Chapter 614: 613. Chapter 608: The Place of Divine Star Ascension

613. Chapter 608: The Place of Divine Star Ascension

On the Cosmic Cauldron, Song Chengdao's divine sense swept across countless Shen clan cultivators collapsing without cause, and his scalp prickled with dread.

He wondered: what if Ding Huan were a member of the Shen clan?

It was better not to think about it—but once he did, the thought of a powerful being like Ding Huan, not human but Shen, filled him with unease.

If he unleashed such terrifying divine arts upon the human race, would humanity one day be wiped out?

"Ding Huan, could your divine art be copied and spread?" Song Chengdao could no longer bear not asking.

Ding Huan immediately understood Song Chengdao's concern; after a moment of silence, he said: "The chance of a second person mastering it is extremely low."

Ding Huan said "extremely low" rather than "impossible" because one person had the potential to create this Gene Annihilation Law.

That person was the Scroll Master.

But even that chance was slim.

The Scroll Master's understanding of genes was unquestionably the strongest Ding Huan had ever seen; over half the gene-related knowledge in this Gene Annihilation Law came from the Scroll.

The rest came from Ding Huan's own two-lifetime accumulation.

Yet mastering the Gene Annihilation Law required only one-fifth of that gene comprehension.

The most crucial element was the Great Cosmic Art.

The Great Cosmic Art was not born from Ding Huan's intelligence, but from an extremely rare moment of inspiration—he created it before even reaching Foundation Establishment.

Moreover, the true Great Cosmic Art Ding Huan created was suited only to Ding Huan himself.

To cultivate the true Great Cosmic Art, one must also create it before reaching Foundation Establishment.

That is equally rare: you must be unestablished, and you must find a place like the Sword Burial Mountain, where a cosmic vortex exists.

Ding Huan estimated that, aside from the Scroll Master, no third person in this world had any chance.

If the Scroll Master possessed Shit Beetle, he would have severed his own opportunity.

Another critical factor was the Great Gene Art among the Three Thousand Great Dao.

As long as he kept the Great Gene Art to himself, no one else could create the Great Cosmic Art.

The Great Gene Art is not a human-made Dao technique—it is a primordial Dao formed naturally after Creation.

If Seeing Ji Luo insisted, he would trade something else for it.

If not, he would tear off the Great Gene Art.

With so many coincidences aligning, only he had created the Gene Annihilation Law—who else could?

"That's good." Song Chengdao exhaled in relief.

He didn't need to warn Ding Huan—he trusted Ding Huan understood how terrifying this art was, and wouldn't casually teach it.

Divine Star was blanketed in dense vegetation, with immortal herbs scattered everywhere.

The celestial qi was even denser than on the Chaos Star Continent, and most importantly, its life force surged with vigor.

"I never imagined Divine Star could be this thriving. If we hadn't come today, in time, this entire universe would belong to the Shen clan."

Zhuo Yao was equally awestruck.

"Master Zhuo, I must thank you—if you hadn't brought Ding Huan to the Chaos Star Continent, I, Song Chengdao, would one day be listed among humanity's disgraces."

Song Chengdao, too, was moved.

Zhuo Yao smiled but said nothing.

He saw no fault in Song Chengdao's words.

Years later, if humans here were slaughtered to extinction and the Chaos Star Continent became the Shen clan's private garden, Song Chengdao, as the First Star Lord of the Chaos Star Continent, would bear undeniable responsibility.

"This must be where the Shen clan's celestial qi veins converge," Seeing Seeing Yan Qi couldn't help saying as the Cosmic Cauldron passed over a vast, ancient structure spanning a hundred li.

Not just him—Song Chengdao and Zhuo Yao had also noticed how densely condensed the celestial qi was here.

Ding Huan nodded: "Correct. This is a celestial qi reservoir deliberately built by the Shen clan. Beneath it lie at least a thousand top-grade immortal veins and tens of thousands of superior-grade immortal veins."

It seems the Shen clan has grand ambitions for Divine Star's future.

Planting so many immortal veins clearly aims to rapidly cultivate Shen clan elites.

"Should we extract them?" Zhuo Yao looked at Ding Huan.

Ding Huan shook his head: "No need. This place will soon be taken over by the Chaos Star Continent. Let these immortal veins remain—let the human cultivators benefit too."

For Ding Huan, the immortal veins in his ring were more than enough; digging up more would only gather dust in his ring—utterly unnecessary.

Resources: once you have enough, there's no need to hoard more.

Better to leave them for those who truly need them than to pile them in a corner to rot.

One day later, the Cosmic Cauldron halted.

"Ding Huan, is this the Shen clan's ascension passage?" Zhuo Yao asked, glancing at the unremarkable spot—barely different from elsewhere.

Song Chengdao also stared at Ding Huan in confusion—he saw nothing to indicate an ascension passage.

The surroundings were utterly ordinary, save for a few Spirit Gathering Immortal Trees.

"You can't perceive it because there are several divine arrays here. Let me break them."

As Ding Huan spoke, he pulled out several array flags.

He had few divine array flags—all taken from Seeing Ji Luo.

Breaking this array was more than enough.

Ding Huan continuously tossed down the flags, and soon a faint array gate appeared before them.

Ding Huan summoned his longsword and slashed it down upon the gate.

With a thunderous boom, the great array split open under his blade and collapsed completely.

Before them appeared a new world.

Ding Huan exhaled in relief—his intuition had been correct; this was indeed the Shen clan's ascension site within Divine Star.

As soon as he entered the Divine Star, he could clearly sense the distribution of the entire star's heavenly and earthly laws.

Following his feelings and guesses, he indeed discovered a divine array here; after breaking it, Ding Huan knew his intuition had been correct.

"Ding Huan, you can break through a divine array?" Song Chengdao looked at Ding Huan, skeptical that he might also be a cultivator from the Divine Realm.

"I happened to learn a few things by chance."

Ding Huan did not elaborate on Song Chengdao's question, but fixed his gaze on the ascension point before him.

Unlike the ascension altar in Yue Xing Tian, this was an ancient tree root.

The tree root spanned several thousand zhang in diameter; its outer roots intertwined, and between them seemed to flow a faint, elusive Dao rhythm connecting them.

Even Song Chengdao, with his vast experience, had never seen a tree root this large.

Around the tree root, thick heavenly and earthly qi permeated the air.

Above the tree root, the void was covered in layers of Dao rhythm patterns; when a divine sense touched them, it induced dizziness.

"Is this tree root the ascension platform?" Song Chengdao exclaimed in astonishment.

Ding Huan said: "It must be. If you wish to ascend, stand at the center of this tree root and activate the ascension divine array—you'll have a chance to be swept into the Divine Realm."

Song Chengdao drew in a sharp breath, and after a long pause, said: "I was truly naive."

Ding Huan understood what Song Chengdao meant.

Even if Song Chengdao and Wu Hanchan had truly arrived here, the first obstacle would be opening the divine array protecting the ascension tree root.

Even if they managed to open the divine array and reached the center of the tree root, they still could not activate the ascension divine array.

Even if, by some miracle, they activated the ascension divine array, they would almost certainly ascend into the Divine Realm as members of the Divine Clan.

"What do we do next?" Song Chengdao looked at Ding Huan.

He now trusted Ding Huan unconditionally.

Ding Huan gazed at the void patterns above the massive tree root and spoke slowly:

"There is an ascension divine array here. Its level is not low, but I estimate it still hasn't reached the fourth-grade divine array tier.

The first thing we must do now is destroy this ascension divine array."

Ding Huan suspected that if he disturbed the tree root without destroying this array, the Divine Clan in the Divine Realm might detect him—this would be a major problem.

Once this divine array is destroyed,

the Divine Clan won't even be able to locate the exact position of the Divine Star, let alone have any chance to descend again from the Divine Realm into the Immortal Domain universe.

"Can we manage it?" Zhuo Yao faintly felt they couldn't break through.

"We certainly can't. Song Chengdao, go summon ten thousand cultivator soldiers."

Ding Huan knew his limits—him and his companions alone could never dismantle this divine array.

If he weren't here, even ten thousand cultivator soldiers couldn't do it.

But with him here, he can guide everyone to strike the array's gate positions.

"Don't worry, I'll get them." Song Chengdao immediately left.

Ding Huan began setting up array flags.

He had not disturbed the qi veins of the Divine Star before, but here, he must extract the immortal spirit veins—without extracting them, the divine array could not be destroyed.

On the eighth day, Wu Hanchan emerged from the Cosmic Cauldron.

With the Mist Jade Immortal Fruit as a treasure, his injuries vanished completely, and his physical body strengthened by one level.

Several more days passed; after Ding Huan extracted all the supreme-grade immortal spirit veins here, Song Chengdao arrived with the ten thousand cultivator soldiers in haste.

At this moment, not only Song Chengdao, but all the cultivator armies of the Chaos Star Continent revered Ding Huan, the outsider, down to their bones.

They had come here to fight a great battle against the Divine Clan cultivators.

But when they arrived, they found only the corpses of Divine Clan cultivators.

Not to mention a battle—finding even a single living Divine Clan cultivator was nearly impossible.

"Brother Ding Huan, everyone's here." As soon as Song Chengdao arrived, he knew all the immortal spirit veins had been extracted.

Ding Huan arranged everyone to stand according to the layers of the void, then said: "All of you, attack with full force following my array flags."

Everyone—including Song Chengdao, Wu Hanchan, Zhuo Yao, and Seeing Seeing Yan Qi—summoned their artifacts.

When Ding Huan planted his first array flag at a certain point in the void, ten thousand artifacts simultaneously slammed into that spot.

Countless black holes appeared across the void; the sound of collapsing space was clearly audible to all.

Then Ding Huan's second flag fell, followed by the third, the fourth…

Each time Ding Huan planted a flag, ten thousand artifacts struck the exact same spot.

In less than half a stick of incense, something in the void seemed to shatter—the entire sky returned to normal, the faint Dao rhythm aura gone entirely.