Chapter 1297: Beings Held Hostage

Wind Rises in Kyushu

To be safe, Lu Ye hovered in the nearby airspace for several more days. He found no trace of the star beasts; even the asteroid belt where they had been lurking drifted far away and disappeared.

Only then did he relax.

This was his first battle since advancing to the Constellation realm, and as for the outcome, it was fairly good.

However, during the battle, Lu Ye also noticed some shortcomings. Having only recently advanced to the Constellation realm, his control over his own power wasn't perfect.

Of course, this was not a major issue; it wouldn't significantly affect his combat effectiveness, and with the passage of time, this problem would gradually improve.

Additionally, Lu Ye discovered something else: cultivators in the Constellation realm were indeed difficult to kill.

He wasn't sure about cultivators of other races, as he hadn't directly fought any. But as for the star beasts, each possessed unparalleled regenerative abilities; the gruesome wounds left by the Immovable Mountain Blade often healed within a few breaths.

This was something utterly impossible for those below the Constellation realm.

This was undoubtedly a benefit of flesh and blood essence reaching a certain level of power. It was also fortunate that the Immovable Mountain Blade, enhanced with the Divine Edge spirit紋, was now sharp enough; otherwise, Lu Ye probably wouldn't have been able to kill many star beasts in this battle.

This encounter served as a reminder to Lu Ye that the seemingly peaceful and lonely starry sky often harbored unknown dangers. Wandering in the star sea required vigilance not only against cultivators of various races but also against strange star beasts.

Despite the strenuous battle, there were still gains.

Just as demon beasts within realms possessed demon cores, so too did star beasts. While killing the star beasts, Lu Ye also collected their demon cores; although the environment was not ideal and time was short, preventing him from collecting all of them, he still managed to gather about half.

These items should also be useful for cultivation.

Thinking this, he took out a Constellation realm demon core, held it in his palm, and activated the power of the Talent Tree to try.

After some experimentation, he found that, just as he had expected, star beast demon cores could indeed be used for cultivation, and the energy contained within them was far greater than that of spirit jade.

This was normal. For example, the demon core of a Divine Sea realm demon beast within a realm would certainly contain energy that spirit stones couldn't compare to, as it was the crystallization of the demon beast's entire power.

By the same logic, star beast demon cores naturally couldn't be compared to spirit jade.

However, this cultivation method was destined to only suit him. Other cultivators couldn't replicate it; without the roots of the Talent Tree to penetrate and absorb from the demon cores, cultivators couldn't refine them solely with their own abilities, and directly consuming them was even more impossible. Therefore, in the starry sky, star beast demon cores were generally used for alchemy or other purposes; there was always a use for them.

He continued to fly forward, exploring, examining, and recording along the way. Occasionally, he would send his records back to Kyushu, allowing Jian Guchong to refine the star charts at the Guardian Hall.

As he ventured further, even with the aid of the Heavenly Mechanism Pillar he carried, his connection with Kyushu grew weaker. The main manifestation of this was a certain degree of delay in message transmission.

Message transmission among Kyushu cultivators was normally very convenient, with no delay whatsoever, but now there was a delay, clearly due to the immense distance. This was precisely as Little Nine had mentioned before: the further one was from Kyushu, the weaker the connection became.

Finally, on this day, when he tried to send a message to Jian Guchong, he found that not even a single message could be transmitted. Lu Ye then knew that he had exceeded the limit of his connection with Kyushu!

This limit could tentatively be considered Kyushu's airspace; going any further would be beyond its range. By his estimation, he had been away from Kyushu for about half a year, which aligned with the information he had previously received from Jian Guchong.

A half-year journey was also part of his own plan.

After all, this was his first exploration of the starry sky, so it wasn't advisable to venture too far. It wouldn't be too late to explore further once he had more experience.

Lu Ye considered himself to be a rather cautious person in his actions.

Since encountering that wave of star beasts three months ago, Lu Ye hadn't encountered any other living creatures; he had been exploring alone ever since.

Fortunately, his cultivation hadn't been interrupted. Although it wasn't as efficient as formal cultivation, overall, it reached about seventy percent of that efficiency.

What frustrated Lu Ye somewhat was that, even with this progress, his cultivation showed no signs of advancing to the next stage. However, his flesh and blood had indeed become more vibrant than before; upon internal inspection, the faint starlight hidden within his flesh became even denser.

This could be considered a kind of improvement, but he wondered how much longer it would take to advance to the mid-Constellation realm and reach the level of visceral essence.

This once again confirmed his previous conjecture: advancing in the Constellation realm was countless times more difficult than below it, absolutely requiring accumulation over long years.

If the Constellation realm was like this, then the subsequent Lunar and Solar realms would be even more so. The higher the cultivation realm, the more difficult it was to advance. No wonder few of the powerful cultivators he had seen at the Reincarnation Tree were in the Solar realm; unless they originated from top-tier realms with abundant resources, even for long-standing large realms, producing a Solar realm cultivator was extremely difficult.

From this perspective, Constellation realm cultivators were likely the majority in the starry sky. The chances of encountering a Lunar realm cultivator were not high, and encountering a Solar realm cultivator was even rarer.

It was unclear whether it was Yexin's luck or misfortune that he had discovered Kyushu, which had just connected with the starry sky.

Having reached his predetermined goal, Lu Ye had no intention of delving deeper; he planned to return as per his original schedule.

Of course, he wouldn't return by the exact same path. The area he intended to explore this time was a three-dimensional fan-shaped region, so by slightly changing his direction, he could return to Kyushu via a different route, expanding the explored area.

Just as he was about to do so, his peripheral vision suddenly caught a glimpse of a streak of light rapidly approaching from the side.

The light was incredibly fast, several times quicker than the fastest speed he had ever attempted; he didn't know what it was.

Before Lu Ye could focus his gaze, a powerful divine sense swept over from that direction.

Lu Ye's expression changed. He immediately turned around, and with a burst of spiritual power, rapidly fled forward.

Since there was a divine sense, it had to be a living being, and with such a powerful divine sense, Lu Ye estimated it was likely a Solar realm cultivator!

Encountering a Solar realm cultivator in such a starry sky, Lu Ye naturally dared not make contact rashly. Who knew if they were benevolent or malevolent?

He instantly felt incredibly depressed. Just before, he had been thinking that the main cultivators active in the starry sky were in the Constellation realm, Lunar realm cultivators were rarely encountered, let alone Solar realm ones.

Unexpectedly, he encountered one in the blink of an eye.

But since he had been discovered, escaping wouldn't be easy. Lu Ye could clearly feel that the powerful divine sense clung to him like a maggot on a bone, impossible to shake off no matter how hard he tried to flee.

A few breaths later, a figure suddenly appeared beside him. At the same time, a somewhat aged voice came from his ear: "Kid, why are you running?"

Lu Ye stiffly turned his head, finally getting a clear look at the owner of the divine sense.

It was a human, and his appearance was somewhat disheveled. His ragged clothes looked like they hadn't been washed in a long time, he had a messy white beard on his chin, and he wore a copper hoop-like object on his forehead.

He wasn't tall, about half a head shorter than Lu Ye.

If such a person appeared in the mortal world, anyone would probably think he was a beggar.

But Lu Ye dared not underestimate him, because the aura the other person gave off seemed even stronger than Yexin's.

He was undoubtedly in the Solar realm!

Lu Ye's right hand rested on the Immovable Mountain Blade. He replied stiffly: "Senior, is there something you need?" Although they were both human, Lu Ye didn't relax his guard in the slightest.

In such an environment, with such a powerful cultivator, and such an encounter, his life and death were already in the other party's control. However, Lu Ye was not prepared to compromise; even though he knew he was no match, if the other party truly made a move, he would still resist.

He couldn't quite understand how he could have so coincidentally encountered a Solar realm cultivator.

The old man clearly noticed Lu Ye's small gesture, but he didn't seem to mind in the slightest. The disparity in strength was clear; if he truly harbored killing intent, Lu Ye wouldn't be able to resist.

"Nothing," the old man said. "It's rare to meet another living person, so I wanted to chat. Life gets too boring." As he spoke, he channeled his spiritual power and enveloped Lu Ye.

The next moment, Lu Ye experienced the terrifying speed of a Solar realm cultivator!

Not only that, but he also had an inexplicable feeling of dread, as if a great crisis was about to descend upon him from behind. The intensity of that crisis was something his current cultivation level simply couldn't withstand.

He hurriedly turned his head back, and at a glance, saw a streak of light relentlessly pursuing them from behind. It was the same light he had seen earlier, and an extremely sharp killing intent emanated from it.

As for what the streak of light actually was... Lu Ye's eyes were too unrefined to tell.

"Senior, what are you doing?" Lu Ye asked. He hadn't sensed any malice from the old man for now, but he couldn't entrust his life and death to someone else's control.

Lu Ye didn't understand why the other party was holding him captive.

"I told you," the old man said, "I just want to chat with you. Are you stupid, kid?"

Lu Ye felt somewhat helpless. If it was just for a chat, why hold him captive? They could communicate through divine sense. And also...

"What's that behind us?"

The old man pursed his lips: "Hmm, you can think of it as a flying sword!"

"A flying sword!" Lu Ye exclaimed in astonishment. "Then why is it constantly chasing you, Senior?"

The old man let out a dry laugh: "This flying sword has a spirit. I activated it in an ancient secret realm, and it's been pursuing me ever since, refusing to let go."

Lu Ye listened, dumbfounded. Could such bizarre things really exist in this world?

The old man's cultivation was at least at the Solar realm. So, what level was this flying sword, that it could chase a Solar realm cultivator so fiercely that he could only flee in panic, not daring to turn back and fight?

As for the old man's claim about accidentally activating it, Lu Ye didn't believe a word of it. However, he wasn't inclined to inquire about the true story behind it; after all, it was the old man's private matter, and as mere acquaintances, the old man might not be willing to share.