Splitting the Heavens

Though the cultivators from the Essence Luxuriant Heavenly Field aboard the Jiao Continent had already witnessed Shang Xia's strength several times, each time they thought they had seen the limits of it, he would refresh their understanding every time they saw him fighting again.

When a large Star Ship that had been swept away by a sudden chaotic stream, hurtled toward the Jiao Continent, Shang Xia, who had been standing silently on the deck all along, suddenly took action.

The moment he unleashed his next move, they could tell it was a special variation of his Seven Star Mace Technique.

It was unusual because it wasn't the fifth form of his Seven Star Mace Technique. When it was executed, it possessed the pure power of Shattered Starry Skies, and the effects of Emberkindled Legacy.

It was obvious that Shang Xia was attempting to fuse them into a single strike.

And the result of that strike was the complete dispersal of the incoming chaotic turbulence. The large Star Ship, spinning within the violent flow, was split cleanly in two from his strike. The broken halves tumbled to either side, scraping past the bow and stern of the Jiao Continent.

From the deck of the Jiao Continent, the elite cultivators of the Essence Luxuriant Heavenly Field could clearly see debris, supplies, broken limbs, and even surviving cultivators being flung from the wreckage of the split ship.

They had a clear view of the fear and desperation on the faces of those cultivators as they fell from the ruined vessel. Some opened their mouths wide, clearly shouting for help toward the Jiao Continent, but no sound could penetrate the deafening roar of the turbulent void.

Among them were even True Immortals. But without the protection of their Star Ship, they would struggle to last long in the raging vortex.

This fully destabilized vortex was far more terrifying than the normal void currents found beyond the edge of a Heavenly Field!

The cultivators aboard the Jiao Continent recognized some of the falling True Immortals. The Star Ship that had been destroyed was the same one previously controlled by Mister Drama!

Yet now, that large Star Ship had been cleaved in half by a single strike from Shang Xia.

Some of the True Immortals falling from the wreckage had already noticed the presence of the Jiao Continent. Many not only tried shouting for help but even attempted to cross the chaotic void in an effort to approach.

However, none of the cultivators aboard the Jiao Continent made any move to lend a hand. From start to finish, they simply watched as those figures rose and fell amid the swirling maelstrom until they were finally lost from sight.

Finally, after this close brush with disaster, Huang Jinghan let out a breath and turned to Gao Qin.

"There was no Sage aboard that ship. It seems Mister Drama has vanished."

Gao Qin nodded. "Had there been a Sage on board, the ship wouldn't have been so fragile. And when Sage Shang broke it apart, there was no leak of origin qi. That would mean that all the origin qi fragments had already been taken away. The only person capable of that would be Mister Drama. He most likely abandoned them and escaped alone with those fragments."

Huang Jinghan sighed. "What a pity."

Although the Jiao Continent was still not entirely out of danger, nothing that followed quite matched the peril of that moment. With Shang Xia occasionally lending a hand, their journey was fraught with tension but ultimately safe. Still, escaping the spatial vortex entirely remained uncertain.

Stargazer Zhang Yusheng's ability to navigate was severely weakened due to the conditions around them. His art of stargazing could no longer accurately determine their direction within the swirling void.

Even so, neither Shang Xia nor the high-level True Immortals on board pressed him. None of them applied the slightest pressure.

Instead, they focused their efforts on maintaining control of the Jiao Continent, buying Zhang Yusheng as much time as possible.

Yet, even without being urged, Zhang Yusheng understood the immense weight of his responsibility.

If he could not quickly determine the right path out of the vortex, the longer they lingered, the harder it would become to escape.

Zhang Yusheng had begun to sense the spatial vortex was slowly returning to its original form, stabilizing the chaos within. However, with the Jiao Continent trapped deep inside. If they failed to break free in time, then once the great spatial vortex re-stabilized, escape might no longer be possible.

He also sensed that even though the Origin Pillar had been badly damaged, once the vortex reformed, it would most likely become an even more terrifying existence.

Just as Zhang Yusheng was wavering between hope and fear, the previously chaotic void outside the ship suddenly shimmered with scattered starlight. Amid the hazy glow, he vaguely spotted seven stars arranged in a mysterious formation.

He was struck by a sense of inspiration as he instinctively began forming seals for his art of stargazing.

He was forming seals that could only be performed after reaching the level of a Grand Stargazer!

Though Zhang Yusheng had barely glimpsed into the level of a Grand Stargazer, he still needed external aid to barely succeed with his new techniques. Even then, the results were mediocre.

Now, not only was he not standing on the wooden observation platform on the deck, he was hidden away in a sealed cabin, without any external power source to support him.

Yet under those circumstances, Zhang Yusheng managed to perform a technique only Grand Stargazers could, purely through his own power!

Taking the final step meant that he had truly become a Grand Stargazer.

With help from the starlight triggered by Shang Xia's Big Dipper Star Origin amid the vortex, and the appearance of the seven stars in the depths of the void, Zhang Yusheng had taken the crucial step in a moment of crisis.

Through it, he detected faint but familiar traces amid the violent maelstrom.

"I found it!"

The pressure on Zhang Yusheng lifted all at once. He couldn't help but scream, and even the sealed chamber couldn't contain his voice.

"What did you find?" Shang Xia's calm voice rang out in the room soon after. He had already sensed his inner qi had just been influenced by a subtle yet intricate force, its origin clearly aboard the Jiao Continent.

He instantly locked onto the source and vaguely guessed what Zhang Yusheng had discovered.

"It's Stargazer Xin! She just used the power of a rank six Grand Stargazer to try tracking down our position!" Zhang Yusheng spoke with excitement.

Shang Xia revealed a look of realization. "Can you establish contact with her?"

Zhang Yusheng admitted awkwardly, "My skills are limited. I can't actively find her through the chaotic void here. I can only wait for her to activate her technique again in order to get a chance to communicate!"

"The spatial vortex is massive, and it's a mess now. If you missed the window just now, who knows when she'll try again?" Gao Qin frowned.

But Zhang Yusheng remained confident. "Please do not worry. While I can't do much in this vortex, I can still use the traces left by Stargazer Xin to determine our approximate direction. As long as we keep closing the distance, she will definitely find us again!"