Splitting the Heavens

Shang Xia's most pressing concern at the moment was not the stabilization of his recent advancement, nor the impending scramble over the Essence Chong World and Spirit Light World by other Heavenly Fields. It was the exposure of the seven suns!

Although Shang Xia had previously confirmed that even if the seven suns were discovered, or even destroyed, it would not severely impact his cultivation.

In fact, he could always search the starry void for suitable stars to reconstruct the Big Dipper Formation.

Of course, his personal combat strength might be affected or even diminished during that process, but the degree wouldn't be significant, certainly not enough to cause his cultivation to regress.

Shang Xia was very sure of that.

Even so, if it was possible to prevent those seven suns from being discovered or exploited by others, he would certainly do all he could.

The most straightforward method would be to relocate them, but obviously, it was no easy task.

Through his recent battle with the rank seven spiritual beast that had once dwelled within a star, Shang Xia had come to understand that although he lacked the innate gifts of that creature that would allow him to stay in a star, it wouldn't be particularly difficult for him to enter it for a short period. Of course, destroying one would likely be easier.

Relocating a star was far more difficult than either of those actions. What's more, he didn't just need to move one, he needed to move several! He probably needed to move more than seven of them!

That was because what everyone saw as the seven suns was only the surface.

Only Shang Xia himself knew the truth. There were two auxiliary stars that orbited one another among them.

That was also why Shang Xia had long suspected that even after reaching the seven star, he might be able to control more than seven meteors when he unleashed Falling Dipper!

Originally, when searching for the seven stars arranged in the Big Dipper Formation, he had only found one suitable auxiliary star near the Mizar position.

In other words, the complete Big Dipper Formation should consist of nine stars, but Shang Xia's current formation had only eight. And in his earlier battle to destroy the Essence Chong Heavenly Field and the Star Origin Lord's Starlight Clone, he had exposed seven of them!

It was one of the secret contingencies he had left for himself, a secret even the rank six Grand Stargazer in the institution, Yuan Qiuyuan, was unaware of.

Since those stars that made up the Big Dipper Formation was revealed, they were most definitely placed under surveillance by Grand Stargazers. Any attempt to adjust or move them would surely be noticed and tracked. Doing so would defeat the purpose entirely.

"I have to find a way to evade or block the surveillance of certain high-level Stargazers..." Shang Xia muttered to himself.

Of course, the easiest way would be to summon allies from his Heavenly Field to assist him. But Shang Xia clearly preferred to hide the stars completely, ideally, in a way that only he knew about.

Fortunately, he had not been caught completely off guard by the development. When he looked again in the direction of the former Essence Chong Heavenly Field, he found that, at some point, the damaged Essence Chong World which was regressing to a Spirit World, was drifting away from its original position along with the damaged Spirit Light World.

The Essence Chong World, being the larger of the two, had slowly drifted near the star in the Merak position after some time. As it did so, it gradually blocked the line of sight from the Heaven Observation Star Region.

It was also then that Shang Xia chose to make his move.

How hard was it to relocate a star?

If Shang Xia simply rushed in blindly, even with the ability to do so, the process of moving the star in the Merak position would've taken much more effort.

But since he had already refined the origin light of each star into his dantian, Shang Xia could harness the power of his Big Dipper Star Origin to shift its position in the void.

Using the Essence Chong World as cover, he gradually realigned the stars in the Megrez and Dubhe positions before moving it deeper into the void.

Following a route he had previously calculated, he pushed the star across an untold distance before settling it into a remote, empty sector of space.

That once-dark stretch of sky now gleamed brilliantly thanks to the appearance of the blazing star.

After changing of the position of the star in the Merak position, even though the star still existed and its origin light still resided in his dantian, the altered Big Dipper Formation disrupted the balance. Part of his inner qi became uncontrollable, showing signs of dispersion and directly affecting his combat strength.

Shang Xia immediately returned to the original area. According to his plan, the slower-drifting Spirit Light World had eventually drifted between the Heaven Observation Star Region and the star in the Phecda position.

His plan was to relocate that star using the Spirit Light World as cover, and move it to a new void coordinate.

He first moved it into alignment with the stars in the Megrez and Dubhe positions, then steered it to a location that lay on the same plane.

When the star was finally repositioned, the four stars that made up the ladle shape of the Big Dipper Formation were once again reassembled. This time, however, the pattern was no longer horizontal. The mouth of the ladle now pointed toward the Heaven Observation Star Region in an inverted vertical orientation.

Upon completing the reconstruction, the leaking inner qi in Shang Xia's dantian quickly stabilized. The decline had halted, and even began to recover.

Still, Shang Xia understood that although the seven suns appeared to have been restructured with a new orientation and two of the stars had been successfully hidden, there remained a serious issue. The positions of the stars in the handle position of the ladle that lay in the Alioth, Mizar, and Alkaid positions had deviated significantly due to the inversion.

That was why only part of his inner qi leakage had been stopped.

Even so, having managed to relocate two stars using the drifting remnants of two shattered worlds as cover was already an incredible feat. The repositioning of the remaining stars would have to wait for a more opportune time.