Chapter 868: Pulling Stars
There were many Immortal Spells recorded in the Compendium of Cultivation. However, they were all skills that would not be useful in the Kunlun Realm as they were worthless before strong Martial Techniques.
The truly powerful Immortal Spells were the Magic Skills, which could be separated into Minor Magic Skills, Major Magic Skills, and Supreme Magic Skills.
As of now, the Immortal Sects in the Penglai Sea did not have many Minor Magic Skills. Major Magic Skills were even rarer, and the number of Supreme Magic Skills came to single digits.
Starry Heaven Storm was a peak Minor Magic Skill. Although it was just a Minor Magic Skill, it was stronger than a regular Heaven Ranked Martial Technique. Moreover, it could become a Major Magic Skill with further practice.
Xiao Chen carefully studied the key points of Starry Heaven Storm once again. Then he closed his eyes and pondered it in detail, simulating the execution of this Magic Skill in his mind.
After a while, he opened his eyes and formed hand seals with both hands, changing them continuously. The Magic Energy in his sea of consciousness drained quickly.
Because the environment in the universe was complex, having many stars, there would always be some that would leave their orbits due to unforeseen circumstances.
The Heavenly Dao had already decided the orbit of every star the moment it was born.
Although the universe was vast, in the eyes of the supreme Heavenly Dao, it was just like a chessboard. The intersecting spatial and time lines tied all the stars to the chessboard of fate.
If a star suddenly left its orbit, the deviation would instantly mess up the space-time lines and the arrangement of fate, generating immense destructive power.
This was the destructive power of the Starry Heaven Storm. When a Starry Heaven Storm appeared, it would destroy countless stars everywhere it passed. Furthermore, it would travel for billions of kilometers.
Starry Heaven Storm—the Magic Skill in the jade strip—imitated the scenario of a star leaping out of the chessboard of fate, generating puissant destructive power in that instant.
As Xiao Chen sped up the changing hand seals, a scene of intersecting time and space lines appeared behind him; the chessboard of fate materialized.
Many stars spun in their orbits as they should on the chessboard of fate. The mysterious phenomenon looked like an endless river of stars, exactly the same as the infinite starry heavens of the Kunlun Realm.
Xiao Chen's nerves tensed as he extended strands of Spiritual Sense into the vast scene of the universe, quickly searching for his target.
No, this star is too big. I cannot push it. This star will not do, either. I still can't push it.
This star is of a suitable size, just right for me to push. Wait, no! It is too far. Even after pushing it, the generated storm will not be able to descend.
"Bang!"
An intense explosion resounded. The endless river of stars behind Xiao Chen suddenly shattered into pieces. He vomited a mouthful of blood, suffering a backlash from his Magic Energy from his failure to execute the Magic Skill.
A loud golden bell rang in his mind, causing instant dizziness; he could not stand steadily.
Practicing the Magic Skill was much harder than Xiao Chen had expected. Even so, he was not surprised. He sat down cross-legged. After resting for about seven or eight minutes, he commenced his second attempt.
After about ten attempts, he finally succeeded in moving a star. The space-time lines on the chessboard of fate started undulating intensely.
Xiao Chen generated a Starry Heaven Storm in that instant. As he stretched his arm out, strong black winds rushed towards the surface of the sea in the distance. What kind of scene would he see when the winds' strength reached the climax?
The Starry Heaven Storm silently blew all the seawater away, vaporizing it there and then.
A hundred-meter-wide groove emerged in the air. A huge void appeared on the calm sea without warning, separating the water. The bottom of the several-kilometer-deep sea came into view.
In the next moment, the seawater tried to rush in. Huge waves splashed as they surged ferociously into the gap. The entire sea surface turned chaotic, far more frightening than the arrival of a storm.
Joy bloomed in Xiao Chen's eyes. He revealed a faint smile on his face as he asked out of habit, "Ao Jiao, how's the might of this Minor Magic Skill?"
Right after he said that, he was stunned. Then his expression immediately sank. As he peered into the empty Immortal Spirit Ring with his Spiritual Sense, the joy in his eyes slowly faded away.
Sometimes, when someone was around all the time, they lost their presence, and one took them for granted. Only when one lost that person would one treasure them.
Xiao Chen flipped his palm, and a broken blade flew out from the Immortal Spirit Ring. This was the other piece of the Thunder Emperor's broken sword.
He gripped the broken sword tightly, and a determined expression flashed in his eyes. The Immortal Epoch had lasted for much longer than the Martial Epoch.
He would definitely find a Supreme Magic Skill to reverse space and time, passing through the long river of fate and destiny to bring Ao Jiao back.
The broken sword in Xiao Chen's hand retained some of Ao Jiao's memories. With it, there might still be some hope. If he did his best, a miracle might happen.
He gave Thunder Emperor Valley below him a grave look. Then, electric light flashed under his feet as he tore through space and headed back to the Heavenly Saber Pavilion.
He returned to the Heavenly Saber Pavilion after more than half a year. When Liu Ruyue and the others saw him, they all heaved a sigh of relief.
After losing Ao Jiao, Xiao Chen treasured everyone around him. He did not want a repeat of that tragedy. For the sake of bringing Ao Jiao back sooner, he practiced and cultivated even harder.
Ten days later, having familiarized himself with his new strength, Xiao Chen returned to the Sky Dome Immortal Realm.
After a long fight with that beast that was as strong as a grandmaster-level Martial Sage, he successfully entered the pavilion at the Immortal Qi lake. This place did not disappoint him. There was another jade strip with a Minor Magic Skill in the pavilion.
Having seen the horrifying might of Starry Heaven Storm, Xiao Chen gained a good understanding of the preciousness of a Minor Magic Skill. There were thousands of Immortal Arts in the Compendium of Cultivation but not a single Magic Skill.
All the Immortal Arts in the Compendium of Cultivation combined would not be as precious as the Starry Heaven Storm. The new Magic Skill he found in the jade strip was called the Great Sun Incantation.
When successfully executed, the Great Sun Incantation would manifest the might of the great blazing sun with a single word. When the incantation was complete, it would be like the sun falling to the ground.
Like Starry Heaven Storm, the introduction on the jade strip was somewhat grandiose. For one to reach the described might, one would have to advance to the level of an Immortal Lord.
It would be the same as when Xiao Chen executed Starry Heaven Storm, where he only managed to part the sea, far from being able to destroy a star.
However, he was confident that when his cultivation advanced a few more steps, he would be able to use this Starry Heaven Storm in the starry heavens of the Kunlun Realm to push a real star and create a real Starry Heaven Storm.
After leaving the pavilion, Xiao Chen tried searching around for more. However, despite spending a long time in the Sky Dome Immortal Realm, he gained nothing else. So he left.
Having obtained another Minor Magic Skill, he returned to the Heavenly Saber Pavilion and went into closed-door cultivation.
Xiao Chen did not have any foundation in Immortal Cultivation. Acquiring such vast Magic Energy was like a beggar suddenly winning the lottery. After wearing some gold and silver, he thought that he was a rich and powerful person. However, he lacked a solid foundation.
Xiao Chen estimated that he would have to spend at least one year to achieve the same level of foundation that current Immortal Cultivators had. By then, it should be easy for him to execute the Magic Skills and minimize the chances of failure.
No one would be able to bear the consequences of failing to execute a Magic Skill in the middle of battle.
Xiao Chen did not mind loneliness. After thinking for a while, he decided to enter closed-door cultivation for one and a half years, which should make things much easier for him.
However, this meant his cultivation would stagnate for about two years. The distance between him and the geniuses of the Kunlun Realm would open further, creating a scary chasm.
Xiao Chen did not fear this. Immortal Arts had to be his foundation. He had to spend some time studying them. Furthermore, he had to merge Immortal Arts and the Martial Way.
If some things did not need rigorous testing in actual combat for validation, Xiao Chen would not find even five years of closed-door cultivation excessive.
Time crawled by, and the time for the Demonic God Blood Sacrifice slowly approached. The entire Kunlun Realm was under enormous pressure.
Under this pressure, all sorts of chaos occurred. Amid the tumult, new outstanding talents relied on fortuitous encounters to rise up. Races that vanished long ago also reappeared, wanting to make use of the confusion to gain a stable footing in the Kunlun Continent once more.
The minor conflicts between the five major races also intensified. Everyone wanted to acquire more resources so they could be more confident of facing the approaching Demonic God Blood Sacrifice.
The major characters at the peak of every race did not concern themselves with this tumult, treating it as a drill for when the Demonic God Blood Sacrifice arrived. This indifference encouraged the further evolution of the anarchy.
Naturally, Xiao Chen did not know any this as he was in closed-door cultivation in the Sky Dome Realm.
Slowly, people forgot about Xiao Chen, who once opposed Di Wuque in a high-profile manner. In this era where geniuses appeared in droves, an absence of three months resulted in replacement.
Naturally, after not finding Xiao Chen in the various lands of fortuitous encounters for half a year, people forgot about him. Since he did not appear for such a long time, they assumed he had fallen.
Many people spread rumors that he was trapped in the Sage Mark Monument, becoming the first wrongful death of a genius in its history.
One and a half years passed in the blink of an eye. Xiao Chen slowly walked out of the cave where he spent his closed-door cultivation.
This place was an unremarkable desolate mountain within the Lingyun Mountain Range that no one came too. This place had very thin Spiritual Energy and no Spirit Beasts or Spirit Herbs.
It was a barren mountain filled with a forest of strange stone pillars and looked rather vast at a glance.
The blazing sunlight shone down from above. Xiao Chen took a deep breath. He had not remained cooped up in the cave for the past one and a half years.
Occasionally, he had come out to test some ideas—which resulted in the crumbled peaks in the vicinity.
Even after he suppressed his cultivation and used less than half his strength, the destructive power he unleashed in the Sky Dome Realm was still exceedingly horrifying.
"Starry Heaven Storm!" Xiao Chen shouted, forming hand seals.
In a mere instant, he expended a lot of Magic Power to materialize the cosmic chessboard of fate, unfolding the infinite starry heavens.
His Spiritual Sense moved about swiftly in this infinite starry heavens, searching star after star. After wrapping around three stars, he pulled with his full power.
"Go!"
Xiao Chen's expression turned solemn as he thrust his hand forward. A black Starry Heaven Storm surged out immediately. Space broke, revealing broken pitch-black layers spreading for thousands of kilometers.
When the remnant energy landed, the various peaks shortened even further.
"Great Sun Incantation!"
Xiao Chen's hands did not stop moving. His Magic Energy blazed like a raging fire. It faintly moved the Immortal Laws, and the blazing sun in the sky gradually dimmed.