Chapter 1687: Gathering of Myriad Stars
Little Azure and Little White left, one moving to the east, the other moving to the west. Xiang Shaoyun felt somewhat lonesome with their departure. The two had been with him for several years, and they were basically his brothers. He fully trusted them, and they were his best helpers. With their help, his attempt for the young guild master position would be much easier.
However, the two were royalties among demonic beasts, and they each shouldered their respective destinies. Xiang Shaoyun could not bind them to his side. With the two's departure, it was time for Gui Qi and Money to step up and become his new helpers.
Under his support, Gui Qi had grown into a third-stage Devil God. With his unique soul attacks, he could fight even fifth-stage Gods. Additionally, his wings' illusory abilities were not to be underestimated either.
As for Money, he had stayed dormant within Xiang Shaoyun's body and had constantly absorbed the primal chaos lightning produced within Xiang Shaoyun. The moment he left the astral cosmos sea, he attracted several lightning tribulations and stepped into the Great Demon Saint Realm.
Although there was still quite a gap between him and the Demon God Realm, he still grew much stronger than before. In fact, he had obtained a piece of dragon bone and some dragon blood essence from Little Azure. However, he had yet to absorb both because he hoped to look for some objects related to the celestial horned dragonsnake before cultivating both his bloodlines at the same time. He still had the ambition to become the strongest celestial horned dragonsnake in existence.
After a year of war, Xiang Shaoyun had won the recognition of the Guardians Guild members stationed there. There was no doubting his character and strength. Additionally, Lu Jiang had taken care of him well, helping him build his first foundations in his quest for the young guild master position.
Over the past year, he had reached peak second-stage God Realm. His growth was so fast it defied all beliefs. That was thanks to the divine sources. He was already planning to leave the dominion to make his breakthrough into the third stage. With Huang Baiwu by his side, he flew to the endless space outside the dominion.
The space outside the dominion was an unstable place where terrifying energy currents could appear at any time. Unknown meteors would also come flying when one least expected. There were also some other bizarre phenomena that could easily kill even a Saint. Only Gods could stay there for an extended period. The terrifying spatial currents that could appear at any time were something even Gods needed to tread carefully around.
Xiang Shaoyun had the strongest physique, the Primal Inception Physique. Upon arriving outside the dominion, he immediately sensed the powerful astral energies around him. If he cultivated there, he would be able to take in the astral energy of faraway stars to further his cultivation. That was just what he needed. After selecting a spot where space was stable, he created an isolated space and had Huang Baiwu stand guard while he entered seclusion.
"The energy of the world originates from astral energy, and in this boundless space, there are vast amounts of astral energy I can absorb. Breaking through won't be hard here!" muttered Xiang Shaoyun confidently as he adjusted his condition. He circulated his energy based on the Desolation mantra and absorbed both the faraway astral energy and the divine source energy within him.
With two sources of energy, his God Realm energy rose constantly, and before long, he started to break through to the third stage.
Standing guard outside the isolated space, Huang Baiwu suddenly saw a torrent of astral energy gushing over. He muttered in astonishment, "S-so much astral energy! This is too scary!"
The astral energy came in all the colors that represented the nine different powers and the other berserk powers foreign to the dominion. Any moment of carelessness when dealing with the energy would damage one's own stars after one failed to fully refine the absorbed energy.
The torrential energy naturally posed no issue to Xiang Shaoyun with his powerful physique. Whatever energy came, he could absorb it all. His Primal Inception Physique was capable of containing all energies. That was why his physique was known as the strongest.
As the massive amount of energy showered Xiang Shaoyun, the energy within his astral cosmos sea surged rapidly. Strand after strand of God Realm energy coursed through his meridians and circulated through his body again and again. The energy flowed like a raging river with roaring waves as his entire body shone in nine different colors. Behind him, the projection of a massive star appeared. One star after another lit up in the endless expanse of space, forming a gorgeous river of stars.
Huang Baiwu was alarmed by the sight. He had never seen a phenomenon like that before. It was too shocking. Within Xiang Shaoyun's body, his sole star was also shining brightly as it constantly increased in volume. It eventually grew to the size of about three or four provinces. More importantly, the brands of nine different powers had taken form on the star. The nine brands swirled around each other, creating a gorgeous brilliance around the star. That was the sight of a life-containing star evolving to the next stage.
Numerous celestial bodies existed in the endless space, but the appearance of even one that could contain life was extremely difficult. That was the change that Xiang Shaoyun's astral cosmos sea was going through, and it was also the trigger that caused the countless stars to light up, creating an auspicious sight of countless stars offering him their blessings.
At that moment, a shocking change was also happening to Xiang Shaoyun's body. He enlarged incessantly, and before long, he was the size of a mountain. He continued growing, reaching a point where he was tens of thousands of meters tall. His body was now much larger than even the giants as he approached the size of a regular small star.
If that was some sort of illusory technique, Huang Baiwu wouldn't be so shocked, but Xiang Shaoyun was actually growing bigger. It wasn't an illusion. Huang Baiwu could also see a clump of nine-colored radiance flickering in Xiang Shaoyun's abdomen, as though a star was emanating boundless radiance inside him.
Huang Baiwu nearly fainted from shock. He could actually see a star in Xiang Shaoyun's body. He wondered if he was imagining things. It was at that moment that Xiang Shaoyun suddenly opened his eyes. He then opened his mouth and pulled in all the astral energy around him.
Instantly, countless streams of astral energy rushed into his mouth. The myriad stars dimmed as though all their energy had been fed to Xiang Shaoyun. Xiang Shaoyun did not stop absorbing energy. With his mouth opened, he breathed in, absorbing the astral energy of the stars from even further away.
The two mouthfuls of astral energy entered Xiang Shaoyun's astral cosmos sea. At that point, his astral cosmos sea had grown to an extremely massive scale. Not only had it broken through to a brand new level, but even his devil pearl had broken through, reaching third-stage Devil God Realm.
His devilish energy and astral energy could be freely replaced with each other, granting him unimaginable abilities. Thus, even without absorbing devilish energy or devil cores, he could still advance the level of his devil pearl. As his devil and astral cultivations advanced, he created a massive phenomenon that attracted even the vicious life forms in space.