Chapter 1260: Star Ring Alien Domain

Chapter 1260 Star Ring Foreign Land

The sky stretched like an endless smoke-stained curtain.

No sun or moon pierced the gloom, as if day and night held no sway here.

Only three hundred and sixty emerald rings, bracelet-like, hung suspended from the vault, radiating soft light.

This was a star adrift in the unknown cosmos.

It possessed sea, earth, mountains, and islands.

Yet that sea was an ocean of liquid phosphor-fire.

That earth, a land of star-ash formed from cosmic dust.

Those mountains, alien manifestations sculpted from amethyst crystal.

As for the islands—they did not float upon the sea, but clung beyond the cliffs of amethyst ranges.

They were sky-isles woven by light-devouring vines along the precipice edges.

These translucent plants seemed to pierce the vacuum with their roots, drawing sustenance from the unknown, appearing as if conjured from nothing.

Just as a figure now manifested upon one such isle—sudden, near-unconscious.

A tattered Daoist robe, disheveled hair, a bloodied face, a frail breath.

At the moment of contact, winds from another spacetime billowed from the figure, shaking the vine-isle violently, its surface visibly corroding.

Unable to bear the weight, the isle was pierced through.

With a thunderous crash, the figure plunged through, striking the forest far below the cliff.

The forest was vast, yet where the figure fell, every tree within a hundred zhang dissolved instantly into glittering stardust, rising high to engulf the fallen.

Within the dust, the figure was not alone—clutched tightly in its grasp was another.

Even in unconsciousness, its grip was iron, crushing the other into the same oblivion.

Soon, silence reclaimed the surroundings.

The dust settled, coalescing once more, filling the hundred-zhang void, restoring the forest whole.

The forest’s vegetation was no true growth—it was dust given form!

It breathed the starlight drifting through the cosmos, obeying some ancient law, drawing memories from those lights to replay recorded scenes within its structure.

Time flowed slowly.

The sky began to rain.

But this rain was no ordinary downpour—it was billions of phosphor-fires adrift in the star’s thin atmosphere, drifting earthward.

From afar, it seemed as if a deity shredded scriptures in the void, scattering fragments like torn pages.

These pages burned across heaven and earth, emitting light beyond the firmament, echoing with murmurs of divine whispers.

“Luminous Candle… Luminous Candle…”

As the whispers spread, hazy figures coalesced from the burning radiance, sharpening into clarity.

All bore identical forms.

Bodies woven from pure light, genderless, twelve pairs of luminous wings unfurling behind them into iridescent vortices.

They formed in the heavens, drifting outward while murmuring, walking.

Where they passed, earth’s dust rose as weeping winds, parting before them.

Amethyst ranges resonated with ancient drones like qiang flutes, playing welcome hymns.

The phosphor-fire sea swelled with gelatinous luminous columns, forming flowing stairways for their dance.

Even the vine-isles secreted golden sap, hardening into hexagonal crystals etched with cosmic laws, ascending as tribute.

The forest below dissolved entirely into swirling dust storms, bowing in worship.

Amidst the tempest, only the fallen figure lay motionless.

But soon… the woman clutched in his hand fluttered her lashes, slowly opening her eyes.

Seeing her surroundings, she froze, then wonder lit her gaze. Her eyes darted to the man beside her—hesitant, wary.

She did not move rashly. Instead, she opened her mouth toward the distant celestial figures, as if to project a divine voice.

Her divine essence was sealed, her thoughts trapped. Yet if she could emit that sound now, she knew she could summon the spirit-gods instantly.

But as the note formed on her lips… the hand gripping her throat hardened. A surge of force crushed her windpipe, silencing her utterly.

The divine woman trembled. From the corner of her eye, she saw Xu Qing, now awake.

She dared not struggle. She lay still.

Xu Qing remained expressionless, unmoving.

Only after the celestial figures vanished completely, as the world settled back to stillness, did he turn to the divine woman. Then he inhaled sharply.

Despair flooded her. A terrible suction ravaged her insides. In an instant, the nascent essence within her was drained, leaving her limp.

Xu Qing then sealed her voice with a gesture, reinforced her bindings, and finally stowed her away like a tightly bound parcel.

Having done this, Xu Qing cautiously extended his divine awareness, scanning the surroundings.

Gradually, his expression darkened. After a silence, he spoke softly.

“Thank you.”

“No need for thanks, darling master. Such formality between us is silly.”

The Mud Fox’s voice was weak, yet its coquetry remained unmistakable.

It knew precisely why Xu Qing thanked it—for the instant they fell onto this star, sensing the anomaly, it had deliberately scattered its divine aura to shield him.

It had also seen the divine woman’s treachery, sacrificing its own divine source to hasten Xu Qing’s awakening and avert disaster.

“Now, continue shielding me,” Xu Qing murmured, then closed his eyes to meditate and heal.

He had suspicions about this place, but confirming their location or escaping would require restored strength.

He understood his most urgent task: regain his cultivation.

His injuries were grave—from wielding the Dao artifact to surviving spatial turbulence—leaving him utterly spent.

But fortunately… his essence reserves were ample.

The spoils from capturing the divine woman would suffice for recovery. Not to mention the Auroral Immortal Palace could still draw upon the Pain God’s continuous essence, and… the divine woman herself.

Especially the latter—seemingly inexhaustible, a treasure beyond measure, past and present.

Thus time passed.

Half a month vanished in a blink.

During those days, shielded by the Mud Fox’s aura, Xu Qing absorbed essence within the dust forest, healing steadily. The forest wove more ancient scenes; the heavens rained once more.

Watching the twelve-winged figures, Xu Qing sensed divinity within them.

Yet it felt… subtly different from the gods he had known.

Yet until his spiritual prowess recovered sufficiently, Xu Qing had no intention of probing further, and so continued his convalescence.

Ten more days passed.

Seated cross-legged, Xu Qing’s eyes snapped open, gleaming with sharp radiance. His cultivation… had restored to seventy percent.

The remainder stemmed from the soul’s burden of wielding divine instruments—a recovery far more arduous.

But Xu Qing sensed that once fully restored, his soul would emerge refined, purer than before.

“Then let us see precisely where this place lies!”

Xu Qing lifted his head, a flash of keen light in his gaze. In the next instant, his soul-sense, veiled by the Mud Fox Spirit Breath, erupted outward, sweeping the entire star and spilling into the starry void.

Thick with alien essence, thrumming with divine resonance.

This could never be the Fifth Stellar Ring.

Though upon awakening he had already surmised as much from the surroundings, now, perceiving the full scope, he sighed inwardly.

This was an unfamiliar starfield.

Recalling the goddess’s earlier joy upon awakening, Xu Qing finally concluded this was likely the Fourth Stellar Ring.

As for the star beneath him now…

Xu Qing surveyed it with his soul-sense. It hovered at the edge of a nebula of cosmic dust.

The star itself glowed emerald, its slow rotation accompanied by a faint, living breath echoing through its strata.

On its surface lay a crystalline plain teeming with scaled bulls bearing bat-like wings.

Their unique hide resonated with the earth’s veins; when they flapped their wings, shards of light scattered like glittering scales.

More astonishingly, they possessed intellect, their own civilization, even a kingdom.

They built temples, worshipping their tribal deity with daily sacrifices.

That deity took the form of a luminous butterfly.

Not a true god, merely a divine platform. Xu Qing witnessed a dying bull prostrate itself before the temple, gradually transforming into a glowing butterfly-creature that merged into the sacred structure.

And deities were not confined to this one place.

Far from the herds of scaled bulls sprawled a vast expanse of bioluminescent fungal carpet!

Swaying in the wind, they sang, weaving an immense subterranean kingdom through their mycelium, bathing in celestial fire, burning themselves to become rising blue mists.

Within that haze drifted mist mayflies feeding on sound waves, their translucent bellies revealing miniature, cross-legged deities of their own kind.

Humanoid beings also existed upon this star.

They dwelled in the storm-lashed southwestern regions, building homes upon forests of mobile crystal clusters.

These forests fed on lightning; the arcs released during their splitting were revered by the humanoids as divine punishment.

Perhaps they truly were—Xu Qing’s soul-sense clearly detected divine essence rippling within those very bolts.

Beyond all this, what most captivated Xu Qing were the three hundred and sixty emerald rings arching the heavens, the source of the twelve-winged phantoms… seemingly ancient temples.

Yet most lay dim.

“No true gods… ideal for concealment.”

After a long while, Xu Qing retracted his soul-sense. After reflection, he resolved to fully restore his cultivation here before considering departure.

His form shimmered, vanishing from the stardust forest.

Reappearing within a violet crystal mountain range, he carved out a cave dwelling and settled cross-legged.

Time flowed onward.

The star turned; celestial fire descended.

The scaled bulls completed thirty sacrifices, their deity growing ever more radiant.

The fungal hymns became repeated requiems of self-immolation in the celestial fire, churning the haze into a swirling dance.

The stardust forest continuously manifested memories of starlight, weaving them from cosmic dust.

During this period, it absorbed images of an unknown human civilization.

Within the vision, a white-haired cultivator cradled his dying wife, descending into madness with grief, shouting curses at the heavens before ascending to battle the celestial order itself!

Though no sound escaped, the frenzy within the vision drenched the stardust forest’s surroundings crimson.

Meanwhile, Xu Qing’s cultivation reached ninety percent over the month.

Just as he immersed himself deeper in recovery, nearing full restoration, on this day…

A strange new note pierced the deep earth’s rhythmic breathing.

“The Lizhu God-Emperor’s Decree: A human cultivator has fled with the goddess. Throughout the Fourth Stellar Ring’s billion stars, all deities—report this fugitive’s whereabouts, receive one hundred cubic measures of primordial essence; capture him alive, receive a Divine Lord’s sacred instrument!”

With this pronouncement came a terrifying soul-sense, sweeping across the starfield toward this very world!