Chapter 1040

Han Wuxian's right fist, shrouded in dark-gold stellar radiance, smashed like a meteoroid tearing through space into the chest-abdomen junction of the nearest jade-green sword mantis! That joint, covered in jade-green exoskeleton, was a relatively weak point in its defense!

Boom!

In a deafening roar mixed with the grating sound of shattering bones! The Golden Yang Burning Heaven Force's domineering power that burns the eight wastes combined with the terrifying might of the dark-gold stellar radiance bones erupted instantly!

The jade-green sword mantis's massive body stiffened violently! Its incredibly tough jade-green exoskeleton, centered on the fist imprint, cracked like glazed pottery struck by a heavy hammer, instantly spreading with spiderweb-like fissures!

Violent force surged through its body, instantly shattering its hard internal skeleton and organs! The emerald light in its compound eyes faded instantly, its massive frame like a severed kite, slammed far away onto the distant Glazed Jade Island, falling utterly silent!

One punch felled the foe! Murderous aura surged to the heavens!

"Screech!!!"

The remaining two jade-green sword mantises were utterly enraged, yet also felt a deep fear! They emitted piercing shrieks, their huge jade-green sword arms flailing wildly, raising a sky-full of green sword qi that surged like a violent storm toward Han Wuxian and Yun Li to tear them apart! The assault grew even more frenzied, completely disregarding their own defense—clearly a fight to the death!

Yun Li felt the pressure suddenly spike; her azure starlight formed layer upon layer of barriers, violently fluctuating under the dense sword qi, teetering on the verge of collapse, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.

Han Wuxian's eyes turned icy, killing intent boiling. He was about to step forward again to completely destroy these two ferocious beasts!

At this critical moment!

Hum!!!

An indescribable, overwhelming pressure, as if emanating from the very origin of this primeval azure heaven layer, descended without warning from the depths of that inverted sword-shaped glazed peak! This pressure was not an attack, but carried a supreme will of law, like an invisible shackle that instantly enveloped the entire cloud-sea plain!

The two jade-green sword mantises that had been frenziedly attacking, as if struck by a paralysis spell, stiffened their massive bodies in midair! Their wildly flailing jade-green sword arms came to a halt, their emerald compound eyes revealing an uncontrollable fear and awe emanating from deep within their bloodlines! They let out low whimpers, their massive frames trembling slightly, daring not to make the slightest movement!

Han Wuxian and Yun Li also felt their bodies sink, as if an invisible mountain weighed down upon them, the flow of their inner power turning sluggish. Yet they were mostly filled with surprise and vigilance, their gazes locked firmly on the direction of the sword-shaped peak.

Only then did they see, at the summit of the towering glazed sword peak piercing the clouds, the firmament flowing with a blue-gold halo ripple like water. A figure slowly emerged from within, stepping down through the air.

She was a woman.

She wore an immaculately pure moon-white robe, its hem swaying without wind, flowing with faint starlight. Her figure was slender, her demeanor cool and clear as the moon, seeming to partake of no mortal fire. Her visage was veiled by a hazy gauze as if woven from stardust, obscuring her true features; only a pair of eyes were visible, deep as a galaxy, calm and waveless, yet bearing an indifferent insight into all things. Though she emanated no great energy fluctuations, the vast pressure subtly attuned to the entire azure heaven layer originated from her!

"Fairy Qing He...?" Yun Li cried out in disbelief, overwhelmed with shock. She had once seen this legendary figure's image from afar; it was said they had assassinated high-level cultivators of Nan Ting, Bei Chuan, and even Dong Xing, and even slain several Spirit Transformation cultivators while in Nascent Soul form, their murderous might shaking the heavens!

Of course, these are only recent events, but compared to the infamous Grey Mist Yama's slaughter of the Middle Heaven and Western Sands regions in pursuit of ascension to the Great Vehicle, their fame still isn't loud enough.

But seeing her now in person, that unfathomable feeling grew even stronger!

Han Wuxian's pupils contracted sharply, his inner star chart imprint flaring with an unprecedented intense resonance and stabbing pain!

It's her! No mistake! But this pressure... far exceeds his imagination! Moreover, how could she descend here so easily, even suppressing the primeval ferocious beasts?

Fairy Qing He's gaze swept lightly over the area below, lingering for a moment on the two stiffened jade-green sword mantises, without any emotional fluctuation. Her eyes finally settled on Han Wuxian, especially on his pair of arms flowing with dark-gold stellar radiance and containing terrifying power.

"Nirvana Golden Body? Fused with stellar essence and Great Sun Burning Star Iron?" Her voice was clear and ethereal, like a heavenly sound, yet carried an undeniable sense of aloofness, "Well... an unexpected delight." Her tone held no praise, sounding more like she was assessing an object's worth.

Han Wuxian's heart jolted. Fairy Qing He certainly did not regard him as a successor; the previous star chart imprint was more like a tool for positioning and use. He suppressed the turmoil in his heart and said in a deep voice, "Fairy Qing He, you……"

"This is no place for talk." Fairy Qing He interrupted him, her tone indifferent, "Follow me."

She said nothing more, merely extending her slender jade finger and pointing downward at the two stiffened jade-green sword mantises from afar.

Hum!

Two slender yet extremely condensed beams of starlight shot from her fingertips, instantly sinking into the heads of the two ferocious beasts.

"Hiss—" Two huge jade-green sword mantises' massive bodies shuddered violently, extreme pain showing in their dark-green compound eyes, then their light completely dimmed, as if all vitality had been sucked out, their massive bodies crashed down, smashing onto the jade-white cloud sea, sending up a sky-full of rosy light, then no movement. In the snap of a finger, they slew two Nascent Soul-level primordial ferocious beasts!

Having done all that, Qinghe Xianzi seemed to have merely done a trivial little thing. Her figure shifted slightly, appearing before Han Wuxian and Yun Li as if by instantaneous movement, a soft yet irresistible force enveloping the two.

"Go."

Space twisted slightly, the three figures vanished from the spot in an instant.

In the next moment, they found themselves inside the inverted sword-shaped glazed mountain peak.

This is an extremely vast space illuminated by a soft cyan-gold light. All four walls are made of crystal-clear glazed tile, upon which naturally formed countless profound and inscrutable cyan runes flow like living things, slowly circulating and exuding a powerful aura of law. At the center of the space is not a palace furnishing, but a huge complex star array constructed from pure starlight energy! The star array slowly rotates, countless stellar trajectories arising and fading within it, as if deducing the mysteries of the universe.

At the core of the star array hovers a fist-sized crystal core, entirely deep blue, inside which a nebula-like vortex seems to spin—this is precisely the source of the strong resonance of the star-map imprint that earlier guided Han Wuxian's direction! A vast, pure power of starlight, seeming to contain the primordial essence of the Azure Heaven, continuously emanates from it.

"Azure Heaven Primordial Star Core?" Yun Li stared at the deep-blue crystal core, sucking in a breath of cold air, her eyes filled with shock. This is the core object that supports an entire primordial heavenly domain!

Qinghe Xianzi paid no heed to Yun Li's shock. She turned her gaze toward Han Wuxian, her clear, cold voice echoing in the vast space:

"You can draw upon the Golden Flame Nirvana, fuse the Great Sun Burning Star Iron, reshape your arms, and moreover possess the power of resonance with the Stellar Hub fragments, thus you have preliminarily qualified to bear the Azure Heaven Jade Sword Arm."

She lightly raised her jade hand and made a grasping motion toward the direction of the two jade-green sword mantis corpses that had fallen into the cloud sea and were already dead.

Chi! Chi!

Two strands of cyan light, condensed to the extreme, instantly peeled off from the corpses, tore through space, and hovered above Qinghe Xianzi's palm. They were precisely the foreleg bone swords of the two sword mantises' essence—like jade-forged, flowing with natural runes and sharp sword intent.

"This is the severed sword arm of the primordial aberrant species 'Azure Heaven Jade Mantis', containing a trace of the Azure Heaven Primordial Sword Intent and the Cutting Law, indestructible and peerlessly sharp, a top-grade divine material for forging offensive Accumulation Devices." Qinghe Xianzi's tone was flat and unchanging, as if stating an ordinary item, "Combined with your Nirvana Golden Body and your arms' stellar-bone structure, you can attempt to smelt it into your body, make it your own, and forge the Azure Heaven Jade Sword Arm."