Deep within the earth’s core, a terrifying pulling force acted on Zhang Ruochen, as if thousands of silken ropes were binding him. His descent accelerated uncontrollably.
His vision vanished, unable to see anything.
No sound could be heard.
Zhang Ruochen could only feel an intense weightlessness, like a mortal plummeting off a cliff in the dark of night.
“Sizzle!”
The Pure Extinguishing Divine Fire surged from his palm, emitting a dazzling white divine glow, illuminating a patch of the darkness.
As he fell, Zhang Ruochen scanned his surroundings. The scene before him was not a dark chasm but a vast, boundless expanse filled with vibrant colours, yet endlessly stretching.
“Has space been stretched and distorted, becoming infinitely vast? Or has my body been compressed by space into something infinitesimally small?”
Zhang Ruochen sensed that the rules of heaven and earth, especially spatial rules, were entirely different from the outside world.
The Great Asura Emperor’s body, pierced by the Ghost-Head Whip, was still alive.
The ghost patterns on the whip glowed faintly, gradually eroding his soul, rendering him unconscious.
Higher above, Prajna’s graceful figure, wrapped in the Nether River, caught up with Zhang Ruochen. Her form blended seamlessly with the surroundings, serene and beautiful.
…
Behind the statue of the God of Fortune and Prosperity, the Gate of Destiny turned pitch black, no longer displaying any images.
“The interior of the Dark Star is filled with the rules of darkness, time, and space, all pushed to their extremes. Even fate struggles to divine what happens inside,” the statue declared.
“Struggles to divine” did not mean impossible.
The Temple of Fate was too far from the Hunting Heaven Battlefield, making divine observation difficult for gods. Combined with the Dark Star’s influence, the God of Fortune and Prosperity’s ability to project images from its surface was already remarkable.
If the distance were closer, it would be a different matter.
This was the effect of space on the power of fate!
The farther away, the harder it was for fate’s power to reach.
“Divine Lord, the Dark Star’s structure is robust. How could a chasm leading to its core appear? Such a chasm couldn’t have formed naturally, could it?” The Blood Queen’s divine shadow appeared in the temple, asking.
The God of Fortune and Prosperity replied, “For cultivators below the divine realm, the Dark Star is dangerous but a treasure ground for harsh cultivation. It can temper oneself, break bottlenecks, and achieve great breakthroughs.”
“However, the Dark Star’s forces are full of uncertainties. Even with ample preparation and resources, most who enter its interior meet their end, their paths extinguished.”
“The Hunting Heaven War is not just a game of hunting celestial slaves or a clash between the ten clans. The battlefield offers countless opportunities for the most outstanding talents of the Infernal Realm, hoping they can grow rapidly through them.”
“The clan stars hold great opportunities, and the Dark Star holds infinite possibilities.”
“Of course, opportunities come with dangers. Whether one lives or dies, remains a dragon trapped in shallow waters or soars as a phoenix, depends on their fate.”
“Those with strong destinies may survive. Otherwise, they perish.”
“Those with great fortune can break barriers and defy odds. Otherwise, they fall.”
“Beyond fate, a cultivator’s will and choices are sometimes even more crucial.”
“Three thousand years ago, a Stone Clan great saint named Blue Marrow True Lord, seeking to overcome a life-or-death tribulation and break into the Supreme Realm, came to the Third Dark Star. He spent two hundred years carving a path to the star’s interior, the dark chasm you now see.”
“Sadly, three thousand years have passed, and he has not emerged.”
If a great saint in the Life-or-Death Realm couldn’t escape the Dark Star’s interior, how much more perilous would it be for Zhang Ruochen, who had only just entered the Hundred-Shackle Realm?
What kept the Blood Queen from despair was that Zhang Ruochen, as a master of space and time, might have a sliver of hope.
The Ghost Lord’s laughter echoed in the Temple of Fate. “I must say, Xue Jue, your grandson is truly remarkable. Though his Yin-Yang Five Elements holy intent is flawed, he managed to severely injure Wujiang, forging a unique path of his own. If he doesn’t die, his future achievements will be limitless. Such a pity, such a pity.”
The gods present could tell the Ghost Lord was gloating.
Xue Jue War God remained silent, not wasting words on the Ghost Lord.
During the Hunting Heaven War, entering the Third Dark Star to rescue anyone was indeed impossible.
But the war would last only a hundred days. Once it ended, there would be time to bring Zhang Ruochen back.
The greatest fear was that the time flow inside the Dark Star was too fast, and Zhang Ruochen might age to death before the war concluded.
Tian Yin and Luo Yan stood in the divine realm, lost in thought.
After a long pause, Luo Yan said, “Zhang Ruochen is indeed a rare talent of this epoch. In his battle with Wujiang, he displayed not only a powerful and unique second-grade holy intent but also extraordinary will. With such will, his path to divinity, though fraught with obstacles, should be surmountable.”
“If he can emerge alive from the Dark Star’s interior, Wujiang will no longer be his match.”
Tian Yin seemed full of confidence in Zhang Ruochen, highly optimistic, her tone free of rejection or hostility, carrying instead a sense of anticipation and hope.
…
Inside the Dark Star.
Zhang Ruochen and Prajna drew closer, their gazes locked.
Their eyes held neither affection nor hostility, yet were complex, filled with something even gods could not decipher.
“Why did you come down here?” Zhang Ruochen transmitted with his spiritual power.
Prajna replied, “The interior of the Dark Star is more mysterious than a divine corpse. Even a divine lord cannot probe what happens inside. I came to tell you that your condition is dire.”
“I don’t need you to tell me. I know my condition Dolores well,” Zhang Ruochen said.
Prajna continued, “Your ancestral bloodline has awakened. The innate consciousness of the Immortal Blood Clan will grow stronger.”
“Like the urge to drink blood.”
“You resist this urge, fighting the ancestral bloodline’s consciousness with your will. This is dangerous. You could lose yourself or suffer a mental collapse. I can help you.”
Zhang Ruochen stared at her for a long moment. “I’ve been through too many ups and downs, and my will isn’t that fragile. This isn’t a place for you. Go back up.”
A flicker of confusion and bitterness passed through Prajna’s eyes. She sighed, “I’m already here. Do you think it’s so easy to go back up?”
Zhang Ruochen said no more, closing his eyes and focusing his spiritual power to suppress the bloodthirsty urge, treating it as a test of his will.
If he couldn’t resist the ancestral bloodline’s consciousness and gave in, he would never surpass his ancestor.
After an unknown time, the pulling force on their bodies faded. Zhang Ruochen, Prajna, and the Great Asura Emperor stopped falling, their bodies suspended in the void.
“How is this possible? The pulling force is gone?” Zhang Ruochen said with a hint of doubt.
Prajna replied, “We must have reached the centre of the Dark Star. Cherish this moment of calm. I believe danger will come soon.”
“It’s indeed calm. This place feels like the only peaceful spot in this world.” Zhang Ruochen felt no fear or unease, instead savouring the sensation.
The bloodthirsty urge slowly faded.
Prajna looked at him. “This is an escapist mindset. You should know that wherever there are people, there will be conflict. We must face and fight, not chase fleeting peace.”
Zhang Ruochen didn’t want to argue and remained silent.
They had once been close, sharing moments of mutual affection, but their differing philosophies drove them apart. Reflecting later, Zhang Ruochen realised there was no right or wrong between them.
It was simply a matter of different choices.
Back then, they were too weak, only able to choose without the power to shape outcomes.
Their options were limited: left or right. Left was death, right was death, just in different ways.
“To defeat Wujiang, or even Lanying and Que, you must find dark spacetime matter. Since we’re at the centre of the Dark Star, it shouldn’t be far,” Prajna said.
Zhang Ruochen set aside his thoughts, releasing his spiritual power and spatial domain to probe the surroundings.
“Huh? That’s…”
Zhang Ruochen’s expression shifted as he looked in a certain direction.
Here, his spiritual power was heavily suppressed.
But his spatial perception was extraordinarily sharp, detecting strange matter in this vast, boundless world.
Tossing the Great Asura Emperor into the Purple-Gold Gourd, Zhang Ruochen spread his ten wings and flew toward it.
In this place, time and space seemed absent. Zhang Ruochen didn’t know how long or far he flew until he reached a ten-metre-high, sapphire-blue stone.
The stone’s surface was smooth and translucent, exuding an ancient aura.
Inside, there were wisps of thread-like matter.
Some resembled human hair, others arms or eyeballs, all twisted and deformed, looking terrifying.
Prajna flew nearby, her expression darkening at the sight of the massive sapphire stone.
“This isn’t dark spacetime matter, is it?”
Zhang Ruochen approached the stone, placing a hand on it. Instantly, an icy, piercing chill struck him. His hand stuck to the stone, unable to pull free.
He quickly mobilised spatial rules, unleashing a spatial shockwave from his palm to break free.
Prajna said, “It’s not dark spacetime matter. It’s a Blue Marrow Star.”
“Blue Marrow Star?”
Zhang Ruochen knew blue marrow was a rare material for crafting king-grade holy artefacts. But how could a mere crafting material exert such a powerful force to hold him?
And how could a piece this size be called a Blue Marrow Star?
Prajna explained, “It is indeed a Blue Marrow Star, originally over ten thousand miles long, and it developed sentience, embarking on cultivation to reach the Life-or-Death Realm of the great saint level in the Stone Clan, titled Blue Marrow True Lord. But three thousand years ago, Blue Marrow True Lord vanished in the Infernal Realm. He died here.”
“But this stone exudes an aura far older than three thousand years, perhaps millions of years. Unless…”
Zhang Ruochen’s face changed as a possibility dawned on him.
Three thousand years outside could equate to three hundred thousand or three million years here…
What was the time dilation?
He immediately summoned his temporal holy form, mobilising time rules to calculate carefully.
“No, no, why is the time flow like this?” Zhang Ruochen was incredulous.
He discovered that time here flowed extremely slowly. A thousand years here might be only a year outside.
If so, the Dark Star’s interior was an ideal cultivation ground. With enough divine stones, pills, and meditation diagrams, one’s cultivation could advance rapidly, surpassing even the Sundial.
But this made no sense.
If it were that simple, the gods of the Infernal Realm would have long used the Dark Star to train their young.
“There must be a significant spatial issue. If this is Blue Marrow True Lord, originally ten thousand miles long, now reduced to ten metres, it must have been subjected to immense spatial compression. Even a Life-or-Death Realm great saint couldn’t withstand it, crushed into a stone.”
To test his theory, Zhang Ruochen lashed the Ghost-Head Whip around the sapphire stone seven times.
“Rise!”
Even with all his strength, Zhang Ruochen couldn’t budge the stone. He estimated its weight to be thousands of times heavier than an ordinary planet.
It was likely once a true Blue Marrow Star.
Prajna said, “This place is dangerous. We must leave immediately. If we’re caught in spatial compression, we could be reduced to dust. A Life-or-Death Realm great saint couldn’t resist it, and neither can we.”
“Too late!”
Zhang Ruochen’s gaze fixed downward.
A dense wave of spatial rules, forming a tidal storm, surged upward in vibrant colours.
“Into the gourd.”
Zhang Ruochen flew into the Purple-Gold Gourd, with Prajna close behind.
The colourful spatial rule tidal storm engulfed the gourd, instantly compressing the foot-tall gourd.
It shrank to the size of a fist, then a mung bean…
Finally, it became a speck of shimmering purple-gold dust.
Inside the gourd, Zhang Ruochen landed on the Sun of Destruction, fully channelling his holy energy to activate the supreme inscriptions.
Looking up, he saw the gourd’s star-sized inner space compressing, the sky lowering, the world narrowing.
“What should I do?” Prajna asked.
“Do nothing. This isn’t your concern.”
Suddenly, Zhang Ruochen pointed to the purple ice stone orbiting the Sun of Destruction. “Activate the power of the Cosmic Ice Stone.”
Prajna landed on the Cosmic Ice Stone, sitting cross-legged. The Nether River around her surged down, enveloping the purple stone.
The gourd’s inner space continued to shrink.
Even the Sun of Destruction and Cosmic Ice Stone were compressed, reduced over tenfold.
Zhang Ruochen and Prajna felt immense pressure, their lives threatened, potentially following Blue Marrow True Lord’s fate.
“Swoosh—”
As supreme inscriptions and beams of golden and purple light shot upward, supporting the inner space, they gradually resisted the spatial compression from all directions.
The gourd’s inner space stabilised at about fifty metres in diameter.
Very confined.
Both Zhang Ruochen and Prajna breathed a sigh of relief, glancing at each other involuntarily. When their eyes met, time seemed to freeze.
Zhang Ruochen looked away first, his expression cold. “Spatial forces aren’t the worst. The gourd can withstand them. But if time and darkness erupt, they could consume us.”
The confined gourd space fell silent.
After a while, Zhang Ruochen spoke again. “There’s something I’ve always wanted to ask you.”
“You want to know what I saw in the Pool of Destiny? You wanted to ask last time at Hanhai Manor, didn’t you?”
Prajna’s gaze was wistful and dim. She closed her eyes with a bitter smile. “You should know that for someone like me in the Infernal Realm, even memories are a weakness. I’ve erased many of them myself. I remember you because I couldn’t erase you.”
“Perhaps you’re asking the wrong person.”
“You’re no longer the Ninth Prince of Yunwu Commandery, and I’m no longer the princess of Qianshui Commandery. In truth, Princess Yanchen loved the Ninth Prince, not the Crown Prince of Saint Clarity, nor the scion of the Xue Jue Clan. The Crown Prince brought her only pain, sending her to Chi Yao’s side. He transferred their grievances onto her. Perhaps he didn’t mean to hurt her, but the outcome was unchanged.”
“The past is gone, the waters remain cold.”
“Let the past go. You don’t want to remember, and I don’t want to recall. You weren’t wrong, and I don’t think I was either. It’s about willingness and choice, not right or wrong. That no longer matters!”
