Beru countered, his brow furrowed with concern. "Should the Beast Gods breach our defenses, Stellar Oblivion will be plunged into chaos."

"Alright, alright."

Cardo, who resembled a delicate doll, snapped out of her reverie and said, "The Beast Gods have truly arrived. Once the war begins, Canli and Denise should immediately return to the Ashlands. Bertain has told me about the war that took place in the Stellar Oblivion."

As she spoke, Cardo's finely sculpted face grew tense with gravity.

"It's even worse than you might imagine. Tenth level Blood Warriors and ninth level champions had almost no survivors. Even I am not confident I could survive being besieged by a multitude of Beast Gods."

"Don't be fooled into thinking that Beast Gods are easy to defeat."

The presence of several Beast God carcasses, suspended between realms to bolster morale by Kaiya's request, led many who arrived to underestimate the Beast Gods' strength.

Cardo certainly didn't share that view. She pondered, "Often, I think that the Titan Spinosaurus created the Ashlands as a sanctuary to ensure the safety of all beings in this realm."

"What do you mean?" Beru, the most learned among them, inquired.

"The Titan Spinosaurus is aware of the Wasteland's existence. It's said that after its return from the Abyss, the Titan Spinosaurus also intended to visit the Wasteland."

"The Ashlands were specifically crafted by the ancient Spinosaurus. He's nearly invincible there."

"He may have intended to relocate the species of this realm to the Ashlands for a future conflict with the Abyss and the Wasteland. The actions of the Boulderdawn now might also align with the original vision of the ancient Spinosaurus."

Cardo offered a succinct explanation.

After a brief pause, the young girl, ranked just below Bertain among the extraterrestrial powers, suddenly confessed, "I truly envy those two dragons."

Ballo, who had remained quiet, looked at her with astonishment.

"I am not immortal."

With a sigh, Cardo continued, "No matter how hard I try, no matter how much I try to stop time, I know it's just a struggle against destiny. I am not Bertain, nor am I Reid. I have a mortal body, and I too will age and die."

"And I have a sense of it, deep down."

She cast a glance at Beru.

The Great Sage Beru, who shared her plight, understood her sentiment all too well. Seeing her look his way, he responded with a knowing, albeit bitter, nod.

"I saw a glimmer of hope in Loong Jie and Zhong Chichen!" Cardo inhaled deeply, her voice tinged with excitement. "They are flesh and blood, not cosmic giant beasts, Sky Fiends, or the supreme primordial spirits of humanity. If they can achieve immortality through Yu Yuan, then... it's possible for me as well!" Her longing for the Life Keychain was evident.

Beru opened his mouth as if to speak.

Ballo, the patriarch of the Starborn, gave him a look and after a moment's hesitation said, "First, you must at least be able to advance to the tenth level of bloodline." The Great Sage simply shook his head with a wry smile.

...

"Taiyin!" A sudden roar echoed throughout the area, startling all the powerful individuals stationed there. The shout, laden with a tone of accusation, left the gathered experts secretly astonished. Who would be so tactless as to stir up trouble at such a delicate time?

High-level Blood Warriors from various intelligent life groups emerged, each leader scanning the surroundings.

They were all searching for the source of the outcry.

The towering and imposing God-King Tianqi, with a stern countenance, soared from his palace into the sky.

At that moment, Kaiya, resolute in her decision, had taken Xuanli to a secret location of the Star-Spawned Terror to refine the transcendent soul essence, preparing him for his ascension.

Taishi and Taixu had recently returned to the Ashlands to provide for the human cultivators who had traveled from distant lands. They also took the opportunity to gauge the current state of the Everlands.

Yu Yuan's real body, meanwhile, remained in deep seclusion within his specially constructed palace, unseen for some time.

Before departing, Kaiya had cautioned Tianqi and the Otherkin's mightiest not to disturb him unless necessary.

Tianqi was well aware that Yu Yuan's real body was out of sight, possibly contemplating whether to unlock his sealed memories and seek a way to ascend to the primordial spirit without reliance on any external forces.

At this moment, Boulderdawn's status in the extraterrestrial realm was unparalleled. Tianqi could not fathom anyone foolish enough to provoke conflict.

Could it be one of the supreme beings from the Everlands?

Tianqi scanned the skies, determined to identify the source of the voice and uncover who dared to be so audacious.

"Ugh!"

Cardo, equally startled, squinted into the distance from the land shared by the Dawnbringers and the Starborn. She was the first to spot three figures.

Cardo looked on in astonishment, her face twisting into an odd expression. "Those three are actually still alive."

"Who are they?" Canli inquired.

"The ones Yu Yuan once hunted. They've been hiding in some Starry Sky Forbidden Zone. Tens of thousands of years have passed, and they've never dared to show themselves until now," Cardo said with a hint of amusement, shaking her head. "Perhaps they're convinced that Bertain won't be returning anytime soon."

At her words, Ballo of the Starborn's demeanor shifted, as if he had deduced the newcomers' identities.

"Cardo, Rebecca, Brie, your tribes were once decimated by him, and now you stand as his allies!"

The voice of the one who was shouting, though still thousands of miles away, echoed through the Boulderdawn's stronghold.

The individuals he named were all chieftains of their respective tribes, each a tenth-level Heir of Blood.

Hearing his voice and accusations, they too began to piece together who he might be.

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