Chapter 1109: Wilderness

The spatial turbulence was like billions of cold rasps, crazily tearing Han Wuxian's body. The chaotic thunder‑patterned star armor was already riddled with cracks, dim and lightless; each impact of the turbulence made the fissures spread, emitting a moan on the verge of shattering. The agony was like maggots in the ankle bones, drilling from limbs and flesh into the marrow, gnawing the soul. Forcibly opening the star gate and hard‑hitting the Nine Abyss's will back‑fired, almost reducing the newly ascended Hua Shen back to his original form. The star spirit in his dantian's star domain was listless, the seven star‑key halos dim as a dying candle in the wind, star‑core fragments and star‑heart fragments barely kept the sea of consciousness from dispersing, yet could not provide further protection.

His consciousness floated amid the cold void and tearing pain, the broken sword "Shattered Star" clenched tightly in his hand, becoming his only anchor. Lin Xiaoshi's final panicked shout had long been swallowed by the turbulence; beneath the star dome now, he walked alone.

He did not know how long he drifted in the desperate turbulence, but ahead in the void, a faint glimmer abruptly appeared—a rapidly expanding world bubble radiating intense vitality!

No choice, only descent.

Boom!!!

Like a meteor striking the ground! Han Wuxian's body slammed through the canopy of the primeval forest, branches and leaves shattering, thick vines ripped apart, and finally crashed heavily into a massive lake! The cold, murky lake water instantly engulfed him, the tremendous impact jolted his internal organs, and another gush of scalding, star‑lit reverse blood spurted out, staining the surrounding water red.

The lake water buffered part of the impact, but also brought suffocation. His grievously wounded body was as heavy as iron, sinking toward the dim lake bottom. His consciousness wavered between the icy water and the piercing agony, on the brink of collapse.

"Can't… die here…" a vague yet stubborn thought ignited in his fading consciousness. The inheritance of Star Extension, the threat of the Nine Abyss, the star‑gate coordinates etched in his soul… everything was not yet over!

The instinct to survive overpowered the agony. The life‑preserving method of "Turtle‑Breath Star Hibernation" from the *True Explanation of the Celestial Stars* was instinctively triggered. The shattered star armor on his body forced itself to contract the last trace of light; his heartbeat, breathing, even vital signs dropped to an almost stagnant freezing point. He became like a stubborn stone wrapped in faint starlight, silently sinking toward the lake bottom covered in humic sludge.

Time passed in the lake‑bottom's dead silence. He did not know how long—perhaps a few hours, perhaps several days.

Han Wuxian's five senses slowly revived within the Turtle‑Breath. The first thing he sensed was the extremely faint star‑energy fluctuation lingering in the water, originating from the fresh blood he had spat out. Then, deep in the lake‑bottom sludge, a subtle yet unusually pure star dust carrying the weight of the earth and the Silence Extinction aura of the stars.

These star dust particles were exceedingly tiny, mixed in the sludge; had it not been for his heightened star‑energy perception in the Turtle‑Breath state, he could not have detected them at all. They were like forgotten stellar relics, silently sedimented for eons, containing the most primitive, gentlest stellar essence.

In the Turtle‑Breath state, the *Celestial Star Body Refinement Technique* operated in an extremely slow, almost instinctual manner. Like a dying traveler in a desert sipping dew, his broken body greedily captured the thin star‑energy in the water, and also guided the minute star‑dust particles in the lake‑bottom sludge, threading them strand by strand into his skin, merging them into his dried, depleted meridians.

The process was excruciatingly slow, and the recovery was minuscule, yet it was like a candle in darkness, steadfastly sustaining his undying flame of life. The fractured bones, nourished by the star‑dust particles, began to slowly mend; the torn organs, soaked by the gentle stellar essence, felt the pain ease slightly; most crucially, in the sea of consciousness, the star‑core fragments and star‑heart fragments, warmed by this primordial star dust, emitted a faint yet persistent coolness, protecting his soul on the brink of collapse.

Just as Han Wuxian was immersed in the Turtle‑Breath healing state, a rustling and deliberately hushed, primal‑rhythmed chatter came from the dense forest along the lake shore. Several figures clad in beast skins, their faces painted with colorful mud, wielding hand‑carved stone spears and bone blades, appeared at the bank like ghosts.

They were tall and burly, muscles knotted, their exposed skin covered with mysterious totem tattoos, eyes sharp as hawks, full of reverence for nature and hunter's vigilance. Leading them was a hulking man whose face bore a ferocious beast tattoo; he crouched, rough fingers picking up several leaves that had been broken off by Han Wuxian's fall and were floating on the water's surface. On the leaves, a few droplets of dark‑golden blood, still not fully diluted by the lake, glimmered with faint starlight!

The beast‑tattooed man's pupils suddenly contracted! He thrust the blood‑stained leaf to his nose, inhaled deeply, and his face instantly displayed a mixture of utter shock and fervent awe! He snapped his head toward the deep lake, emitting a few rapid, strange syllables from his throat. The surrounding hunters, hearing this, all showed horrified expressions, knelt on the ground, and made a bow toward the lake.

The beast‑tattooed man carefully wrapped those blood‑stained leaves in a clean piece of beast skin, as if cradling the world's most sacred relic. He cast another deep glance at the dead lake, then gestured, leading the hunters to silently retreat back into the dense forest as they had come, leaving only trampled grass on the shore as proof of their presence.

At the lake bottom, the Turtle‑Breath Han Wuxian remained oblivious. All his mind and spirit were immersed in resonating with the star dust and battling his injuries. Time continued to pass.

Day Seven. In the lake‑bottom sludge, the star‑radiance on Han Wuxian's surface had solidified slightly compared to before. The primordial star‑dust particles that seeped into his body, guided by the Turtle‑Breath method, flowed and settled slowly in his broken meridians like the tiniest stars. The finest cracks on the chaotic thunder‑patterned star armor showed a barely perceptible hint of sealing as the star dust filled them.

Day Twenty‑One. Within his dantian's star domain, the listless star spirit finally ceased to be dim; though still weak, the tightly closed eyes seemed to tremble. A faint yet pure primordial star‑energy streamed from the tips of the spirit, actively guiding external star‑energy and star‑dust particles, and the repair speed quietly accelerated. The broken sword "Shattered Star" sunk in the sludge, and the dim star‑gem at its hilt seemed to flicker ever so slightly.

Day Forty‑Nine. At the lake bottom, Han Wuxian's tightly shut eyes snapped open! Deep within his pupils, the star‑light that had endured trials reignited, no longer as brilliant as in its prime but more condensed and profound! The Turtle‑Breath state ended!

A slight shift of his thoughts caused the surrounding sludge to be pushed aside by an invisible force. Though his body remained heavy and the agony persisted, he was no longer on the brink of death. The powerful regenerative ability of a Hua Shen cultivator, under the combined effect of the primordial star dust and the Turtle‑Breath method, finally pulled him back from the brink of the Ghost Gate!

He slowly rose to the surface. The murky lake water streamed over his broken star armor. Looking around, towering ancient trees blocked most of the sky's light, vines hung like curtains, and the air was saturated with the dense, inescapable scent of forest flora and a faint earthy humus odor. The silence was broken only by the wind's sigh through the treetops and distant, faint beast roars.

His gaze swept the lake shore, and several trampled marks and lingering, primal‑wilderness footprints caught his attention. The footprints were huge, far from those of ordinary beasts.