Chapter 1104

However, within this secret realm, there was no ordinary heavenly-earth spiritual energy. What filled the surroundings was icy, violent, as if originating from the primordial stellar force at the dawn of the universe! These forces were like invisible steel needles, brutally stabbing at his dried-up, exhausted meridians.

"Ah!" The intense pain made his whole body spasm. Ordinary spiritual energy is like a warm, gentle stream, while this primordial stellar force is like a torrential river of molten lava! Each influx feels like tearing and burning his frail body. Fine beads of blood continually seep from his skin, only to be evaporated by the lingering faint stellar radiance.

Reforging the Dao Foundation is such torture! It is nothing less than grinding a person alive to powder, then slowly reshaping them with the most violent force in the universe!

Lin Xiaoshi was frightened, hands and feet at a loss, only able to anxiously watch Han Wuxian struggle in pain. Time flowed unusually slowly in the dead silence of the starry sky. Han Wuxian's body was like a pottery jar riddled with cracks; each breath brought a groan on the verge of shattering. His consciousness rose and fell in the waves of agony, nearly being worn away.

Just as his will teetered on the brink of collapse, the star-seal sigil in his sea of consciousness suddenly blazed forth! A cool, pure power, as if originating from the very source of the stars, flowed out, weak yet incredibly tenacious, guarding his last vestiges of mind.

"Guide the stars… temper the body… forge the Stardust Dao Foundation…" The foundation-building arts from the "True Explanation of Myriad Heavens' Stars" flowed through his mind. Han Wuxian bit his tongue tip hard; under the stimulation of intense pain, he completely released his restraint on his body, like a drowning man on the brink of death, actively drawing in more of the violent primordial stellar force!

Sizzle—

This time, it was no longer mere destruction. Under the guidance of the sigil's power, those violent stellar forces began to resonate strangely with some deep source within his flesh and blood! Each particle of crushed flesh, each fragment of severed meridian, under the scouring of the violent stellar force, was ground and tempered like sand… then… forcibly infused with a trace of starlight so faint it was barely perceptible, yet containing the essence of stellar origin!

This process was slow enough to induce despair. Han Wuxian's body became like a battlefield: one side, the violent destruction of stellar force; the other, the slower, more painful reshaping guided by the sigil. He was as if placed in a stellar furnace, enduring a thousand hammerings.

No one knew how long had passed—perhaps a day, perhaps a year. When Lin Xiaoshi leaned against the platform's edge, half-asleep, the bloodstains and scorch marks on Han Wuxian's body began to peel away, revealing newly grown skin beneath. That skin was no longer of a mortal hue; it showed a warm, jade-white, as if dusted with starlight.

Within him, at the site of his utterly collapsed qi sea, a tiny vortex composed of countless specks of light like stardust was slowly and firmly rotating. The vortex was minuscule, its contained power pitifully weak, yet it exuded a pure, ancient aura, as if capable of embracing the vastness of the star river!

Stardust Dao Foundation! Achieved!

Han Wuxian slowly opened his eyes; deep within his gaze, it seemed as if a star river was just being born. He was weak to the extreme; the power of that speck of stardust vortex within him was even less than that of an ordinary person who had just drawn in qi. Yet he could clearly sense that his body had undergone a complete metamorphosis! Every cell seemed to have turned into a tiny star; the repulsion toward the surrounding primordial stellar force vanished, replaced by an instinctive yearning.

He attempted to circulate the qi-guiding method again.

This time, the violent primordial stellar force was no longer a bone-piercing steel needle, but turned into an icy stream; although it still carried great impact, it no longer brought destructive pain. The stellar force surged into the tiny stardust vortex, being swiftly refined, compressed, and absorbed. The vortex's rotation speed increased by a hair, imperceptible yet a solid start!

"Benefactor…?" Lin Xiaoshi was startled awake by a subtle energy fluctuation; seeing the starlight in Han Wuxian's eyes, he exclaimed joyfully, "You… you succeeded?"

Han Wuxian gave a slight nod; his voice remained weak, yet carried a stone-like steadiness: "Just… only the beginning."

He rose to his feet, his gaze turning toward the bronze platform's exterior, to the "Starfall Forbidden Zone" where countless massive star carcasses floated. There, the primordial stellar force was thick as a substantive storm, and it also contained the tremendous energy and mysterious substance of fallen stars.

"That place is the first step of my return to the path of cultivation." Han Wuxian pointed to the band of star carcasses where death and opportunity coexisted, his eyes burning with unyielding fire, "It is also our only way out of this secret realm."

He needed power, needed vast amounts of stellar force to fill this Stardust Dao Foundation! And this Starfall Forbidden Zone is the harshest yet most effective whetstone!

Han Wuxian stepped forward, his steps faltering yet utterly resolute as he walked toward the platform's edge. Lin Xiaoshi watched him advance toward the band of star carcasses reeking of annihilation; his face turned deathly pale, but he gritted his teeth and followed closely.

The moment Han Wuxian set foot into the Starfall Forbidden Zone, a stellar storm a hundred times more violent than that on the platform instantly engulfed him! He let out a muffled grunt, dropping to one knee; his newly formed Dao Foundation spun wildly, like a thirsty abyss desperately devouring this destructive power.

He laboriously lifted his head, fixing his gaze on a nearby chunk of dark violet star carcass as huge as a mountain. Its surface flowed with liquid star marrow, emanating an energy fluctuation that made the heart palpitate.

Within the star gate passage, temporal-spatial turbulence was like countless invisible chisels, slicing everything tangible. An ordinary Nascent Soul Cultivator here would be torn into cosmic dust in an instant. But Han Wuxian now was like a piece of divine iron thrown into a torrent, unmoving.

Dark-violet star marrow battle armor covered his body, flowing with the luster of liquid star fire, sweeping aside violent spatial fragments and chaotic energy, emitting a faint yet continuous metallic clang. With each step he took, a block of pure stellar force condensed beneath his feet, flowing with profound runes—a star step. The star step was utterly stable, unshaken by the turbulence. Lin Xiaoshi was shielded behind him by a thin but tenuous halo of starlight; though his face was ashen, his life was safe.

Han Wuxian's mind had long sunk into the vast micro-starfield within his body. In his dantian, the dark-violet stellar Golden Core was rotating and expanding at an unprecedented speed! Each rotation frenziedly devoured the chaotic yet tremendous chaotic energy and spatial fragments in the passage, forcibly grinding them, refining them, and transforming them into pure, impeccable Stellar True Essence.

On the surface of the Golden Core, seven cyan-gold star-seal sigils wandered like living things, their light growing ever brighter. They were no longer mere marks, but had become seven invisible bridges linking Han Wuxian's limbs and bones, connecting heaven and earth stars! The thin yet pure stellar power from All Realms, passing through these seven bridges, disregarded spatial barriers, crossed endless distances, and ceaselessly flowed into his body!

"The opportunity to become a deity is now!" Han Wuxian's eyes burst with starlight, like two stars suddenly igniting. He no longer suppressed it; instead, he actively guided this torrent that had gathered chaotic energy, spatial fragments, and stellar power from All Realms, fiercely striking against the limit of his stellar Golden Core!