Chapter 131: Shattered Star Blood Waves, First Showing of Sharpness

The Shattered Star Archipelago got its name because its main island was surrounded by hundreds of reef islands of various sizes, shaped like star fragments. In the past, this place had vast blue waves, birds flying, spiritual veins intertwined between the islands, and produced a variety of rare seafood and underwater spirit minerals, making it a shining pearl on the eastern coast of the Tianyuan Continent.

However, at this moment, the pearl was covered in dust, and blood waves were surging to the sky.

Before they even approached the main island, "Shattered Star Island," the strong smell of blood mixed with the stench of demonic energy from the sea fish came with the wind. As far as the eye could see, the originally azure seawater had been dyed dark red and murky ink green, and a large number of incomplete corpses of sea beasts and cultivators floated on the sea surface, with broken magic tool fragments drifting with the waves. Dozens of smaller reef islands had completely become ruins, with flames and demonic fire burning on the wreckage, black smoke rolling.

The defensive light curtain on the periphery of Shattered Star Island was already broken, covered in spiderweb-like cracks, flickering. Outside the light curtain, the black-pressed demonized sea beast tide was like a tide, continuously impacting the defense line. These sea beasts were of many kinds, including the "Covering Sea Demon Octopus" as large as a small mountain, whose tentacles rolled up giant waves; the "Shadow Arrow Demon Fish" that was extremely fast and spat poison, turning into black shadows and shuttling; and the "Iron Armor Demon Turtle" with bone spurs on its back and strange demonic patterns on its shell, slowly approaching while carrying the bombardment of the cultivators' spells.

And what was even more heart-palpitating was that behind the demonized beast tide, near several larger reef islands, more than a dozen figures shrouded in thick demonic energy were floating in mid-air. They maintained human-like outlines, but their bodies were distorted, some with bone spurs or scales, some with multiple arms and heads, holding ferocious weapons condensed from demonic energy or obviously modified from cultivators' magic treasures, their cold eyes locked on the defense line of Shattered Star Island across a long distance. They were the "humanoid demonic things" mentioned in the intelligence!

These demonic things did not participate in the attack personally, but released invisible spiritual fluctuations, driving and coordinating the beast tide below to carry out layered attacks, continuously consuming the spiritual power and will of the defenders.

At the core of the island-protecting array of Shattered Star Island, the Bibo Sect Master—an old man with white hair and beard and a withered face—was anxiously directing his disciples and the imperial dynasty garrison to repair the array and rotate the defense. Seeing the fleet appearing in the sky and that eye-catching silver "Patrol Sky Shuttle," hope finally erupted in his turbid old eyes.

"Reinforcements! It's the imperial dynasty's reinforcements and the overseas immortal masters! Hold on!"

The joint fleet hovered on the sea surface ten miles away from the battlefield. There was no need for words; the tragic battle situation already explained everything.

"Form the array! Prepare to receive the enemy!" Eunuch Wei gave an order, and the three thousand elite cultivators of the Sea-Suppressing Guard quickly formed the "Covering Sea Array" based on the warships. The sharp murderous spirit and spiritual power fluctuations connected into one, turning into a vague giant whale phantom, ready to go.

The overseas three-party cultivators each formed their own arrays, showing different styles. Star Palace Elder Beichen's Seven-Star Sword was unsheathed by half an inch, the sword sound was clear, and with seven Star Palace disciples stepping on star positions, they formed a small "Big Dipper Sword Array," with starlight dots, and sword energy contained but not revealed. Giant Spirit Sect Yan Gang grinned, double hammers collided, making a deafening roar, and the sound wave spread visibly to the naked eye, actually flattening the waves on the nearby sea surface by a few points. The body refiners of the Giant Spirit Sect behind him were also full of blood energy, like humanoid fierce beasts. Mystic Ice Pavilion Ling Shuang raised her plain hand, and an ice-blue snowflake-shaped array disk flew out, instantly magnifying, emitting a biting cold, freezing the sea surface in their area into thick ice layers, forming a temporary ice fortress.

The three-party reinforcements, plus the remaining Shattered Star Island defenders, had their morale greatly boosted.

In the distance, those floating demonized human shadows also seemed to notice the newly arrived fleet, and an invisible spiritual fluctuation spread. The beast tide that had been crazily impacting Shattered Star Island actually split about one-third, turned direction, and rushed toward the joint fleet! Among them were several powerful demonized sea beast leaders with auras comparable to the Early-Stage Soul Formation!

"Looking for death!" Yan Gang was the first to be unable to hold back, roared wildly, his figure swelled to three zhang, shot out from the Patrol Sky Shuttle like a cannonball, double hammers danced, rolled up violent air currents, and slammed into a Covering Sea Demon Octopus that rushed to the front!

"Boom!" The hammer shadow was like a mountain, and several tentacles of the small mountain-like demon octopus were directly smashed into meat mud, making a shrill hiss.

"Big Dipper Sword Array, slay the evil!" Elder Beichen shouted coldly. The seven-star swords transformed into seven brilliant streams of light, like the trajectories of stars cutting through the night sky, instantly piercing through dozens of Shadow-Arrow Demon Fish and shredding them into a sky full of black blood.

Ling Shuang pointed her jade finger, the ice-blue array disk light flourished, and several giant ice walls suddenly rose on the sea surface in front, blocking and dividing part of the beast tide, and then countless ice cones shot out from the ice walls, piercing and freezing the trapped demonized sea beasts.

Eunuch Wei commanded the Sea-Suppressing Guard array to advance steadily. Every time the giant whale phantom swung its tail or collided, it cleared a large area of the sea, with extremely high efficiency.

Lin Xuan did not take action immediately. He stood at the bow of the main warship with his hands behind his back, his gaze locked on the dozen or so demonized human shadows in the distance. Feng Xi stood on his shoulder, its blue-gold eyes also full of vigilance.

These demonic things gave him a feeling that was indeed similar to the Ruins Abyss demonic shadow that appeared in the imperial capital, the essence of demonic energy was similar, but it seemed... more "orderly," more like a well-trained army, rather than a purely chaotic destruction cluster. Moreover, their strength was uneven, the weakest were about Early-Stage Soul Formation, and the two or three strongest figures had auras that had reached Late-Stage or even peak Soul Formation, and faintly carried a trace of... the "nothingness" sense of "Source Primordial Demonic Energy" that was heart-palpitating.

"It seems that the infiltration of Ruins Abyss Demonic Awareness in this realm is deeper than expected, and it has even developed a force with a certain organizational structure. These are probably the existence of its 'demonic general' level." Lin Xuan pondered in his heart.

Just as the joint fleet was fighting fiercely with the diverted beast tide and gradually gained the upper hand.

An anomaly occurred!

On the other side of Shattered Star Island, in a remote reef group far from the main battlefield, the seawater suddenly boiled violently without sound, and a huge, pitch-black vortex suddenly formed! In the center of the vortex, a demonic shadow, far more solid and far taller than those demonic generals, slowly rose!

This demonic shadow wore simple yet ferocious bone armor, with curved double horns on its head, and held a miserable white giant sickle polished from unknown bones in its hand. Its aura erupted, and it had reached—the Spirit Transformation Stage! And it was Mid-Stage Spirit Transformation!

"Spirit Transformation Demonic Commander!" The Bibo Sect Master exclaimed in horror, his voice full of despair. He had always thought the biggest threat was those Soul Formation demonic generals and the beast tide, but he didn't expect that such a terrifying existence was hidden!

As soon as this Spirit Transformation Demonic Commander appeared, its cold will locked onto the joint fleet, especially... Lin Xuan, who was standing at the bow of the main warship with an "unremarkable" aura! It seemed to feel a kind of extremely disgusting and faintly threatening aura from Lin Xuan.

"Hiss... Chaos... bug... met again... " a hoarse, friction-like thought rang directly in the sea of consciousness of all living beings above the sea area, full of cruelty and greed, "Swallow you... the Lord... will definitely have a heavy reward!"

It actually knew Lin Xuan? Or rather, it knew the chaotic aura on Lin Xuan! And listening to its words, it didn't seem to be a native demonic thing of this realm, but a subordinate of the Ruins Abyss Demonic Awareness, or even a colleague or subordinate of the demonic shadow clone of the imperial capital battle!

The Bone Sickle Demonic Commander did not hesitate, the miserable white bone sickle in its hand was raised high, endless demonic energy gathered, turning into a giant black sickle shadow that tore through the heavens and earth, ignoring the spatial distance, carrying the death Dao rhyme that harvested everything, and slammed down toward the warship where Lin Xuan was!

A full-force strike from a Mid-Stage Spirit Transformation Demonic Commander, the momentum was earth-shattering! Before it even touched the body, the protective shield around the warship made a cracking sound that it couldn't bear, and the cultivators on the deck felt their souls splitting and their spiritual power operation stagnating!

Eunuch Wei, Elder Beichen, Yan Gang, Ling Shuang, and others were all shocked, wanting to rescue, but they were entangled by their respective opponents, or the distance was too far!

"Brother Lin!" Eunuch Wei's eyes were splitting.

At the critical moment!

Lin Xuan finally moved.

He did not dodge, and did not even take out the Chaos Immortal-Slaying Sword. He just slowly raised his right hand, spread his five fingers, and aimed at the terrifying sickle shadow that seemed to be able to cut off the cycle of life and death, and gripped it lightly.

"Tribulation."

A simple syllable was spat out.

In an instant, centered on Lin Xuan's palm, the space within a hundred zhang was frozen and distorted by an invisible hand! The flow of time seemed to become abnormally slow. The aggressive black sickle shadow, the moment it broke into this area, was like falling into an incomparably viscous chaotic quagmire, its speed dropped sharply, and the demonic light flowing on its surface dimmed and disintegrated rapidly!

What was even more strange was that the majestic demonic energy and death Dao rhyme contained in the sickle shadow itself began to dissipate and disintegrate uncontrollably, as if experiencing the scouring of ten thousand years of time, rapidly accelerating toward its "end"!

This was not a head-on confrontation, but... using chaotic tribulation power to directly act on the "existence" of the attack itself, accelerating its decay and return to ruins!

With just one grip, the full-force strike of the Mid-Stage Spirit Transformation Demonic Commander was worn away by more than thirty percent of its power! The remaining part was still terrifying, but its momentum was far less than before.

Until this time, Lin Xuan's other hand pointed like a sword, the tip of his finger spitting out gray-purple Extinction Lei Jie power, and he slashed into the air toward the remaining sickle shadow.

"Extinction Thunder, break."

"Swoosh—!"

There was no deafening explosion, only a slight yet soul-deep tearing sound. The gray-purple thunder light was as thin as a hair, yet carried the sharp meaning of cutting off all laws and breaking evil, colliding with the black sickle shadow.

The residual sickle shadow was like meeting a nemesis, split in two by the gray-purple thunder light, and then completely exploded into the sky full of drifting black demonic energy, which was blown away by the sea wind and quickly dissipated into nothingness.

In his gestures, lightly and easily, he resolved the absolute kill strike of the Spirit Transformation Demonic Commander!

The entire battlefield was silent for a moment.

Whether it was the Shattered Star Island defenders who were resisting to the death, or the joint fleet cultivators who were fighting hard, or those ferocious demonized sea beasts and demonic generals, and even the Bone Sickle Demonic Commander itself who had just issued a fatal blow, all had a momentary stagnation.

Everyone's eyes were incredulously focused on the figure standing at the bow of the ship, green clothes fluttering, expression calm.

Late-Stage Soul Formation... head-on resolving a Mid-Stage Spirit Transformation attack? And so easily?!

Eunuch Wei let out a sigh of relief, excitement and pride flashing in his eyes. Elder Beichen, Yan Gang, Ling Shuang, and other overseas cultivators were pupils shrinking, looking at Lin Xuan with shock and deep fear. They asked themselves, even if it were Elder Beichen, the strongest among them, facing that sickle just now, he would absolutely not be able to take it so lightly, let alone resolve it in such an unimaginable way!

This had already exceeded their understanding of the combat power of Soul Formation cultivators!

The Bone Sickle Demonic Commander's scarlet eyes were wide with shock and anger, but more of it was greed: "Tribulation... you actually walked on the 'Tribulation' Dao?! Haha! Good! Too good! Swallowing you, this commander will definitely be able to break through the shackles!"

Although it was shocked by Lin Xuan's means, it did not think that a Soul Formation cultivator could truly threaten it. The reason why that strike was broken just now was more because of the strangeness of the other party's power characteristics.

"All Demon Generals, obey! Spare no cost to capture and kill this wretch!" the Bone-Scythe Demon Commander roared, raising the bone scythe in its hand once more. This time, the demonic flames were monstrous, clearly intending to use a more powerful divine ability. At the same time, those dozen or so Nascent Soul Demon Generals also let out a collective roar, holding nothing back, erupting with their full power, breaking free from their entanglements with opponents, and transforming into streaks of demonic rainbows. Coordinating with the surging beast tide, they swarmed from all directions to surround and kill Lin Xuan on the warship!

They were actually concentrating all high-end power to kill Lin Xuan first!

The situation turned sharply! Lin Xuan became the focus of the entire battlefield and the biggest target!

On Shattered Star Island, the Bibo Sect Master and other defenders had their hearts in their throats. Eunuch Wei and others were also greatly changed in color, wanting to return to rescue, but were dragged to death by the crazier beast tide and some demonic generals.

However, facing this absolute kill situation, Lin Xuan's face did not show the slightest panic. He even closed his eyes slightly and took a deep breath, as if feeling something.

"Feng Xi, protect the warship." He whispered.

Feng Xi on his shoulder chirped, its body instantly recovered to several zhang in size, the blue-gold true flame turned into a fire ring, covering the entire main warship, temporarily resisting the erosion of external demonic energy and the impact of low-level sea beasts.

Lin Xuan took a step forward, stepped into the air, left the protection of the warship, and faced the demonic generals and the Spirit Transformation Demonic Commander's lock-on alone.

He no longer restrained his aura in the slightest, the Chaos Tribulation Crystal at his heart emitted a bright light, and gray-purple air currents surged out from his body, circling and lingering, setting him off like a god walking out of chaos. The void behind him distorted, and that nine-zhang Chaos Star manifestation, half-virtual and half-real, fusing the artistic conception of thunder and tribulation fate, slowly emerged. The manifestation's eyes opened and closed, the left eye chaos birth and extinction, the right eye thunder extinction, majestic and vast.

"Want to swallow me?" Lin Xuan opened his eyes, the scenes of universe reincarnation and ten thousand tribulations birth and extinction flashing deep in his eyes, his voice calm, but carrying a kind of indifference overlooking all living beings, "Just right, I also need some 'nourishment' to temper my newly formed... Chaos Tribulation Domain."

He formed a more complex and profound seal with both hands in front of his chest, and the manifestation behind him followed suit.

"Chaos Tribulation Domain—Thunder Extinction Return to Ruins!"

The low voice, like the declaration of law, echoed over the sea area.

Centered on Lin Xuan, a blue-gray domain with a diameter of more than five hundred zhang suddenly expanded! Within the domain, the light was dim, the space was viscous, and the laws were chaotic. Countless fine gray-purple electric arcs jumped and lived in the domain, each electric arc containing the dual attributes of Extinction Thunder and Return to Ruins Tribulation Power!

This was not a simple domain suppression, but a "Tribulation Space" that had initially taken shape and belonged exclusively to Lin Xuan! Being in this domain, all things would be accelerated toward "ending," and would be subjected to the bombardment and purification of Extinction Lei Jie at all times!

The few Early-Stage Soul Formation demonic generals who rushed to the front, the moment they broke into the domain range, let out shrill screams. Their demonic energy armor melted at a speed visible to the naked eye, their tough demonic bodies became shriveled and fragile, as if experiencing thousands of years of wind erosion. What was even more fatal were those gray-purple electric arcs, which, once touched, were like maggots on tarsus bones, crazily drilling into their bodies, burning demonic yuan, tearing demonic souls, and bringing extreme pain and annihilation. In just a few breaths, two demonic bodies disintegrated, turning into fly ash, not even leaving the purest demonic core, completely swallowed and returned to ruins by the Tribulation Domain.

The remaining demonic generals were shocked, crazily urging demonic yuan to resist, trying to escape this terrifying domain. But under the pressure of the viscous time and space and the ubiquitous ending Dao rhyme, their movements were as slow as falling into a quagmire, and escape became exceptionally difficult.

"Roar! Mere domain, break for this commander!"

The Bone Sickle Demonic Commander was shocked and angry. It was a Mid-Stage Spirit Transformation cultivation after all, its demonic yuan was vast, although it felt extremely uncomfortable in the Tribulation Domain, its demonic yuan operation was stagnant, but it was not as unbearable as the low-level demonic generals. It roared, the miserable white bone sickle in its hand erupted with soaring demonic flames, forcibly splitting the viscous space, and a black sickle shadow that was more condensed and contained the law of tearing slashed straight at Lin Xuan in the center of the domain!

This strike, it used the superficial application of the laws of heaven and earth in the Spirit Transformation stage, and the momentum was even greater than before. Wherever it passed, even the gray air currents in the Tribulation Domain were briefly torn open a gap!

However, Lin Xuan was at the core of the Tribulation Domain, as if he had merged with the entire domain. He looked calm, facing the sickle shadow that seemed to be able to tear the law of life and death, just raised his hand and drew it virtually.

"Tribulation power like a tide, ten thousand laws return to ruins."