Chapter 1897: Chen Ling Ascends to the Heavens

The storm of the Red Star whipped the theatrical robe, making it dance violently.

Chen Ling stood above the three of them, looked back at them, and spoke calmly:

"...Go back."

As these two words reached their ears, the three men reacted with different expressions.

Under the sweep of this storm, all the Divine Paths gathered on Ying Fu began to waver. But unlike other Divine Path practitioners, Ying Fu had too many Divine Paths converged within him, and he also possessed the Red Star's power of aspiration. He was like a reef in the deep sea; even as the currents tore and surged past, he could still hold his ground.

Facing Chen Ling's words, Ying Fu made no reaction. He simply stood there quietly, gripping his sword, his imperial robes fluttering in the wind, his gaze fixed on the approaching Red Star...

Li Laide also had many paths of the Thief God gathered within him, and with the added blessing of the Red Star's power of aspiration, he was affected much like Ying Fu.

"It's just a star; I'll just solve it." He snorted coldly. "Stealing a star... is that hard?"

He ignored Chen Ling's words and was the first to charge toward the Red Star.

As for Lu Xun, he was completely unaffected by the Red Star's storm...

"Director Chen..."

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something.

The actor beneath the crimson sky lifted his foot...

"Go back!!"

The unquestionable voice sounded like a thunderclap, exploding in the sky!

Boom—!!!!

The pressure of world-ending destruction felt as if the firmament had suddenly collapsed, crashing down upon the three of them.

The power of negation swept across, directly shaking Li Laide out of the void as he prepared to unleash his thieving arts. Ying Fu and Lu Xun also lost all their strength in an instant, struck by this immense pressure and falling from the sky like meteors!!

The whistling gale brushed past their ears. They stared blankly at the figure standing alone beneath the Red Star, a look of astonishment appearing in their eyes simultaneously.

What...

on earth is he trying to do??

Chen Ling gave them a deep look before his gaze returned to the scorching, falling Red Star.

Chen Ling had seen the scene of the Red Star's reorganization with his own eyes. Regardless of what this thing actually was, ordinary methods could not damage its core... It was less of a celestial body and more of a bizarre existence between "energy" and "organism," a mass of "Red Star aspiration" possessing self-awareness.

Energy in this universe must be conserved. No matter how it was shattered, as long as the energy frequencies matched, it could rapidly reorganize and converge. The only way to solve it might be the "Ignition" of the Seven Lords... but now, the Seven Lords had withered, and the same method could no longer be replicated.

Whether it was Ying Fu, Li Laide, or Lu Xun, they couldn't truly harm the Red Star. Charging up there now was nothing more than suicide.

Perhaps from the very beginning, the first Actor Nameless had already provided the final answer...

The method to solve the Red Star lay upon the Red Star itself.

Chen Ling had luckily assumed this was just a hypothesis, a possibility inferred when conditions didn't allow for anything else... but now it seemed this might have been a conclusion reached by the first Actor Nameless after attempting it.

A touch of bitterness welled up in Chen Ling's eyes.

He had thought that this time, he had finally handed in a perfect answer, achieving the best ending that even the Akashic Tower hadn't been able to simulate. But now it seemed his situation was no different from that of the previous Actors Nameless...

"I'll go up and see for myself... what exactly you are."

Chen Ling's cold voice echoed in the sky.

Endless red paper surged out from Chen Ling's body. His form expanded rapidly, instantly occupying the entire sky until it was roughly the same size as the Red Star, like a red sun monster waving countless tentacles, roaring angrily at the rapidly descending Red Star!

The red paper monster erupted with astonishing acceleration, rising from the sky and crashing straight toward the Red Star!

Just as Lu Xun had said, to change the Red Star's trajectory, one could only use a celestial body of equal scale, colliding at the appropriate speed and angle.

A red sun and a Red Star approached each other rapidly in the sky!

The world was dyed in an oppressive red.

"What is he trying to do??"

Seeing this, Li Laide's pupils contracted violently.

Lu Xun clenched his fists, his eyes bloodshot. "He's going to... knock the Red Star away."

……

Chengtian Domain, a certain factory.

"Brother..."

Li Wanhua clutched the hem of Heart 9's shirt nervously, her palms sweating. "Will the Boss... will he be okay?"

Heart 9 looked at the scarlet sky and the two rapidly approaching giant shadows, muttering to himself:

"He'll be fine..."

"How could Lord Red King... possibly be in trouble..."

……

Fusion Faction, Mother Tree.

Countless young students stood by the windows, watching the sky with equal nervousness.

"Teacher Ye!"

"Teacher Ye! Mr. Chen has turned into a star too!"

“……”

The students' faces were filled with worry. Not knowing how to ease their anxiety, they subconsciously huddled close to Teacher Ye, leaning on each other as they waited for the final moment to arrive.

Teacher Ye gently stroked the head of the child beside her, looking at the sky and whispering:

"Mr. Chen..."

"...is protecting us all."

……

Frost Avenue.

Countless citizens had stepped out of their homes, standing on the streets and looking up at the sky.

An inconspicuous pair of brothers stood among the crowd.

"Brother... if that star falls, will we die?" Chen Yan turned to look at Yao.

"...Probably." Yao paused for a moment. "But we can't change anything. Whether it falls or not is not for us to decide."

"True."

For some reason, after seeing that red sun, Chen Yan didn't feel panicked... instead, he felt an inexplicable sense of peace.

"What do you want to eat tonight?"

"I want fried rice."

"Alright, let's go to the market and buy some groceries."

"Okay."

……

At this very moment, tens of millions of eyes were fixed on the crimson sky.

They were terrified, helpless, nervous, and praying... yet their will could change nothing. They watched with their own eyes as the two giant shadows collided above the firmament...

Then,

a visible shockwave swept across the horizon.

BOOM——————！！！！

The red sun was shattered into pieces in an instant, and at the same time, the Red Star was also largely broken apart.

But the angle and speed of the red sun had been chosen with extreme precision. The collision did not slow the Red Star down; instead, under the terrifying kinetic energy, the Red Star was forcibly knocked off its original trajectory, accelerating as it "brushed past" the atmosphere.

Fragments of the red paper monster fell from the sky like a torrential rain. Chen Ling's figure had completely vanished, and along with him, what had been wiped from the world...

...was that world-ending aura that everyone could perceive.

The sky fell into a deathly silence once more.

Only a streak of crimson light, dragging a long tail, swept silently across the horizon.