Chapter 1500: The Sorrow of the Boundary Realm

Winds of Kyushu

Yan Miao smiled at Lu Ye. "I told you to visit often, and you've only just come after so long."

Lu Ye looked sheepish. "Please forgive me, Grand Elder, I've been preoccupied with various matters."

"What brings you here this time?" Yan Miao asked. Typically, Lu Ye wouldn't come to this place unless he had something specific to do.

Lu Ye gestured to the Soul Clan woman beside him and explained the situation to Yan Miao.

Yan Miao understood. "So you want her to stay here until you return."

"If it's inconvenient for you, Grand Elder, I can take her with me."

Yan Miao replied, "There's no inconvenience. She can stay here. The Soul Clan... they're quite rare. Across the vast starfield, they're considered a precious race, much like my own. You can go without worry; I'll personally look after her."

The Soul Clan woman's cultivation was at the late-stage Star Constellation realm, just like Lu Ye's. With Yan Miao, a Moonfall cultivator, personally supervising her, there was no fear of her causing any trouble.

Lu Ye then took out the token that controlled the Soul Clan's restriction, handed it to Yan Miao, and only then turned and stepped through the portal, returning to the Barren Star.

He didn't return to Unrivaled Island. Instead, he took out a sound talisman and sent a message to Chu Shen, explaining the situation. Then he sent another message to Ban Ci, arranging a meeting point with her. After that, Lu Ye piloted his starship away.

Upon arriving at the agreed location, Ban Ci was nowhere to be seen. Lu Ye waited for most of the morning before a beautiful and exquisite starship appeared in the sky. Ban Ci stood on it, waving to Lu Ye: "Come aboard!"

Lu Ye leaped aboard and sat down not far from Ban Ci.

The journey was considerable, but with Ban Ci piloting the starship, Lu Ye didn't have to exert himself; he could simply focus on deducing spirit patterns.

Ban Ci, however, couldn't sit still. As they traveled, she asked, "Fellow Daoist Li, I observe that you are quite powerful. Why is your name not on the Star Constellation Palace's Merit Accumulation List?"

Without lifting his head, Lu Ye replied, "You are also quite capable, Fellow Daoist, yet your name doesn't seem to be on the list either!"

Ban Ci smiled. "My reasons are a bit special. I wasn't able to participate in the Star Constellation Palace's competition, so I missed a good opportunity."

Based on the strength Ban Ci had previously displayed, if she had truly participated in the Star Constellation Palace competition, a top-twenty spot would have been easily within her grasp. In that case, she wouldn't have had to go through so much trouble to advance to Moonfall; she could have simply entered the Star Constellation Palace directly.

"Surely, you aren't in the same situation, Fellow Daoist?"

Lu Ye replied blandly, "Coincidentally, I am."

Ban Ci continued, "Many formidable individuals have appeared in the Star Constellation Palace this time. There's one named Fa Wuzun; I wonder if you've heard of him."

"I've heard of him," Lu Ye replied casually, his expression unchanged.

"It's said that he left the Star Constellation Palace midway due to some matter. Otherwise, he might have contended for the top spot on the Merit Accumulation List. What a pity."

Lu Ye couldn't figure out why Ban Ci suddenly brought up Fa Wuzun. Judging by her tone and demeanor, it seemed like casual chat, but since Lu Ye himself was Fa Wuzun, her mentioning the name in front of him made him somewhat wary.

Perhaps thinking of something, Ban Ci suddenly chuckled: "Our island master always says that Fa Wuzun is his elder brother. I wonder if we'll ever get the chance to meet this fellow Daoist and learn a thing or two from him."

Lu Ye remained silent. Ban Ci continued to chat desultorily, but since she consistently received no response, she probably found it uninteresting herself and stopped talking.

The journey was rather dull until, a month later, a wormhole suddenly appeared ahead!

Only then did Lu Ye understand why the secret realm was so far from Unrivaled Island. He had originally thought it was within the Myriad Phenomena Star System, but now it was clear the secret realm was in another star system.

On second thought, it made sense. With so many cultivators traversing the Myriad Phenomena Star System, any true secret realm would likely have been discovered long ago.

Under normal circumstances, strong cultivators from the local star system, at least at the Moonfall realm, would guard both ends of a wormhole. This was, firstly, to prevent sneak attacks on cultivators from their star system as they entered the Myriad Phenomena Star System via the wormhole, and secondly, to deter malicious individuals from invading their star system through the wormhole.

However, this wasn't always the case.

Some wormholes had no powerful guardians at either end. This usually occurred in star systems without strong realm-domains, where the lack of powerful cultivators meant that guarding the wormhole was irrelevant, allowing anyone to pass freely.

Lu Ye didn't know the situation of the star system on the other side of this wormhole, but it was likely that there were no powerful cultivators, or perhaps not even Star Constellation cultivators.

Ban Ci maintained her speed, piloting the starship directly into the wormhole and disappearing inside.

Lu Ye instinctively activated his energy to protect himself. Traversing a wormhole was a mysterious process; during passage, strange forces, usually spatial turbulence, would press in from all sides. If one was accidentally caught in it, they could become lost.

Lu Ye had experienced this once before, narrowly escaping thanks to a Void Beast's core, so he certainly didn't want a repeat.

However, just as he activated his protective energy, a defensive light barrier appeared around the starship.

This starship clearly possessed a defensive array, indicating its impressive quality, as cheaper starships typically didn't have such features.

During the wormhole transit, Lu Ye felt his senses completely disoriented. He didn't know how long passed before the disorientation suddenly vanished.

When he looked up again, his vision was filled with an unfamiliar starfield. Looking back, the wormhole through which they had come was behind them.

"This is an unnamed star system," Ban Ci casually explained. "While there seem to be a few local realm-domains, they generally don't have very powerful cultivators." Her explanation confirmed Lu Ye's earlier suspicion.

She glanced left and right, then fixed on a direction and steered the starship towards it.

After another half a month or so, as the starship passed near a small realm-domain, Ban Ci's aura suddenly shifted, and her gaze turned cold as she looked towards that realm-domain.

Lu Ye subtly sensed something. Following her gaze, his eyes narrowed involuntarily.

Although the distance wasn't particularly close, with Lu Ye's current eyesight, he could still vaguely discern some scenes on the realm-domain.

Ban Ci had already changed direction and was flying towards the realm-domain.

A short while later, they pierced through the clouds and arrived above a city.

This was clearly a realm-domain inhabited by living beings, yet upon inspection, the entire city was devoid of life.

Many buildings within the city were dilapidated, and the city walls bore marks of a fierce battle. Dried corpses lay scattered everywhere.

Lu Ye frowned, then flickered to a spot in the city and looked down at a corpse before him.

The corpse clearly belonged to a human, confirming that the beings inhabiting this realm-domain were human. However, whatever this person encountered before death left a hole in their chest, and all their vital energy was completely drained. Even after a long time, the body resembled a mummy.

The nearby human corpses were all in the same state, each bearing wounds, as if something had completely drained their vital energy.

Lu Ye raised his hand and plucked a white strand from a corpse, holding it in his palm. He didn't know what it was, but when he tugged at it, he found it incredibly tough, its quality already comparable to treasures of the Divine Sea realm.

"It's the silk of a Heavenly Desire Demon Spider!" Ban Ci's face darkened.

"A star beast?" Lu Ye also frowned.

Ban Ci nodded.

Lu Ye was puzzled: "Don't star beasts usually avoid invading realm-domains? How did it get here?"

Star beasts generally possess little intelligence and act purely on instinct, much like cattle graze on grass or wolves hunt meat. Star beasts require stellar energy, so typically, they don't invade realm-domains; they operate in the starry void.

This is because ordinary realm-domains hold no attraction for star beasts, unless they are top-tier realm-domains that can produce spirit jade veins. But such top-tier realm-domains are filled with numerous powerful cultivators, so how would star beasts dare to trespass casually?

Ban Ci explained: "Generally speaking, star beasts don't invade realm-domains, but there are always exceptions. Heavenly Desire Demon Spiders are one such kind. They not only crave stellar energy but also vital energy."

The situation was clear: Heavenly Desire Demon Spiders had arrived at this small realm-domain and unleashed a massacre. Judging by the remaining traces of battle in the city, there must have been not just one, but a group of them.

"Let's split up and search for survivors," Ban Ci said, then flew off in one direction.

Lu Ye flew in the opposite direction. If he hadn't encountered such a situation, it would have been one thing, but having done so, anyone with a modicum of compassion wouldn't simply ignore it.

A moment later, Lu Ye made a discovery, but he didn't find any living people. Instead, he found a group of Heavenly Desire Demon Spiders. This group was gathered in a mountainous wilderness, where white spider silk left by them was scattered everywhere.

From their appearance, the so-called Heavenly Desire Demon Spiders didn't differ much from ordinary spiders, except for their immense size. The smallest was the size of a calf, while the largest could rival a house.

This appeared to be a spider swarm, not particularly strong in terms of power; the strongest among them were only comparable to Star Constellation cultivators, with the rest being at the Divine Sea and True Lake realms.

Lu Ye had no reason to be polite with these creatures. He charged forward, swinging his blade and cutting them down.

With his current strength, these demon spiders were no match. In just a short while, he had completely annihilated the swarm.

He continued forward, his divine sense spreading out in search. Everywhere he passed, there was no sign of life.

This weighed heavily on Lu Ye's heart. It seemed that the human inhabitants of this small realm-domain had probably been completely slaughtered by the demon spiders.

There were quite a few spider swarms, and as soon as Lu Ye found one, he immediately moved to eliminate it.

Occasionally, he sensed sounds of battle from the other side of the realm-domain, which must have been Ban Ci taking action; she had clearly also encountered spider swarms.

It wasn't until a day later that Lu Ye met up with Ban Ci again. After a day of searching, Lu Ye hadn't found a single living person; all he encountered were demon spiders, and he had completely eliminated all of them.

Ban Ci was currently in a dilapidated village, where some dried corpses also remained. She stood in front of a farmhouse, her expression quite helpless.

"What's the situation?" Lu Ye asked, simultaneously looking inside. To his perception, there was a vital presence within!

This meant there was still a living person inside.

"A little girl," Ban Ci explained. "She must have been traumatized and doesn't want to come out."

Lu Ye stepped inside and quickly reached the little girl's hiding place.

(End of Chapter)

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