Chapter 924: Entering the Universe

Unlike the sun evolved from the Golden Crow of antiquity, the post-antiquity sun reigned as the ultimate manifestation of pure Yang, wielding boundless and terrible majesty, a celestial anchor upon which countless cultivators relied—and from whose worship the Radiant Sun Sect was born.

During the Great Qian Era, this cosmic beacon was snared by the first Emperor of Qian, the Sovereign of the Mid-Sky, who wove a seal across its face and claimed it as his personal domain.

In the subsequent Great Yu Era, Wu Yao, the progenitor Emperor of Yu, beheld the Sovereign's ancient brand upon the star and, in a stroke of calculated spite, layered his own seal directly over the first.

By this deed, the Sovereign of the Mid-Sky was severed from the sun's grace, and Wu Yao was likewise denied its warmth.

With Wu Yao long suspected of being displaced into the outer realms, Lu Yang had despaired of ever unraveling the secondary seal, yet fortune dictated that Guan Shanhai held the secret to its undoing.

"According to Guan Shanhai's confession, the Sovereign of the Mid-Sky shackled the sun to stifle its radiant Yang and cool Yin, all to coerce the subjects of the Great Qian into offering him their absolute devotion," Yun Zhi explained.

"Should a cultivator of that age wish to draw upon the sun for their arts, they were forced to prostrate themselves before the Sovereign; only then would a hairline fracture open in the seal, casting a fleeting stream of Yin and Yang upon the petitioner before snapping shut once the prayers ceased."

"Thus arose the legend that the Sovereign of the Mid-Sky held absolute dominion over the shifting dance of the sun and the moon."

The Great Qian had elevated the power of faith into their primary path of ascension, raising shrines and idols across every corner of the land, resorting to any unscrupulous means to plunder the devotion of the masses; yet as dynasties crumbled and the methods of cultivation evolved, those holy places vanished into the deep rivers of history, leaving scarcely a trace behind.

"Upon ascending the throne, Wu Yao made numerous attempts to scale the sun, only to be thwarted at every turn by the Sovereign’s ancient barrier; in his frustration, he laid down his own ward, ensuring the Sovereign could never approach the star again."

"This dual bondage left the sun twice imprisoned, its outward emanations of Yang and Yin greatly diminished from their primordial glory."

It was a truth buried deep within the shadows of time, deliberately omitted from the ink of any surviving chronicle.

"Unmaking the seal Wu Yao left behind will release a portion of that long-stifled essence, granting an immense boon to those cultivators who depend upon the twin polarities."

As Yun Zhi guided Lu Yang and Yun Mengmeng through the celestial void toward the blazing star, she laid bare the tapestry of the past.

"Is the sun truly so coveted? To have one tyrant after another taking turns to plunder it?" Yun Mengmeng murmured in confusion; having spent her life within a hidden realm devoid of a true sky, the paramount significance of the sun eluded her understanding.

With Lu Yang’s current cultivation, traversing the starry expanse was entirely within his capability, though he lacked the effortless grace of his Senior Sister; left to his own devices, a vast measure of his focus would be consumed merely weathering the hostile caprices of the deep cosmos.

Yun Mengmeng, while impervious to the void's cruelty, possessed a habit of wandering and reaching out to touch every passing curiosity, a trait that threatened to reduce their journey to a crawl.

Left with no alternative, Yun Zhi had enveloped both Lu Yang and Yun Mengmeng in protective, transparent spheres, carrying them along in her wake.

Through the dark, Lu Yang beheld a wilderness of brilliant stars, numbering beyond count; whenever their trajectory intersected with a celestial body, his Senior Sister shattered through it without a second thought, revealing that the radiant globes he feared colliding with were mere illusions.

Yet some were solid matter, requiring even his Senior Sister to trace a wide arc around their bulk.

"Ah, is this particular star little Yun's Golden Core?" The Immortal Fairy remarked, her divine sense catching a strange anomaly; the sphere before them was indeed tangible reality, yet it was no relic spared from antiquity, but rather a manifestation forged from Yun Zhi's own inner core.

"Is Sister Zhi’s Golden Core truly so colossal?" Yun Mengmeng gasped, utterly struck with awe as she wondered why her own core seemed so pitifully small by comparison.

"It only appears grand; when it comes to raw, destructive might, it cannot begin to rival this Fairy's Invincible Core."

"What is an Invincible Core?" Yun Mengmeng inquired, her interest piqued.

"The Invincible Core is a sovereign sphere that only those of the Immortal Lineage can condense, standing supreme as the undisputed first among First-Grade Cores! Alas, your cultivation is already too elevated; you have missed the season to forge such a miracle."

"How magnificent," Yun Mengmeng whispered, her eyes shining with newfound pride in the overwhelming strength of their lineage.

Though Lu Yang had long known the stars above were the product of his Senior Sister's cultivation, understanding the truth in theory was a distant cry from witnessing it with his own eyes.

Only in this proximity could one grasp the terrifying scale of her Golden Core; were a man to stand upon its surface, he would swear the earth beneath his feet was an endless, flat horizon.

And this was but a single sphere among an unknown multitude she had scattered throughout the void.

The cosmos stretched out dark and freezing, a vast, hollow expanse whose silence was nothing short of haunting; suspended in that emptiness, Lu Yang felt less than a speck of dust, realizing that no matter how formidable a cultivator became, they remained utterly minuscule against the backdrop of this infinite theater.

"Entering this pitch-black abyss brings back memories; back then, Ying Tian and the other three Immortals governed an immense number of stars, but the distances between them were so vast that travel was an agonizing chore, so they would constantly alter the stars' positions to close the gaps, or simply tear open spatial corridors between worlds," the Immortal Fairy’s nostalgic musings broke through Lu Yang’s silent contemplation.

After an immeasurable passage of time, a colossal sphere of fire loomed before Lu Yang’s eyes, its extreme heat raging through the vacuum with such ferocity that, without the ward Yun Zhi had wrapped around him, the mere ambient temperature would have reduced him to ash within a breath.

The true terror of the sun's majesty had already been thoroughly tested by countless martyrs of the Radiant Sun Sect; Lu Yang could even discern several charred, humanoid remains locked in an eternal, scorching orbit around the star.

Just as Yun Zhi, indifferent to the searing heat, sought to press closer to the solar surface, a great golden chain girdling the sun manifested to bar her path.

The links of the chain shimmered with blinding runes that dazzled the eye, causing the sun's heat to surge to an even more monstrous intensity; each brilliant glyph seemed to hold the profound laws of the universe, such that a single direct glance threatened to flood one's consciousness with a torrent of absolute knowledge, enough to instantly shatter a fragile spiritual sea.

Yet with Yun Zhi standing at the vanguard, absorbing the brunt of the conceptual deluge, Lu Yang was permitted to gaze upon the forbidden script at his leisure.

"Chief, what do these runes signify?" Yun Mengmeng stared for a long while without gaining an ounce of comprehension, finally turning to her omniscient leader for aid.

The Immortal Fairy, true to her reputation of all-knowing wisdom, deciphered the script with ease, offering her analysis to the second and third in command: "Though the subject is omitted, the context makes it perfectly clear that this is entirely composed of Wu Yao hurling curses at the Sovereign of the Mid-Sky; do you require this Fairy to recite his exact insults for you?"

As she reached the end of her explanation, a rare hesitation gripped the Immortal Fairy, a faint blush coloring her cheeks as she succumbed to an uncharacteristic modesty.

"There is no need, absolutely no need," Lu Yang interjected hastily.

"But truth be told, this sun is undeniably a creation wrought by the Immortal of Nine Layers; even if you gathered every Golden Crow of antiquity together, they could never forge a star possessing such terrifying power, let alone one that contains an equal measure of hidden Yin essence."

Ao Ling had once revealed that the sun and moon of the Sovereign Fire Era were both crafted by the Immortal of Nine Layers utilizing the supreme Fruits of Yin and Yang; to spare himself unnecessary labor, the deity had simply fused the sun and the moon into a single, cohesive entity.

Furthermore, considering that such an arrangement would render traditional sundials useless, leaving the common folk blind to the passage of time and throwing their daily lives into chaos, the deity had boldly etched a clock face and turning hands directly onto the sun's surface, ensuring that all mankind could look up and read the hour.

The precision of that celestial clock had been verified by the Time Immortal himself, guaranteed to never lose a single beat.