Chapter 828 Beyond the Blood Jade Galaxy
Kael’s arrival instantly triggered the valley’s grand defensive formation.
More than a dozen high-ranking Starhound cultivators shot into the sky. Two had reached the early stages of the Eternal Realm, while the rest were all Galactic Realm experts.
“You... You can’t really be Kael.”
The Starhound Patriarch stared at him in disbelief.
Many years had passed since Kael had killed the Dean of Sunlance Academy and the Lord of Northguard City. News of his deeds had long since reached the distant Starhound Galaxy.
“Did you order the extermination of humanity throughout the Starhound Galaxy?” Kael asked, his voice cold.
“We did. What of it?” the Starhound Patriarch replied.“Kael, the Starhound Race is nothing like the Lord of Northguard City. We have powerful allies. If you dare attack us—”
Before he could finish, Kael summoned the Grand Celestial Manifestation.
One of the Manifestation’s enormous hands rose into the sky. Its palm alone was larger than the entirety of Starhound Valley.
Then it descended.
The valley’s grand defensive formation exploded beneath the impact.
The Grand Celestial Manifestation raised its hand once more.
Throughout the canyon, countless Starhounds fled in every direction. Some raced between the buildings, while others launched themselves into the sky.
The colossal palm fell a second time.
This time, there was no formation to protect them.
Buildings collapsed, and countless bodies burst beneath the descending palm.
“No!”
“Help us!”
“Patriarch, save us!”
The Grand Celestial Manifestation’s hand flattened the entire canyon. Every scream and cry for help vanished beneath it.
“You...”
“How could you...”
The surviving Starhound leaders could only stare at Kael in disbelief.
A lethal pressure erupted from Kael as he brought his palms together.
The Grand Celestial Manifestation mirrored his movement.
Its enormous hands slammed together, crushing every Starhound leader between them except for the two Eternal Realm cultivators.
“Run!”
The Starhound Patriarch and the remaining Eternal fled into the distance.
“Where do you think you can go?”
Kael clasped his hands behind his back and followed without the slightest urgency.
The pursuit continued for seven days and seven nights before Kael finally drove the two Starhounds to the edge of the galaxy.
To his surprise, the boundary of the Starhound Galaxy was identical to the one surrounding his Inner Cosmos—a vast expanse of gray.
The Starhound Patriarch slammed into the gray boundary at full speed.
The impact hurled him backward, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
The restrictive power within the gray boundary was clearly immense. An ordinary Eternal Realm cultivator had no hope of breaking through it.
“Nowhere left to run?”
“Kael, name your price,” the Starhound Patriarch said. “Whatever compensation you demand, if we possess it, we will give it to you.”
“Your lives will be payment enough.”
Using the gray boundary to cut off their escape, Kael deployed a sword array around the two Starhounds. He then released a dense swarm of Golden Beetles into the formation.
The two Starhounds’ screams continued without pause.
“Hm?”
Kael’s attention shifted to one of the cocoons he had been carrying.
It had begun to twitch.
A crack appeared across its surface and rapidly spread.
The cocoon finally split open, revealing a tiny golden humanoid.
“You’re the Golden Beetle?”
Kael studied the miniature figure.
It could not speak, but it nodded in response.
“So the Golden Beetle’s final form is humanoid as well?”
Kael reached out and caught the golden figure in his palm.
It stood only about a foot tall, yet its entire body was impossibly hard. Where its eyes should have been were two deep, black vortices without pupils or eyelids.
At that moment, a figure burst out of the sword array and fled into the distance, howling in agony.
It was the Starhound Patriarch.
Kael’s sword array and the ordinary Golden Beetles were no longer enough to reliably kill an Eternal Realm cultivator.
He was preparing to use another method when the tiny golden humanoid vanished from his hand.
It reappeared directly in front of the fleeing Starhound Patriarch.
The miniature figure struck like a living weapon, punching straight through the Starhound Patriarch’s abdomen and burrowing into his body.
“Aaaargh!”
The Starhound Patriarch’s agonized screams soon broke into involuntary barks.
A short while later, the golden humanoid tore its way back out.
All that remained of the Starhound Patriarch was an empty dog hide suspended in the void.
“Oh?”
Kael was both astonished and delighted.
He had not expected this form of the Golden Beetle to possess enough power to kill a severely wounded Eternal Realm cultivator.
Once the sword array dispersed, Kael recalled the dense swarm of Golden Beetles and returned them to his Beast Pouch.
Astral Mountain appeared in his hand.
After so many years, the mountain had completely refined the minor planet of immense mass that it had swallowed. The instant it emerged, the surrounding light began to distort around it.
“Are you going to test whether you can break out of the Blood Jade Galaxy now?” Aethera asked.
“Of course. If I can escape the Blood Jade Galaxy directly, I won’t need to confront the Broodmother at all.”
“Very well. But I cannot predict how the Heavenly Laws of a Lower Realm galaxy will react if you force your way through its boundary. Even if you succeed, there may be consequences neither of us can foresee.”
Aethera’s voice trembled slightly.
If Kael could escape the Blood Jade Galaxy, she would have another glimmer of hope of eventually returning to the Ascendant Realm.
Astral Mountain began changing shape. Before long, it had transformed into an enormous spearhead.
Kael believed the pointed form would give it the greatest penetrating power.
He entered the center of the spearhead.
The artifact then retreated more than a dozen miles, putting enough distance between itself and the gray boundary to build momentum.
Once it reached the proper position, Kael poured all his Origin Power into Astral Mountain at once.
The spearhead pulsed with alternating waves of light and darkness. A deafening hum thundered through its interior.
“Go!”
The spearhead vanished.
The next instant, it collided with the gray boundary.
The impact sounded like two celestial bodies crashing together. The explosion was so violent that it instantly overwhelmed Kael’s hearing.
Time and space within the gray boundary twisted into chaos.
At last, the spearhead forced its tip into the gray expanse.
It bored rapidly into the boundary, disappearing into the grayness as it drove toward the other side.
Kael looked down at his hands.
They stretched, flattened, widened, and narrowed without pause.
The flow of time was equally unstable. One moment, it raced forward at an incredible speed. The next, it slowed almost to a halt.
...
Countless spiral galaxies floated throughout the vast universe.
Viewed on such a scale, even an entire galaxy appeared insignificant.
Within one rotating, blood-red galaxy, a tiny speck suddenly broke free and emerged into the darkness beyond.
That speck was the spearhead formed from Astral Mountain.
“I... I escaped the Blood Jade Galaxy?”
Kael could hardly contain his joy.
“I actually made it out?”
“You did! You finally escaped!” Aethera cried, her voice brimming with excitement. “Kael, you truly are a genius. You broke through the restrictions imposed by the galaxy’s Heavenly Laws!”
Then Kael’s joy abruptly vanished.
He disappeared from the spearhead and entered his Inner Cosmos.
The world inside was completely empty.
Arthur and everyone else had disappeared.
Only the small bird formed from Aethera’s spirit stood atop the Blackcloud Tree.
“What happened?” Kael demanded. “Where is everyone?”
“Their cultivation must have been too weak,” Aethera said after a moment’s thought. “The power of the galaxy’s Heavenly Laws left them behind. Only you and I managed to escape the Blood Jade Galaxy.”
“Then I have to go back immediately. If I can’t bring them out of the Blood Jade Galaxy, everything I’ve done until now will have been meaningless.”
Kael returned to the spearhead and sent another surge of power through it.
Its sharpened tip tore into the gray boundary once more.