Chapter 1449: When Human Stars Shine (Part 8) (Two-in-one super-sized chapter)

"Damn it..."

"The coverage of the Turbid Disaster is getting larger and larger!"

On the battlefield of the Tianxu Realm, Lu Liangren looked at the ground, which was already more than half covered by the flesh-and-blood domain of the Turbid Disaster, his expression extremely ugly.

The Tianxu Realm was already being assaulted by the disasters of the Sighing Wilderness, and now there was a Turbid Disaster constantly devouring the earth. There was less and less space left for them to stand; one step forward was a hell of skeletons, and one step back was a Buddhist kingdom of flesh and blood. They were like trapped beasts caught in the cracks of death, unable to see a glimmer of hope anywhere they looked.

"How much longer can Mr. Han hold on?" Hong Xiu asked hoarsely from the side.

Lu Liangren raised his palm, on which an eye had been drawn with a brush. As he closed his eyes, the eye on his palm began to glow with a faint light.

Meanwhile, inside the building-cube moving at high speed several kilometers away, an eye drawn on Cui Ran’s shoulder slowly opened...

"Mr. Han... just hold on a little longer..."

Tears streamed down Cui Ran’s cheeks, dripping scaldingly into the pool of blood beneath him. His voice trembled slightly. "Just hold on a little longer... it will be over soon..."

Pfft—

A bright red blade precisely pierced the shoulder blade of a blood-man. The figure sitting in the wheelchair shuddered slightly, then fell back into deathly silence.

Dripping blood mixed with bits of flesh fell to the ground. A breath as faint as a mosquito’s hum was exhaled from his nostrils. Mr. Han’s facial nerves were twitching constantly, but he didn't utter a single sound.

Lu Liangren couldn't bear to look anymore. He closed his painted eye and replied hoarsely:

"I don't think it will be long... After all, he is only an Eighth Rank. Maintaining the domain at high intensity for so long is already his limit. If we drag this out any longer, I’m afraid his life and the lives of hundreds of thousands of people... won't be saved."

Hong Xiu gritted her teeth. She looked back at the flesh-and-blood Turbid Buddha standing in the center of the Tianxu Realm, which was still shining with "holy light." The massive meatball "Buddha head" had its eyes closed, as if it were chanting sutras. At this moment, more and more people of lower ranks were being affected by the Turbid Disaster, beginning to walk voluntarily toward the flesh-and-blood territory...

Just as Hong Xiu was about to say something more, a loud, booming sound suddenly erupted from underground!

Thump—!!!

The earth paved with flesh and blood suddenly burst with a large number of cracks, as if something beneath the crust was vibrating violently.

The flesh and blood that were about to touch the edge of the battlefield all crumbled. Fine cracks spread from the periphery toward the center, and eventually, they actually began to climb up the body of the flesh-and-blood Turbid Buddha, like black dragons carved from the earth coiling around it!

And between these crumbling cracks in the earth, wisps of powerful aura leaked out...

"This is..." Lu Liangren’s eyes lit up slightly.

"Red Dust Sovereign?"

Underground.

Flesh-and-blood roots as thick as giant pythons filled almost every corner of the earth. If someone were to turn on X-ray vision, they would find that the underground of the Tianxu Realm had completely become a paradise of flesh and blood. The giant gears that were once used to operate the realm blocks had all turned into plump flesh-and-blood fruits, and the precision components had also turned into roots, operating silently.

And at this moment, in this underground flesh-and-blood paradise, a long-haired figure wearing a white martial arts uniform broke directly out of one of the massive flesh-and-blood fruits!

She was fast, but the endless flesh-and-blood roots around her were faster.

Countless roots surged from all directions. She was like an ant that had mistakenly wandered into the body of a giant beast, unable to escape the palm of this giant beast... But it turned out she didn't need to hide at all.

As those roots submerged her, wrapping her into another massive flesh-and-blood fruit, after a brief silence, the white-clad figure broke out again!

Her body was covered with a thin, shimmering film. No matter how violently these roots tried to bind or tear her figure, they would decompose into nothing the moment they touched this film!

If observed at a microscopic level, one would find that it wasn't a film at all, but was woven from countless "strings" vibrating at the same frequency. It was like a boundary line between states of matter and energy. The material attacks of the Turbid Disaster found it difficult to cause substantial damage to Su Zhiwei.

This was also the reason why Su Zhiwei could maneuver with the Turbid Disaster for so long in single combat.

"You're anxious."

Su Zhiwei looked at the frantically surging roots around her and said calmly, "Is it because I found the right direction?"

The moment these words were spoken, the surrounding roots paused for an instant, as if they had understood Su Zhiwei’s meaning. In the next second, those roots surged toward her even more violently, like walls of meat from all directions compressing toward the center, intending to crush Su Zhiwei completely right here.

Su Zhiwei’s figure was gradually squeezed and covered by the flesh and blood, but the next moment, the aftershocks of string theory swept across suddenly. The matter that touched the string film on her body surface was converted at the same time, and surging flames directly swallowed the surrounding flesh and blood in return, a charred, foul stench spreading in the air!

"No matter how huge you grow, no matter how much matter you assimilate, no matter how scary you look... your main body is nothing more than a seed."

"As long as the seed is destroyed, everything about you will wither and dissipate."

"And these methods of yours might stop other Nine Sovereigns, but they cannot stop me..."

Su Zhiwei walked out of the flames, matter and energy forming an absolute balance on the surface of her body. Those eyes, which seemed to see through everything, had already locked onto a certain direction deep within the flesh and blood...

"I... have found it."

Su Zhiwei’s palm suddenly reached out, the string film on her skin surface directly dissolving all the flesh-and-blood obstacles in front of her, forcibly digging out a huge hole.

And in the deepest part of that hole, a seed that looked exactly like a black-and-white Buddha eye was beating silently like a heart...

Thump—thump—

The dull heartbeat echoed among the wriggling flesh and blood, rhythmic like drumbeats.

Su Zhiwei’s five fingers broke through the flesh and blood, reaching straight toward that Buddha eye. At the same time, the dull heartbeat became louder and accelerated, as if the entire earth had come alive!

For some reason, an ominous premonition suddenly flashed through Su Zhiwei’s heart.

Her palm suddenly stopped before the seed.

But in the next second, the seed actually broke free from the surrounding flesh-and-blood restraints and took the initiative to collide with Su Zhiwei’s palm!!

The moment the Buddha eye seed touched the string film, a strange mental power permeated out. Su Zhiwei’s mind was briefly dazed. Before her eyes, "Buddha light" rising from the turbid energy almost drowned out everything...

In the flesh and blood behind her, a miniature statue of the flesh-and-blood Turbid Buddha slowly took shape.

The Buddha statue’s tumor-like eyes were closed, but its round mouth slowly opened. A pair of arms made of roots reached out gently from behind toward Su Zhiwei’s head, the hands softly covering Su Zhiwei’s eyes.

The Buddha spoke, turbid light swirling;

The fusion had already begun.

……

"Look!"

"A shooting star!!"

In the Lingxu Realm, countless residents saw a shooting star flying from the end of the sky and exclaimed in surprise.

"Could it be that the Red Star is back again?"

"How is that possible? The size of this one clearly isn't the Red Star, and besides, when the Red Star passed by just now, there were red clouds."

"That really doesn't seem to be the Red Star... It looks like... a big bird?"

"Wait, is there a person on that bird?"

“……”

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the afterimage that flew like a shooting star into the sky above the Lingxu Realm suddenly swayed violently, and a person and a bird plummeted rapidly from the high altitude!

Amidst a series of exclamations, the two figures crashed into a wide square!

Thump—!!

Heavy dust flew up, and the terrifying impact directly shattered most of the square’s ground. The people wandering in the square had no idea what had happened, and panicked barking from dogs and curses from people rang out simultaneously.

As the dust dissipated,

a ragged, white-haired figure stumbled out of the deep pit...

"Hey! What are you doing?? Do you know you scared my son!" A woman holding a trembling white pet dog shouted at him,

"Our dog is a purebred Bichon! Only three months old! He’s timid by nature, and now you’ve scared him into a stress response!!"

A man passing by couldn't stand it anymore and couldn't help but push her.

"Are you crazy? He’s not an ordinary person!"

"So what if he’s not an ordinary person? No matter what kind of God Path possessor you are, shouldn't you apologize for scaring my son?"

"Crazy woman, open your eyes and look at what’s in that pit!!"

The woman glared at him fiercely, signaling that she wasn't afraid of him at all, but when her peripheral vision really caught sight of the deep pit, she froze.

In the deep pit at this moment, a sacred, massive creature like a phoenix lay on the ground like mud, devoid of breath... It hadn't been killed by the fall; rather, it looked like it had been exhausted to death.

"He is the Nanhai Sovereign," someone in the crowd whispered.

There were no phoenixes in this world. If anyone could create one, it could only be the Nanhai Sovereign.

The woman’s arrogance was immediately diminished significantly. While coaxing the little dog with a bow in her arms, she muttered in a low voice: "So what if he’s the Nanhai Sovereign... Does being the Nanhai Sovereign mean he can be unreasonable? He scared my son, so he should apologize..."

Chu Changqing didn't even spare these people a second glance.

He lowered his head and coughed violently, his pale hair falling out strand by strand. To reach the Lingxu Realm as quickly as possible, he had exhausted two phoenixes along the way, and now his body was reaching its limit.

But even so, he didn't dare to delay for a single second. Every second wasted now meant more danger on the battlefield, and countless people would die at the hands of the disasters.

Fortunately, the place where he landed was already on the edge of the Lingxu Base.

He walked forward quickly.

"So he’s the Nanhai Sovereign?"

"A while ago, he was mentioned in the newspapers almost every day... Establishing the Alliance Council, weakening the power of the noble families, requisitioning resources from wealthy families for redistribution, building the logistics system for the Five Realms War... A prominent figure."

"What prominent figure? Didn't you hear the news just now? The Nanhai Realm has been destroyed!"

"The Nanhai Realm is destroyed, so why is he still here? Isn't he the Nanhai Sovereign?"

"Looking at him like this, I guess he must have deserted..."

"I heard that the Nanhai Realm was destroyed so quickly because the Fusion Faction rebelled, and it was he who personally let those fusionists into the city."

"Ah? How did such a stupid person become a Nine Sovereign?"

"Who knows? The newspapers were still praising him to the skies... Hmph, I think he’s just a traitor. Maybe he was able to survive the Nanhai Realm because he was in cahoots with the Forbidden Sea!"

"Damn, that’s truly a disgrace to humanity!!"

"To be honest, the other realms are also one stupider than the next... The Xuanyu Realm said they could summon the Xuanyu Sovereign, but for some reason, they still dropped the ball; the Tianxu Realm claimed to be the center of the realms, with so many people gathered together, how could they not kill a Sighing Wilderness?

The Red Dust Sovereign is even more of a waste. As a full-state Nine Sovereign, is it really that hard to kill a World-Ender in a one-on-one fight?

Let’s not even talk about the Cangyun Realm. Although they don't have a Nine Sovereign level sitting in charge, they shouldn't be at a disadvantage even if they are weak, right? Can't they just ignore that World-Ender disaster and kill the other disasters in the World-Ender’s territory first? Or use some strategies from 'The Art of War'?"

"Have you read 'The Art of War'?"

"I haven't, but if they had read it, they wouldn't be this weak, right?"

"It’s just that those disasters are afraid of our Lingxu Realm. If they ever dare to attack, I’ll definitely show them what’s what!"

“……”

On a peaceful street, countless figures walked out of their houses. They had heard that the Nanhai Sovereign had descended from the sky, so one after another, they ran out to watch the excitement, eating melon seeds while sharing their views on the war, occasionally commenting on the pros and cons of the Nine Sovereigns, calmly and composedly pointing out the state of the world.

Chu Changqing heard all of this, but he had no intention of refuting it at all. He just lowered his head silently and walked forward.

At the same time, figures came rushing from afar.

"Lord Nanhai Sovereign? Why are you here??" an Eighth Rank Chess God Path asked in surprise.

"Move aside."

Chu Changqing didn't even lift his eyelids, replying in a deep voice.

These Chess God Path practitioners seemed to have guessed something, their expressions turning extremely complex. They immediately cleared a path to both sides, while dispersing the surrounding crowd, leaving a direct road to the Lingxu Base for Chu Changqing.

The Lingxu Base was different from other bases; this base was built at the highest point of this realm, which was Lingxu Mountain.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

Chu Changqing stepped onto the stone steps of Lingxu Mountain. With every step he took, his figure flashed dozens of steps like a teleportation. This mountain road, which towered into the clouds, was trampled under his feet in just fifteen seconds...

There were many people sitting in charge at the Lingxu Base, but none dared to stop the Nanhai Sovereign.

They all knew why the Nanhai Sovereign had come.

Chu Changqing entered the depths of the Lingxu Base smoothly, but unlike other bases, the depths of the Lingxu Base were not enclosed, but a large open-air space.

Dense forests and mountain rocks were scattered everywhere, and between them, an ancient wooden temple stood silently.

On the temple’s plaque, four large characters were written in a bold, dragon-like style:

——【Lingxu Ancient Temple】.

Seeing these four familiar characters, a trace of reminiscence flashed in Chu Changqing’s tired eyes... They had been written by Lu Xun himself back then.

Chu Changqing slowly pushed open the temple’s gate, and heavy dust drifted down from the door gap, as if no one had set foot here for a long time. Inside the Buddha temple, there were no tables, no kneeling cushions, no great bells, no Buddha statues...

Only a massive hibernation pod stood in the center of the wooden temple.

Flowers, forests, birds, and language; the pod sat in the ancient temple. Technology and ancient heritage overlapped at this moment, and combined with the mathematical symbols carved onto the temple pillars, a mysterious and grand aura rushed toward him!

Seeing the figure in the inverted ancient temple, Chu Changqing’s expression was somewhat complex...

"Long time no see... coward."

He muttered to himself.

The figure sleeping in the pod didn't seem to hear his call. In the silent ancient temple, it was so quiet that only Chu Changqing’s own breathing could be heard.

"You know... Lu Xun still misjudged me."

"He wanted me to lead the Nine Sovereigns of this era... but..."

"I can't do it, I can't do it well..."

"No matter how hard I try, I am ultimately not him..."

Chu Changqing slowly raised his hand and gently sliced across his own chest.

His skin and flesh were opened like a zipper. Inside his bloody chest cavity, a heart was beating slowly... and at this moment, on the surface of that heart, there was actually a creature resembling a parasitic insect rooted within it, as if it were constantly drawing Chu Changqing’s life and storing it inside.

"I made a mistake, and when you make a mistake... you have to pay the price." Chu Changqing slowly closed his eyes.

"I know you’re squeamish about blood, so I won't feed you blood every day..."

"I have already given two-thirds of my life to this Life Gu. It will spit out my blood at fixed times every day to nourish your body... With it here, you can live for at least another five years."

Chu Changqing reached his fingertips into his chest cavity. The Life Gu seemed to receive guidance, pulling its body out of the heart and slowly crawling onto his fingertips.

At this moment, Chu Changqing’s whole body seemed to be drained, withering visibly...

His white hair,

his long self-seclusion in the Cangyun Base,

all were to nurture this Life Gu... From the moment he learned of the destruction of the Nanhai Realm, he had already made his decision.

Under normal circumstances, Chu Changqing could use his own blood to nourish a Nine Sovereign daily, allowing them to live forever. In the initial plan of the Nine Sovereigns, he only needed to nourish one, Wu Tongyuan.

But now it was different.

Those people were right; he, Chu Changqing, was a sinner. He had failed the expectations Lu Xun had for him, and he no longer had the face to continue living as a Nine Sovereign... Therefore, he chose to give up on himself.

Gathering the Life Gu had drained too much of Chu Changqing’s vitality. He could no longer use the power of a Nine Sovereign, and in order to continue supplying enough blood to Qi Muyun later, his consciousness would fall into a deep sleep, allowing his bodily functions to continue operating... In other words, he would become a vegetable.

From now on, there would never be a Nanhai Sovereign in the world again. The only value of his existence was to become "nourishment" for the other two Nine Sovereigns.

This was the punishment he gave himself.

Chu Changqing looked at the Life Gu on his fingertips, stumbling as he tried to stand up, and spoke hoarsely,

"Among us... Lu Xun trusted and valued you the most... I have already let him down once..."

"You... must not repeat my mistakes."

Chu Changqing used his last bit of strength to slowly clench his fist.

His consciousness began to blur, his body began to stiffen, and everything about him was irreversibly leaving him... His time was almost up.

But in those dull eyes of his, for the last time, a cyan color purer than jade erupted. He bet everything he had left on this one punch!

"End this chaotic farce..."

"Wu Tongyuan."

Bang—!!!

Chu Changqing’s fist shattered the hibernation pod, and the Life Gu on his fingertips pierced directly through the splashing liquid, drilling into Wu Tongyuan’s chest.

In the next second, a terrifying fluctuation, so blinding that it was impossible to look at directly, erupted from within the ancient temple!!

Boom——————

Visible ripples in space oscillated, sweeping across the ancient temple, sweeping across the Lingxu Base, and sweeping across the entire Lingxu Realm!

Everyone in the Lingxu Realm looked up at the same time, staring blankly at this Lingxu Mountain that towered into the clouds... Swirling mist flowed on the mountaintop, making it impossible to see clearly.

But immediately afterward,

a curly-haired figure wearing a white lab coat stepped out slowly from within.

Lingxu Sovereign, Wu Tongyuan.