Master of Devouring Stars

Outside the Heavenly Annihilation Forest, just as Li Ze was constantly sensing the threatening feeling within the Heavenly Annihilation Forest ahead.

suddenly.

With a whoosh, the endless darkness in front of them suddenly twisted, and streams of light rose up, intertwined, and condensed to form a phantom resembling a screaming ape.

"Li Ze!"

As soon as the phantom of the monstrous ape appeared, it roared at Li Ze, "You are very powerful. You made me pay a huge price to escape into this Heavenly Annihilation Forest. However, it is absolutely impossible for you to kill me."

"I'll be waiting for you right here in Tianmie Forest. If you've got the guts, come in!"

"You may leave, but any powerful individuals from your cultivation camp who venture into the depths of Hunyuan will become my prey!!!"

Boom! The phantom of the screaming ape vanished as soon as it finished roaring.

Outside the Heavenly Annihilation Forest, Li Ze was not angered by the ape's words. Instead, he looked at the endless darkness ahead and muttered to himself, "So eager to lure me into the Heavenly Annihilation Forest, does he really have the confidence to use the forest's defenses to kill me?"

Now, Li Ze finally understood that the Crying Ape's ultimate goal in deliberately provoking him from the moment it appeared and constantly teleporting him was to lure him into the Heavenly Annihilation Forest.

"but."

After a moment of thought, Li Ze's eyes gradually turned cold: "You probably never dreamed that the strength I showed you was only a small part of my true power."

"I'd like to see what kind of power within the Heavenly Annihilation Forest gives you such confidence!"

In Li Ze's view, with his current strength, there is no life in the entire Hunyuan Space, including beings like Yuan who stand at the peak of Hunyuan Lords, that has the power to kill him.

His formidable strength gave him the confidence to look down on everything.

brush!
With a thought, Li Ze transformed into a streak of light and rushed into the endless darkness ahead.

"Great!"

"He's in!"

"Our plan was a success!"

Just as Li Ze flew into the Heavenly Annihilation Forest, in a hidden space outside the forest, Cang Zu and several other figures all let out excited shouts.

"Everyone," Cang Zu said, addressing the other figures, "This Li Ze is indeed arrogant. He knows there might be a trap ahead, but he doesn't care at all. Since that's the case, let's leave him here permanently!"

"Let us transform the immense opportunity he brought into our hope of becoming normal lives."

"Activate the outer formation of the Heavenly Annihilation Forest to prevent him from escaping. Also, be ready to charge in together at any time!"

The words of the Ancestor caused excitement to appear on the faces of the other figures.

"Correct."

“Those ghostly things in the Heavenly Annihilation Forest, even if they can't kill Li Ze directly, can still inflict serious damage on him.”

“If necessary, we’ll act together,” the other figures said.

As they spoke, several beams of light shot out from their bodies, heading towards the endless darkness of the space-time where Tianmie Sen was located.

In an instant.

Wow~
The void trembled, and countless mysterious threads of runes appeared in the space-time outside the Heavenly Annihilation Forest. As these threads intertwined and entwined, massive rune arrays formed outside the Heavenly Annihilation Forest.

A clearly visible light curtain instantly enveloped the entire Tianmie Forest.

At this moment, the Heavenly Annihilation Forest within the secret array and the external Hunyuan Space seemed to have become two different dimensional spaces.

The heavens destroy the forest.

The streak of light that Li Ze transformed into plunged into endless darkness the instant it flew into the space-time of Tianmie Forest.

It was as if it were a dark world.

At this moment, an unusual fluctuation enveloped Li Ze, obscuring not only his vision but also preventing even his divine power and soul power from probing how far into this space-time.

"This power..." Li Ze carefully sensed his surroundings. "It doesn't have any Daoist aura fluctuations, yet it can shield my senses?"

It should be noted that with Li Ze's current strength, even on the path to domination, he was never as shielded from perception as he is now.

"Silence? Dead silence?" Carefully sensing the fluctuations around him, Li Ze made this guess in his mind as he moved forward.

time flies.

Suddenly, the surrounding space and time changed again, and huge, strange black trees appeared vaguely in Li Ze's perception.

The quantity is extremely large.

Just as Li Ze was about to examine the trees up close.

snort~
A soft yet incredibly clear sound rang in Li Ze's ears, followed by a needle-like sensation piercing his back.

brush!
As if by instinct, his body moved to the side to avoid the chill coming from behind, and at the same time, a flash of sword light appeared in Li Ze's hand and swept out horizontally.

Bang!
"Roar!"

Amidst the sword light, a black shadow, completely blending into the surrounding darkness, was cleaved away by Li Ze's sword light, letting out a sharp roar.

Using the light of the sword, Li Ze was able to see the shape of the dark figure.

This was a short, humanoid 'thing' whose entire body seemed to be composed of black mist. Its hands and feet were all long, black needles. It had no life force and no soul fluctuations.

At this moment, as Li Ze looked at 'it', he could also sense that this strange 'thing' was looking at him. Moreover, in Li Ze's perception, although this 'thing' had just been struck by his sword light, it did not show any change in its aura, as if it had not been harmed at all.

"What is this thing?" Li Ze wondered, but then his expression changed drastically.

Sizzle~ Sizzle~ Sizzle~
A series of soft, tearing sounds echoed through the void, and Li Ze experienced countless stinging sensations similar to those he had felt earlier.

Whoosh! Endless divine power surged out from Li Ze's body, and clusters of eerie karmic fire condensed around him, sweeping towards the direction from which the stinging sensations came.

"Roar!" "Hiss!" "Screech!"

Roars echoed amidst the endless karmic flames, and clusters of black phantoms of various shapes appeared within them.

There were a great many black phantoms; in the area covered by the karmic fire alone, there were hundreds of them.

Outside the realm of karmic fire, Li Ze could clearly sense many shadowy figures moving toward his location.

These black phantoms come in various shapes, but they share a common characteristic: they exhibit no signs of life or soul fluctuations.

"Boom~"

Spacetime trembled. After being bound by Li Ze's Karmic Fire Domain for a moment, these shadowy figures seemed to have gained the ability to ignore the Karmic Fire Domain and attacked Li Ze again, as if they wanted to tear him to shreds.

"This... they can actually ignore divine power? No, not only do they ignore divine power, but the black mist that makes up their bodies seems to be able to melt divine power!" Li Ze looked at the black shadows attacking from all around and could clearly see that wherever those black shadows passed, clusters of karmic fire would melt away as soon as they touched their bodies, just like snow melting in boiling water.

"You can melt divine power, but I wonder if you can melt the material attacks used to activate the Hunyuan Secret Treasure!" Li Ze's eyes were cold, and with a thought, the Heavenly Tribulation Sword appeared in his hand.

With a flick of his wrist, streaks of sword light appeared around Li Ze, slashing towards the dark figures and instantly striking them.

Bang! Whoosh! Bang! Whoosh!
During the collision, boundless power was generated at the point of impact, blasting those dark figures away.

However, although these shadowy figures were cleaved away, Li Ze could clearly sense that the aura emanating from them had not diminished in the slightest.

"Even material attacks are ineffective?" At this moment, Li Ze was genuinely surprised.

Although these shadowy figures were not particularly powerful—in Li Ze's perception, they were only slightly stronger than a world-class perfected Hunyuan life form—their astonishing defense against material attacks and their unpredictable ability to melt divine power were things Li Ze had never seen before.

I have never seen this on any life form in the Hunyuan Space!

"Roar!" "Hiss!" "Screech!"

Just as Li Ze was thinking, more eerie black shadows came rushing in from afar, entering the area covered by Li Ze's Karmic Fire Domain, and attacking Li Ze.

"If physical attacks don't work, let's try this," Li Ze thought to himself.

next moment

With a whoosh, a massive amount of soul power burned, and an invisible soul wave spread outwards from Li Ze, instantly enveloping the attacking shadows.

But then, the massive soul attack passed right through the shadows without causing them any damage.

"They really have no souls?" Sensing that his soul attack had missed, Li Ze instantly understood that these shadowy figures had not emitted any soul fluctuations before because they truly had no souls.

No, to be precise, it not only lacks a soul, but also lacks any will.

After all, the soul attack that Li Ze is using now is not just a soul attack, but also contains his powerful will impact.

"This thing shouldn't be a real life," Li Ze thought to himself.

The infinite primordial space nurtures all kinds of life, including those without souls. However, almost all life possesses a will, whether strong or weak. Those without will are either inanimate objects or puppets.

"These things are really troublesome." Li Ze looked at the strange black shadows that were frantically attacking him and thought to himself, "Energy, matter, soul, will, none of these methods are effective. It will probably take a lot of effort to kill them."

Just as Li Ze was pondering how to deal with those eerie shadowy figures...

Beyond the Heavenly Annihilation Forest, in that hidden space-time.

Cang Zu and the others stood quietly, and the screaming apes that had originally entered the Heavenly Annihilation Forest also appeared among these figures.

Before them was a huge screen of light, which showed the scene of many strange black shadows attacking Li Ze.

"Hahaha, Li Ze really can't kill these 'ghost things'." The gibbon laughed loudly as it looked at Li Ze, who was being besieged in the light screen.

"Just as we predicted." The humanoid figure, pale and looking extremely miserable, said in a sharp voice with a hint of smugness, "Back when we first discovered the Heavenly Annihilation Forest, even with the combined strength of several of us, we almost perished there. Although Li Ze is strong, it's not so easy for him to find the weaknesses of these ghostly things."

The other figures also nodded solemnly.

“No, I think there’s something wrong.” Only Cang Zu frowned slightly.

"What's wrong?"

"What's the problem?" The apes and the others looked over.

“This Li Ze is definitely not stupid.” Cang Zu shook his massive body and said, “Look, his attacks have failed several times, but I can’t see any fluctuation on his face. He’s too calm!”

Upon hearing this, the other figures looked at Li Ze's figure on the light screen again, and all showed thoughtful expressions.

After a moment's thought, they realized that Cang Zu was right. Li Ze's expression in the light screen was too calm. Even though the attack was ineffective, he seemed not to be worried at all.

"Ancestor Cang, what do you think?" the gibbon asked in a deep voice.

“Three possibilities,” Cang Zu said calmly. “First, Li Ze is truly confident enough that even though these ‘ghostly things’ in the Heavenly Annihilation Forest have strange methods, he has enough means to deal with them.”

“Secondly, Li Ze possesses unpredictable means of survival and doesn’t believe he will perish here,” Cang Zu said.

"Life-saving measures?"

"If he doesn't become a lord, what means can he possibly use to protect himself?"

“Yes, even if the Lord of Hunyuan were in this situation, he couldn’t possibly escape, right? At most, he could only reassemble his body using his immortality.” The figures of the Crying Ape and the others said subconsciously. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to believe it, but they simply didn’t think there was any life-saving method that was so powerful.

“Theoretically, it is still possible.” Cang Zu frowned and said, “After all, Li Ze comes from the cultivator camp. Don’t forget that Yuan from the cultivator camp is currently the strongest in the Hunyuan Space. It’s not impossible that he has some special life-saving methods to give to Li Ze.”

"Anything else?" the Crying Ape asked, looking at the Azure Ancestor.

"Thirdly, the Hunyuan lords from the cultivator camp are probably already on their way. Although Li Ze cannot easily kill these shadows, he can hold out until the Hunyuan lords arrive by defending himself. This is even more terrifying than the special life-saving method Yuan gave him," Cang Zu said softly.

"Those Hunyuan Lords in the cultivator camp? Yuan?" The other figures, including the Crying Ape, fell into deep thought.

"I've considered all of these possibilities," Cang Zu said slowly. "However, we cannot ignore any of them. Our plan needs to be accelerated!"

The other figures nodded in agreement. Indeed, Li Ze's displayed strength was astonishing, demonstrating the immense power of his extraordinary opportunities.

None of the three possibilities mentioned by Cang Zu could be accepted by them.

"We need to enter the Heavenly Annihilation Forest ahead of schedule!"

Cang Zu's gaze swept over the other figures: "Those 'ghost things' are strange, but in terms of attack, they are still somewhat inferior to true lords. It will take more time for them to completely corrupt Li Ze with their deathly power. We don't have that much time."

"We have no choice but to take the initiative and speed up this process!"

“Bone Demon.” Cang Zu looked at the humanoid figure, pale all over and looking extremely miserable: “The few of us will go and attack him, just to completely trap and entangle Li Ze.”

"You are the real trump card."

"If Li Ze doesn't reveal any more trump cards, then we'll surround and kill him."

"If Li Ze has other methods, then you should use your talent to inject the source of deathly silence from the Heavenly Annihilation Forest into his body. This time, you must kill him!" Cang Zu said solemnly.

"understand!"

"He will never escape my grasp," the humanoid, pale-faced figure, 'Bone Demon,' said confidently.

"go!"

"Success or failure depends on this!"

"We absolutely cannot fail," the other figures said in unison.

Then, a violent fluctuation distorted the entire spacetime, and the figures of Cang Zu, Li Yuan, and others vanished abruptly. (End of Chapter)