A World Worth Protecting

The Dark Sampan was still burning its vitality, pushing Wang Baole forward as it sped through space, thundering. When it reappeared again, Wang Baole was atop Ceres!

The gray planet lay beneath Wang Baole’s feet. He could feel it trying to fuse with his Dark Sampan. Wang Baole stood stock still on the planet, then turned suddenly, his eyes bright with an intense light. He stopped holding back the cultivation inside his body and unleashed it. His Nascent Soul unfurled and allowed its power to erupt!

This explosion of power was fueled by Ceres and Jupiter, as well as… the hundreds of thousands of smaller planets in the region!

It was a power… that could move planets!

The Stellar Nascent Soul’s unique trait allowed its owner to grow ever more powerful the nearer he was to a planet. The size of the planet directly affected how much more powerful the Stellar Nascent Soul holder would become.

The same… applied to the number of planets in the Stellar Nascent Soul holder’s vicinity. An individual small planet might not provide a significant boost to the Stellar Nascent Soul holder’s power, but when amassed in the hundreds of thousands, the combined boost in power they gave one would be incredible.

Ceres itself was a source of power that boosted Wang Baole’s cultivation, while another was the largest planet in the Solar System… Jupiter!

The power free for Wang Baole’s taking was incredible. This was the greatest leap in cultivation that Wang Baole had experienced since he had acquired the Stellar Nascent Soul!

This location… was second only to the mysterious Pluto. For Wang Baole, it was the second-best battlefield he could find in the entire Solar System!

His cultivation surged outwards, forming a fierce hurricane in space. Countless wisps of white Qi drifted from Ceres, from Jupiter, and from the countless minor planets around Wang Baole. It was as if they were being pulled towards Wang Baole. They surrounded him, transforming the hurricane into a pure snow white. Wang Baole stood in the center of the storm, like a child of the cosmos, a god who had descended upon the living world!

The power he was exuding surpassed that of a Soul Conduit realm cultivator, reaching the level of a Spirit Immortal realm cultivator. In fact, he might even be more powerful than the latter. He had reached an unbelievable level of cultivation. At that moment, he finally felt the connection between him and Pluto settle with great difficulty!

He could feel… the vast frozen Plutonian land, temperatures so low almost no living thing could survive, then buried underground, something… it was a coffin!

Shock rippled through Wang Baole. He tried nudging the coffin through the connection he had with Pluto, but he failed. He needed more power. He wasn’t going to succeed in one shot, he’d have to accumulate more power before trying again.

I need more time! A fierce light glimmered in Wang Baole’s eyes. He didn’t stop his attempts at awakening the coffin as he raised his right hand and pointed towards the approaching Daoist You Ran. The latter’s face was colored with alarm!

“You Ran, let’s fight!”

Wang Baole’s roar was filled with his desire to battle. It affected Ceres, Jupiter, and the hundreds of thousands of minor planets around him. It was as if the entire star-filled cosmos was roaring with him!

Wang Baole swung his arms to his sides, and the Thearch Armor materialized over him instantly, covering him from head to toe. It looked different. The armor was white, looking one with the hurricane!

The Dark Robe, tattered and torn, became a cape for the armor, fluttering in the still air. The demonic eye also appeared behind Wang Baole!

The boost from the planets had transformed not only the Thearch Armor but the demonic eye as well. It remained shut, but it appeared so very real, like an actual eye of a planet that was in slumber!

It was an alarming sight even for one as powerful as Daoist You Ran. He stumbled to a halt, then stared warily at Wang Baole. He could feel a rising sense of danger.

Their eyes met, and Wang Baole’s demonic eye opened abruptly. An invisible force descended upon the cosmos, drawing upon the power of the surrounding planets and transforming it into something tangible—a light with the power to freeze everything in its tracks, which fell over Daoist You Ran and enveloped him entirely.

Daoist You Ran shuddered. Before he could even try to free himself, Wang Baole dashed forward, like an arrow off a bow. He gathered the power of the stars in his right fist and activated his Stellar Nascent Soul. The Divine Armament right hand of his Thearch Armor dazzled with the light of a fierce sun as he charged at Daoist You Ran!

The collision of the two caused a loud eruption that reverberated in the cosmos. Daoist You Ran spat out his first mouthful of blood in this fight. It was proof of how powerful he had become since he had fused with the Never-Ending Clan Death Dao Battleship. He had faced a sudden attack from Wang Baole, one that had behind it a boost of power from the planets as well as from Wang Baole’s demonic eye. Despite that, the injury he suffered was hardly serious. In fact, it healed instantly. It was as if the core powering him possessed vast stores of vitality that gave him a near-invincible body!

His counterattack was swift and fierce. Numerous black vines danced in the air as he unleashed a series of spells with a flurry of hand seals. His physical body became his weapon that he unleashed alongside the vines and his spells. Spirit energy rippled through space as he clashed with Wang Baole in the asteroid belt.

Daoist You Ran healed fast, but so did Wang Baole. His recovery rate was faster than the ordinary cultivator at the same cultivation realm. With the incredible boost of power he currently enjoyed, his injuries were healing immediately, at the same rate as Daoist You Ran’s.

They were pitting their powerfully built forms against each other in a brutal fight. Neither held back. Each clash gave both of them a fresh set of injuries. They persisted… but neither could bring the other down!

Wang Baole might have suffered a slight disadvantage, seeing how he hadn’t been Daoist You Ran’s match at the start of the fight and was now being pushed into a defensive position. But… Daoist You Ran was also caught in a fix. He just couldn’t seem to defeat Wang Baole.

Things had spiraled out of Daoist You Ran’s control. They were now caught in a prolonged battle. Daoist You Ran tried to destroy the smaller planets around him, but he still wasn’t able to completely destroy Wang Baole’s source of power within a short period of time.

As time passed, anxiety and unease grew in Daoist You Ran’s heart. He couldn’t explain where these feelings were coming from, it was an instinct. He had a feeling that if the battle continued to drag on, he was going to lose and be killed.

Is this the legendary Stellar Nascent Soul… this doesn’t make sense at all! Why do I feel so much unease? There must be something that I’m missing!

Zi Yue felt the same sense of uneasiness. In fact, the unease that Daoist You Ran had been feeling had originated from her. She was a cultivator of the Star-Seeding Dao and could control the karmic cycle. That meant that her uneasiness and sense of looming danger was even more intense than Daoist You Ran’s. It felt like a grim reaper’s scythe hovering over her neck, ready to fall at any moment.

Nevertheless, she couldn’t step in directly and attack Wang Baole. She could only grit her teeth and struggle with the sudden desire to change her preset plans. The idea grew roots in her head, and her mind was made up immediately. She was going to complete the final steps to advance her Star-Seeding Dao in the fastest way possible, reap her gains in Dao, and advance her cultivation. Then, she would decide whether she would remain or leave!

It was a difficult decision to come to, as she would be forced to give up many things. Her plans for the future were going to be disrupted as well. But the threat that she was feeling forced her to this. Zi Yue immediately barked out her orders to Daoist You Ran, her instructions resonating in his head!

“Give up fighting Wang Baole. Use your essence as fuel and convert it to power. I will give you an additional boost so that you will possess enough power to destroy the Federation, open the gates to the karmic cycle, and complete your destiny! You Ran, since the moment you met me, your destiny was determined. You are meant to destroy this civilization. This is… the destiny that I, Zi Yue, have given you!”

As she spoke, a vast region of the cosmos began to twist and contort itself. No one knew how she managed to accomplish that feat, but a black hole-like vortex appeared suddenly in the cosmos!

There was a patch of sky in the vortex, as well as a blue marble of a planet. It was… Earth!

The black hole was like a door that opened to another place in the universe!

The sight sent Wang Baole reeling back with shock!

Daoist You Ran’s eyes began to shimmer with an intense light. He started muttering to himself.

“I will follow my destiny and destroy this civilization. This is my destiny… I must get this done!” His murmurs rippled through space. His physical form, his core, his spirit, and his cultivation became fuel, which he set afire without hesitation. Before Wang Baole could come to terms with what Daoist You Ran had just said, the latter had transformed his enormous form into a sea of fire!

Daoist You Ran raised his face skyward and howled madly. He was burning in the sea of fire. An enormous, illusory hand reached out from the flames. It stretched from thousands of feet to tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands, then millions of feet long. It grew to the size of a planet and then charged into the vortex, heading straight for Earth… making a grab for the latter!

The sudden turn of events happened too quickly. In the vortex, Earth began to lose its color. The planet was being drained of its life—the planet where he had spent his childhood, where his parents were, where everything he cared about was!

Wang Baole’s eyes reddened. The sudden, overwhelming surge of emotions forced his potential to be fully unleashed. The seal of the Dark Fire appeared on his forehead, then spread rapidly to the rest of his body. It was accompanied by a throbbing pain. Wang Baole howled, his face contorting in agony. The connection he had with Pluto suddenly settled fully!

The vastness of time, ancient and ageless, leaped across the cosmos and surged into Wang Baole’s mind. He could feel the coffin and what it held within. It was the power of the Dark Sect, unimaginably strong yet free for his taking. It was tinged with a familiar warmth!

It was a warmth like rain in the springtime, warmth that nourished his spirit. It freed him from the pain and possible dangers of overexerting himself as he unleashed his full potential. It gave Wang Baole the energy to raise his right hand and point at Daoist You Ran’s hand, which was headed straight for Earth!

“Soul, come!”

In an instant, Pluto began to shake. Its frozen lands collapsed, and huge crevices splintered the earth. Waves of terrifying energy surged from these crevices. They had been hidden underground for thousands of years, perhaps even longer, and now, they rose to the skies!