Cultivating for a hundred lifetimes to ascension

Xian Kong Ancestor and the others saw this scene and also tunneled into light, following along.

A moment later, the passage closed silently, followed by a blinding burst of light from the surface of the Mayfly Palace.

Suddenly, the light converged and a layer of thick, condensed, dark grey light shield appeared on the outer layer of the Mayfly Palace, firmly protecting it.

Then, without a sound or a trace, the Mayfly Palace "swam into" the dark and cold Outer Void, swiftly moving away, and soon blended into the vast expanse of the dark curtain, vanishing without a trace.

...

Three years later, an immense and boundless Meteorite Sea had already faintly revealed its general outline.

"Xian Kong, quickly activate the Silent Sky Cannon. Directly ahead there's a meteor two fathoms in diameter!"

"Jiu Ming, be careful, there are two Big Void Ghosts a hundred miles behind you. Be careful to avoid entanglement!"

"Senior Tian Qiong, leave that Void Ghost King to you. There's no need to exterminate it, just entangle it...uh!"

Before he could finish speaking, the chubby-cheeked Ancestor of Universe Palace suddenly drew in a cold breath, almost dropping his jaw in shock.

As a burst of flame erupted, an indescribably bizarre gray light suddenly appeared out of nowhere, quickly engulfing a space of three thousand zhang and "submerging" the dense Void Ghosts along with that troublesome Void Ghost King.

The gray light existed only for a moment, then disappeared as abruptly as it had appeared, leaving an utterly empty space behind.

Interstellar dust, the dense Void Ghosts along with that Void Ghost King all vanished without a trace, as if erased from existence.

Such a terrifying phenomenon immediately scared the surrounding Void Ghosts into dispersing in a panic, desperately fleeing further outwards.

Xian Kong, Jiu Ming, Zuo Yan, and a few other Nascent Souls also watched this scene in extreme shock, momentarily speechless.

In contrast, Zhao Sheng acted as if nothing had happened, controlling the Thousand Flame Tripod to release a sea of a thousand zhang of fire, encircling the Mayfly Palace as it flew, driving away the dense Void Ghosts.

An hour before, the Mayfly Palace had accidentally "fallen" into a minor dust star nebula, where tiny dust particles like gravel drifted within a radius of a hundred thousand miles.

The dust star nebula was not dangerous. As long as one avoided the bigger meteorites, one could easily breakthrough this cloud of dust.

However, the colony of Void Ghosts that bred and dwelt in this nebula was the greatest danger.

The lowest-level Void Ghosts resembled a mere shadow, lacking any fixed form. They adhered to the light shield, simultaneously drawing the "light heat" emitted by the light shield while desperately twisting and squirming their shadows, their bodies gradually swelling unnoticed, and transitioning towards some sort of form.

Void Ghosts were only the most ordinary form of void life in the Outer Void Sea, individually their strength was not worth mentioning, yet their numbers were beyond calculation.

Boom, boom, boom!

Several Nascent Soul Ancestors took action with all their might, and with the Void Ghost King now dead, the dense Void Ghosts quickly fled from the Mayfly Palace in terror.

But in the next instant, the surface of the dark light shield erupted with large waves of light, looking as if a calm lake surface was suddenly being intensely pelted by rain, splashing up densely packed water droplets alike, the light shield flashing wildly, continuously rippling outwards.

"Humph, fully activate the Spirit Stone Furnace! Don't worry about Spirit Stone consumption, fill up my fire chamber. Maximize the Haze Light Shield, the Mayfly Palace charges forward with all its might..." The Ancestor of Universe Palace, his face turning red, stood in the command center firing a flurry of orders to his subordinates.

At the same time, Zhao Sheng and six other Nascent Souls unfolded their respective Nascent Soul Domains, protecting the Mayfly Palace from every direction, and actively shattered those meteorites larger than three inches.

Hundreds of agonizing hours later, the Mayfly Palace had just barely made it through the dust cloud and continued to fly toward the seemingly "just a stone's throw away" Divine Ruins Meteor Sea.

The Mayfly Palace was specifically used for traveling between the Nether Night Realm and the Divine Ruins, and the Ancestor of Universe Palace had operated this business for nearly a thousand years, becoming exceptionally familiar with the route.

Aside from running into that randomly wandering interstellar dust cloud midway, the rest of the journey went very smoothly, encountering no major incidents.

The Void Sea was dead silent and vast, as if time itself had come to a standstill.

Two years seemed to blink by in an instant.

As the Mayfly Palace slowly approached the outermost thousand-zhang meteor of the Divine Ruins, Zhao Sheng's cultivation also quietly broke through the Four-level Shackles, successfully advancing to the Fifth Realm of the Nascent Soul.

"Whew~, after using up thirty-eight top-grade Spirit Stones and sixteen strands of Mystic Crystal, I finally advanced to the Fifth Realm. The cost was somewhat high. But considering the time cost, it was worth it."

Zhao Sheng muttered to himself, slowly descending from mid-air, his surging, powerful mana fluctuations gradually receding into his body.

Within moments, he had returned to a state of "hidden but not revealed," profound as ever.

An hour later, the Mayfly Palace docked on the plaza atop the meteor, and Zhao Sheng and the others filed out.

Zhao Sheng, Xian Kong, and Nine-Life did not linger, bidding farewell to the others and quickly sped towards the west side of the Meteor Sea.

After about five or six days and nights, traversing tens of millions of miles through the void, the three arrived in an area where the meteors were relatively sparse, settling on a dark red iron meteor to quietly await the arrival of their two companions.

More than twenty days later, a black and a blue tunneling light suddenly emerged from the end of the dark Heavenly Curtain, speeding towards this iron meteor like lightning.

Zhao Sheng and the others were startled, and they all flew into the air, watching the approaching tunneling lights.

Moments later, the leading tunneling light faintly revealed the figure of Yama Ancestor, and inside the blue light was a middle-aged Taoist with a determined expression, dressed in Fu Xi's Ten Thousand Talisman Robe.

A few breaths later, the tunneling lights suddenly stopped, and Yama Ancestor stepped into the void, looking at Zhao Sheng and the others coming to meet him, his face showing an apologetic expression as he said, "This old man has arrived late, please do not blame me, Taoist friends!"

Zhao Sheng smiled slightly, casually saying, "It was just a slight wait, such a trivial matter is not worth mentioning. I presume this is the renowned Array Master across the two realms, Daoist Ou Feng!"

The determined-faced middle-aged Taoist saluted the three with clasped hands, sizing up Zhao Sheng who was in front, then spoke in a deep voice, "I am Ou Feng from the Asking Dao Sect, I've met Senior Tianqiong, Daoist Xian Kong."

He addressed the first two people, but not a word about the Nine-Life Ghost King, revealing that Ou Feng's straightforward nature was shockingly low in emotional intelligence.

Seeing this, the Nine-Life Ghost King's body emitted a flicker of black light, unable to suppress a cold snort.

Yama Ancestor also saw this scene, but he did not intervene to mediate, pretending as if he saw nothing.

Zhao Sheng and Xian Kong, seeing the other's manner, were naturally happy to feign ignorance.

Though the five were together in search of the Seven Star Spirit Realm, each of them was an old immortal who had lived over a thousand years, so how could they genuinely cooperate without harboring any ulterior motives?

After a brief awkward silence, Yama Ancestor looked over and urged, "Brother Tianqiong, it's your turn!"

Zhao Sheng nodded, waved his hand, and a foot-long Jade Ruyi embedded with seven dazzling star diamonds appeared in his hand.

"Heaven and Earth are boundless, the Seven Stars guide the way, mmm...

Zhao Sheng formed a hand seal with one hand, murmuring incantations, pouring continuous powerful Divine Thoughts into the Jade Ruyi.

Soon, the surface of the Seven Star Ruyi emitted a spectrum of colors, and from its tip, a faint beam of starlight quietly shot out, extending deep into the boundless Meteor Sea.

"Let's go!"

Zhao Sheng took the lead, transforming into a blaze of light, quickly entering the infinite Meteor Sea, with the other three Nascent Souls closely following behind...

As the last glimmers of the dual suns were gradually obscured by the dense meteors, the Divine Ruins were on the verge of being engulfed by darkness, when three tunneling lights in purple-blue, ash-gray, and luminous-white suddenly streaked from afar, plummeting like meteors onto the iron meteor where Zhao Sheng and the others had landed.

When the three tunneling lights dispersed, they revealed a hooked-nosed old man with wings on his back, a stout young man with protruding front teeth and a large black nose like a huge strawberry from the Sneaky Youth clan.

The last person was a gaunt woman covered in disgusting pustules on her face, her hair moving as if it were alive, enveloped in a thick skin robe, her lower body empty, but extending more than a dozen tentacle-like limbs.

"No mistake, the imprint is here, we've found the right place," Thunder Roc Ancestor released his Divine Thoughts scanning the meteor, suddenly revealing a hint of a smile.

The Sneaky Youth of the River Otter People was a Nascent Soul Ancestor at the Nascent Soul Middle Stage, considering the Yellow Heaven Sect a thorn in his side, determined to exterminate this formidable foe.

Dealing with solicitors who came on their own initiative was certainly an instant agreement.

As for the pustule-covered woman, she was from the Corpse Mushroom tribe, revered as "Immortal Mushroom," also at the Nascent Soul Middle Stage.

These years, prompted by Zhao Sheng's sudden rise and the Yellow Heaven Sect's increasingly ambitious displays.

This directly disrupted the fragile balance maintained on the Nine Demon Continent, with all but the Mountain Spirit of the other seven tribes being highly wary of the Human Clan, fearing a recurrence of old affairs on the Heavenly Curtain Continent.

Thus, when the opportunity arose for Tianqiong Wanderer to venture far into the Divine Ruins for exploration, under the machinations of an insider, a net of death swiftly wove together.

This expedition to the Divine Ruins was fated to be a one-way journey for the Tianqiong Wanderer, with the deadly trap already showing signs of its intent.