Chapter 805 The Nightfiend Galaxy
Kael placed both hands into the palm-shaped recesses once more.
The control console hummed to life.
At the same time, he felt the entire vessel become an extension of his body, as responsive to his will as his own limbs.
He immediately sent his Spiritual Sense throughout the vessel.
“Straight ahead.”
The ship vanished, reappearing several hundred miles away.
“Ha! Keep going!”
Kael couldn’t contain his delight.
The vessel surged forward once more.
As expected of a Machine Race craft, it was the fastest vessel Kael had ever encountered. It tore through space at a terrifying speed, leaving meteors and planetary fragments far behind.
All of them were remnants of the battle between Hadrian and the Insect Race experts.
Two more vessels soon appeared ahead.
Kael swept them with his Spiritual Sense and discovered that only Planetary Realm members of the Machine Race were aboard.
Now that he had entered the Eternal Realm, dealing with such insignificant opponents was beneath him. Besides, killing them wouldn’t earn him any Eternal Points.
His vessel shot past the two smaller ships and continued toward the barren expanse.
Seven days later, he finally reached the empty region.
Then the vessel stalled.
Kael went to the rear of the ship and used his Spiritual Sense to access one of its formation cores. Its inner compartment was packed with the shattered remains of exhausted Top-Grade Prime Essence Stones.
He cleared them out and replaced them with fresh stones.
Once the ship’s energy reserves had been replenished, Kael returned to the control console and flew deeper into the empty region.
Without this vessel, crossing the entire expanse would have taken him at least a century. Given the severity of his injuries, however, the journey might have taken five or six hundred years.
With a vessel built for Galactic Realm cultivators, he would need only a little over a decade.
After flying continuously for a month, Kael brought the ship to a halt and left it suspended in the darkness. He sat cross-legged beside the control console and attempted to heal his injuries.
“No. There’s almost no spiritual energy here.
Left with no other choice, Kael swallowed several ordinary pills and resumed his journey.
He could have entered his Inner Cosmos to recover, but his injuries were so severe that healing them would drain its spiritual energy.
If that happened, how would the nearly one trillion humans living inside survive, let alone cultivate?
Some of them had only reached the Qi Refining Realm. Losing more than a decade of precious cultivation time could make it far harder for them to break through later in life.
Time crawled by as the vessel streaked through the darkness like a meteor.
Eventually, Kael brought the ship to a stop.
Five or six strands of white now threaded his hair.
This was his sixth year aboard the vessel. By his estimate, he still needed another six or seven years to cross the barren expanse.
“Aethera, I think I’m lost.”
A grim note entered Kael’s voice.
There were no planets or stars in this empty region, and even meteors were exceedingly rare. He had nothing to serve as a fixed point of reference.
“Why didn’t you prepare properly before entering?” Aethera asked.
“I didn’t expect this place to be so difficult to navigate.”
Kael removed his hands from the control console. A moment later, he appeared atop the vessel.
Nothing but darkness surrounded him.
“Wait...”
He released the immense Spiritual Sense of an Eternal Realm cultivator, sweeping it outward in overlapping waves.
“That’s strange.”
Kael returned to the vessel and raced in a particular direction.
Before long, he reached the heart of the vast emptiness.
A black hole a little over half a mile across hung before him.
“Perhaps that is why an entire light-year around this place has been reduced to empty space,” Aethera said inside his mind.
“You mean there were once planets here, but the black hole devoured them over countless eras?”
“That would be my guess.”
Kael frowned and summoned the massive sword formed from Astral Mountain.
Through his Geomagnetic Spirit Root, he could sense the gravitational forces around him.
Somehow, Astral Mountain’s gravity appeared strong enough to resist the small black hole.
“An artifact with that much mass would be exceedingly rare even in the Ascendant Realm,” Aethera said slowly. “It may be able to withstand the black hole’s pull.”
“Is it really that extraordinary?”
“There’s an easy way to find out. Throw it toward the black hole and see whether it can be swallowed.”
Kael hesitated.
“I think I’ll pass.”
He drew the greatsword back.
“If this sword can truly contend with a black hole, then you could achieve Sword-Body Unity and escape the Blood Jade Galaxy. Even the Heavenly Laws governing this place would no longer be able to restrain you.”
“Are you certain?”
Kael’s interest was immediately piqued.
Hadn’t he worked so hard precisely because he wanted to escape the Blood Jade Galaxy?
“You can test it for yourself,” Aethera urged.
“No. Absolutely not.”
Kael refused to take the risk. If the black hole swallowed Astral Mountain, everything he had invested in it over the years would be lost.
“If you can’t bear to risk even a single artifact, how do you expect to accomplish anything worthwhile?”
Aethera was deliberately provoking him. She wanted to escape the Blood Jade Galaxy as well. Once they were free, her chances of returning to the Ascendant Realm would increase considerably.
“Trying to provoke me won’t work.”
Kael returned to the vessel, chose a direction at random, and resumed his journey.
More time passed.
At last, a planet appeared ahead.
Kael immediately landed on its surface.
It was a barren world with only faint traces of energy, but after more than a decade spent traveling through the empty region, even that meager amount felt precious.
He eagerly drew in several breaths of spiritual energy, then returned to the vessel and continued onward.
A month later, Kael landed on another planet.
This one possessed a stellar teleportation array.
“State your—” One of the cultivators guarding the array stopped abruptly. “Are you a member of the Machine Race?”
Several guards regarded Kael warily.
Blue light flickered in his eyes, allowing him to see through their disguises and identify their true forms.
“You’re Nightfiends? Is this the Nightfiend Galaxy?”
“You entered our territory without even knowing which race controls it?” the leader asked.
“It doesn’t matter. Grant me access to the teleportation array. I need to reach the border adjoining the Celestial Maiden Galaxy.”
Kael had studied his Galaxy Map. He knew they were still roughly three light-years from the Celestial Maiden Galaxy, which meant he would have to use the teleportation array. Otherwise, he would spend several more decades flying there.
The Nightfiend cultivators exchanged reluctant looks.
Before they could answer, Kael sensed something that made him go still.
His immense Spiritual Sense swept across the entire planet in an instant.
Within a vast mining complex, countless ragged humans carried chunks of ore along a narrow mountain trail.
Nightfiend cultivators flew overhead, lashing anyone who fell behind with their whips.
“Move!”
A whip cracked.
Three humans carrying heavy loads of stellar ore were knocked from the trail and plunged into the bottomless chasm below. Their screams echoed from the depths, driving everyone else to move faster.
“No stopping! Pick up the pace!”
Another Nightfiend cultivator raised his whip.
The next instant, his entire body froze.
Alarmed, he looked up at the sky.