Chapter 942: Returning to the Island (Requesting Moon Tickets)

Inside the Imperial Palace of Changxing Star Island.

The Jade Kui Emperor Lord, who was in deep meditation, suddenly opened his eyes and sent his spiritual sense into the Tongxuan Token, where he received a starlight message from the Heavenly Punishment True Person.

【Jade Kui, has Xu Jin returned yet?】

【Not yet, but the military order’s deadline is in three days. The latest intelligence says he has returned to Wuyang Star Island and should be back in three days.】 replied the Jade Kui Emperor Lord.

【When do you plan to act, Jade Kui?】 asked the Heavenly Punishment True Person.

【What, has the situation changed?】 The Jade Kui Emperor Lord was extremely sensitive to the Heavenly Punishment True Person’s urgency.

【There has been a slight change—the Emperor intends to patrol the Star Void, though the exact time is undetermined. Once he does, he will very likely summon all the Imperial Palace’s candidate Holy Sons who participated in the war, especially Xu Jin. His performance has been so dazzling I can no longer conceal it—he will surely be summoned. If we act after that, cleanup will be troublesome.】 replied the Heavenly Punishment True Person.

Upon reading this message, the Jade Kui Emperor Lord nodded, yet his heart stirred.

The Emperor patrolling the Star Void was a rare event—never before in all these years.

【Heavenly Punishment, given our friendship, if you have any important news, you must inform me ahead of time. Don’t let me walk into a big trap.】 the Jade Kui Emperor Lord hinted.

【Don’t worry, Jade Kui. The Emperor spreading rumors of his patrol is for her sake—you should understand!】 replied the Heavenly Punishment True Person.

【So this is the Emperor’s Dao competition. Only she could threaten the Emperor—and now, with great upheaval, it’s come to a head.】

【You see through it clearly, Jade Kui.】

【Heavenly Punishment, you are the Emperor’s eyes. You’ve patrolled the Star Void for years. From your observations, how is she now? Has she…】

【I’m just a minor True Person—how could I fathom her true state? The Emperor has held his Dao for over two hundred years; he’s beyond our comprehension. But the stance of the Great Luo Ancestral Court might offer some insight.】

Inside the Imperial Palace, the Jade Kui Emperor Lord pondered, already forming a judgment.

The Kongyuan Emperor Lord was once the most likely candidate to become Emperor, yet for all these years he had lain dormant within the Star Void.

Rumors claimed Kongyuan Emperor Lord could never ascend to Emperor because the Dongxuan Emperor had suppressed him.

It was said the stone statue suppressed by the Emperor’s divine fragment on Tongxuan Star Island was the key.

But all of it was rumor; the true facts remained unknown to all.

Yet often, rumors were truth—and so the Jade Kui Emperor Lord wished to prepare early.

Choosing sides was easy, but choosing too soon risked being wrong; too late meant no benefit.

【Heavenly Punishment, rest assured. When Xu Jin returns and fights his first Star Surge battle, I will seize the opportunity to take his life. You need only come to claim your reward. But you must also hasten to fulfill your promise to me.】 said the Jade Kui Emperor Lord.

【Rest easy, Jade Kui. In fact, when you yourself set foot in the Star Void, half the task was already done. When the Emperor next turns his mind to it, I’ll be beside him—your wish will surely come true.】

【Good.】

Inside the Changxing Star Island Imperial Palace, the Jade Kui Emperor Lord stared at the Heavenly Punishment True Person’s reply, feeling a faint anticipation.

To break through to the Middle Prohibition was exceedingly difficult for the Wuqi Emperor Lord.

His cultivation had been stuck at the peak of the Small Prohibition Emperor Lord realm for many years.

If he could take control of a great world, he was confident he could break through to the Middle Prohibition Emperor Lord within five years, his combat power surging.

There was even a chance he could reach the Great Prohibition Emperor Lord realm.

And now, it all rested on Xu Jin.

The Heavenly Punishment True Person was no fool—he never acted without seeing the rabbit.

But there was no choice—he was the Emperor’s close minister.

Wuyang Star Island.

Xu Jin gazed inward at his Abyssal Domain technique, his expression filled with excitement.

Indeed, the Star Realm Core was the perfect catalyst for his Abyssal Domain.

Previously, Kongyuan Emperor Lord had said the Abyssal Domain absorbed the Star Realm Core primarily to extract its spatial primordial force, but its growth effect was far inferior to that of the Illusory Void Silver Shell and the Void Spirit Blood.

But Xu Jin’s Abyssal Domain had mutated.

Since he could not incorporate the Illusory Void Silver Shell, he instead fused the two Star Realm Cores he had obtained from the Spatial Emperor Lord Yin Zheng into his Abyssal Domain.

Xu Jin had originally intended to expand the Abyssal Domain due to its high burst potential—but he never expected that fusing in the two Star Realm Cores would bring him such a surprise.

Twenty days ago, the Abyssal Domain was fifteen meters square. In those twenty days, through intense cultivation under time acceleration, its height remained unchanged, and its surface area increased by only twenty square meters.

Roughly one square meter per day.

This pace was already extremely fast.

Lu Zhan had cultivated his Abyssal Domain for twelve years and achieved only two hundred square meters, during which Kongyuan Emperor Lord had gifted him seven times’ worth of celestial treasures for refinement.

In other words, Xu Jin’s two hundred days of cultivation equaled Lu Zhan’s twelve years plus the seven celestial treasures.

But when he first fused in the first Star Realm Core, the Abyssal Domain’s space surged by over a hundred square meters.

The same happened with the second.

The two Star Realm Cores directly increased the size of Xu Jin’s Abyssal Domain by over two hundred and twenty square meters—nearly doubling its size.

Now it was nearly twenty-two meters across.

Even more astonishing, after the Abyssal Domain doubled in size, the difficulty of incorporating Dao laws into it dropped drastically, and the time required for integration shrank.

【The size of the Abyssal Domain must determine the upper limit of Dao laws it can hold.】

Previously, it had taken over ten days to incorporate one Dao law of each of the eight systems. After the Abyssal Domain’s surge, the speed of integration skyrocketed.

Currently, each of the eight systems had five Dao laws incorporated into the Abyssal Domain.

Upon integration, they immediately connected and merged with the Abyssal Domain’s chaotic qi, forming a unified chaotic essence of the eight systems. Combined with the Abyssal Domain’s own domain, it now spontaneously generated chaotic star energy like a terrestrial vein.

The spontaneous generation rate also increased dramatically.

Xu Jin estimated that within half a month, the Abyssal Domain’s space would be completely filled with chaotic star energy.

When that happened and he unleashed it, its power would far exceed what he had achieved when he killed the Spatial Emperor Lord Yin Zheng.

The capacity limit was no longer the same.

In addition, he had also casually fused the newly acquired Illusory Void Silver Shell into his Moon Eclipse technique.

Though it was still far from becoming a full moon, it had nonetheless enhanced the current power of the Moon Eclipse technique slightly.

These incremental gains in strength would eventually coalesce into a dramatic transformation of Xu Jin’s power.

The deadline of the military order was drawing near.

Though he had his Master and Mistress to rely on, he himself must stand on his own.

In these final three days before his return, Xu Jin spent most of his time refining his Zi Yuan Bone Veins under time acceleration.