Chapter 1042

He slowly lifted the azure-gold arm-sword, its runes flowing, its tip exhaling icy sword light, feeling the terrifying power within capable of cleaving the void. His gaze sharp as a drawn divine weapon, piercing the flowing light of the star formation, directly stabbing the serene Qinghe Immortal Maiden standing aside.

Beneath her gauze, Qinghe Immortal Maiden's face was calm and waveless; only deep in her eyes, which held galaxies, flickered an extremely faint, barely perceptible glow of satisfaction. She gave a slight nod, her voice still clear and ethereal: "The moment has arrived."

Before her words faded, she waved her bare hand. The azure-blue star core hovering at the heart of the star formation, emanating the primordial power of the vast Azure Heaven layer, suddenly blazed with light! The enormous star formation within the Liuli Mountain Peak, as if fully activated, had billions of stellar trajectories flowing and intertwining at unprecedented speed, erupting in blinding azure-gold light! The light instantly engulfed Han Wuxian, Yun Li, and Qinghe Immortal Maiden herself.

A violent spatial distortion struck again, even more ferocious and violent than passing through the Returning to Void Gate! Han Wuxian felt as if he had been thrown into the center of a stellar furnace, torn and reassembled by unimaginable law forces. He instinctively activated the power of the Azure Heaven Jade Sword Arm; the azure-gold runes on the arm-sword flickered, actually partially canceling the pain of the spatial tearing.

When the brilliant light faded and space stabilized, the sight before them left Han Wuxian and Yun Li breathless in an instant.

They were no longer in the Azure Heaven layer where auspiciousness and danger coexisted, but directly situated at the edge of that ultimate land of despair—the edge of the Returning to Void Eye.

Beneath their feet floated enormous, boundless stellar fragments. These fragments resembled the remains gnawed by deities, their edges jagged, deep fissures flowing with dark-red, blood-like stellar veins, emitting a faint, mournful starlight. Under the intangible terrifying suction, the fragments struggled like drowning souls, slowly yet inexorably dragged toward the absolute darkness at the center of their vision.

That dark vortex!

Vast enough to devour the entire field of view! It rotated silently, its center a pure absolute void capable of erasing even concepts. At the vortex's edge, space twisted into eerie light arcs; countless stellar fragments were stretched and torn by an invisible immense force, like grains tossed into a millstone, instantly reduced to the most basic energy particles that silently vanished into the dark depths.

A fear and despair born of soul instinct, like icy venom, instantly permeated Han Wuxian's and Yun Li's marrow! Merely approaching made them feel their very existence would be devoured and dissolved by that boundless darkness.

Yet at the core of that dark vortex capable of devouring a star field, a point of weak yet incredibly tenacious golden light shone, like the sole lighthouse in endless night, stubbornly flickering! The golden light was warm and pure, bearing the will of guardianship and purification, firmly resisting the all-pervasive Returning to Void Power seeking to assimilate it. This was the strong resonance source of the star-map imprint left by Qinghe Immortal Maiden!

But beyond that golden light, deeper within the vortex, a point of even deeper, seemingly containing the ultimate secret of the universe, a dim light point drifted up and down—that was the core of the Star Sea Map!

It, too, was tightly bound and imprisoned by countless black chains forged from pure Returning to Void Power, writhing like living creatures.

Qinghe Immortal Maiden's gaze instantly locked onto the Star Sea Map's core, becoming blazingly hot; her previous cool aloofness vanished, leaving only a near-greedy yearning.

"All transformations return to the void… indeed lives up to its name." She whispered, raising her bare hand, fingers splayed toward the writhing, entwined Returning to Void Chains ahead.

Hum!

A beam of starlight condensed to the extreme, seeming able to freeze spacetime, bearing unmatched pressure, fiercely slammed into the chains entwining the Star Sea Map's core! Where the beam passed, the chaotic Returning to Void Power was briefly pushed aside and frozen.

Boom—!!

A deafening roar exploded at the silent edge of the Returning to Void! The starlight beam and the Returning to Void Chains collided violently! Blazing energy light burst instantly, vaporizing several nearby stellar fragments! Yet the writhing black chains merely shuddered violently, black qi roiling, showing fine cracks at the impact point but not breaking! A more violent, more yin-cold backlash surged back along the beam.

Qinghe Immortal Maiden grunted, her moon-white long robe fluttering without wind, her body swaying slightly, a hint of gravity flashing in her eyes. The resilience of these Returning to Void Chains far exceeded expectations!

But at the very moment her attack was thwarted!

Roar!!

A roar filled with violence and destruction desire, like the mixed shrieks of countless dead souls, suddenly erupted from the deeper, darker unknown region of the vortex!

Immediately after!

Three massive shadows, enough to make one suffocate, like apocalyptic demons crawling from the lowest layer of the Returning to Void, tore through the warped space and suddenly descended at the vortex's edge, blocking Qinghe Immortal Maiden and the Star Sea Map's core!

They were three twisted, indescribable horrific entities!

The first resembled a giant forged by forcibly gluing countless shattered stellar fragments! It stood a thousand zhang tall, its entire body flowing with dark-red, blood-like stellar corpse lava; its huge head lacked features, only three constantly rotating black holes that devoured light! Each step caused the surrounding space to violently collapse! Its aura actually reached the terrifying early stage of Spirit Transformation.

The second was a conglomerate formed by countless black pythons of pure Returning to Void Power intertwined! It had no fixed form, its massive body constantly twisting and writhing, numerous ferocious snake heads protruding from its body, exhaling black mist that annihilates all things! Its chilling aura was equally not inferior to Spirit Transformation.

The third was most bizarre! It seemed a shapeless mass of constantly writhing, shifting shadow! Within the shadow, countless anguished, twisted human faces, beast heads, and stellar phantasms flickered in and out, emitting silent wails! The mental pollution it emitted could drive a Nascent Soul Cultivator instantly mad.

"Returning to Void fiends! Servants guarding the core!" Qinghe Immortal Maiden's face shifted slightly; her usually clear voice now carried a hint of gravity. These three fiends are powerful, born of the Returning to Void, and here they are like fish in water, extremely hard to deal with!

The stellar corpse giant's three black-hole-like mouths simultaneously unleashed a roar that shattered the void; a lava-flowing massive arm, like a collapsing mountain, bearing the terrifying power to crush laws, fiercely smashed toward Qinghe Immortal Maiden!

At the same time, the conglomerate of myriad snake heads spewed forth a sky-covering annihilating black mist, while the mental-pollution shadow turned into an invisible mental shriek, directly piercing Qinghe Immortal Maiden's sea of consciousness!

Spirit Transformation-level terrifying attacks instantly engulfed Qinghe Immortal Maiden!

"Han Wuxian! Sever the core chains! I'll hold them off!" Qinghe Immortal Maiden's voice came through the chaotic energy storm, carrying an unquestionable command!

Han Wuxian's pupils contracted sharply! Have him, a Golden Core peak, charge the core guarded by Spirit Transformation fiends?

This is tantamount to suicide!

But he knew better—this was the only chance!