Immortal Road.

The caravan sets sail.

The three ships are arranged in a triangular formation, with the last two ships brushing against the tail of the lead ship, supposedly to reduce the consumption of star power.

As the president of Jinbei saw them off, they sailed into the vast starry sky.

There were quite a few people at Xinghuan Port. Many boat owners had been docked here for half a year. Seeing such a large and conspicuous fleet leaving the port, they all showed expressions of anticipation.

You have to understand, the world has changed now, and there are far more wolves than sheep out there.

Everyone was crowded in the harbor, afraid to go out. The space pirates were also feeling restless. At this time, a big fat sheep set sail. Wasn't that a pure freebie?
President Jinbei gazed into the distance with a deep look in his eyes. He stood there quietly for a long time before turning around and leaving.

The vast starry sky.

Lin Shan leaned against the railing, with someone on watch behind him on the deck. Everyone else had returned to their cabins to rest, but he was the only one holding several star charts, comparing them repeatedly.

The route they were on was the main road to the Second Auxiliary Star, a place once bustling with trade. Now, however, the road was deserted except for their three ships, giving them an inexplicable sense of unease.

The tranquil starry sky was pitch black, as if it were a trap everywhere, waiting for its prey to take the bait.

He used his pupil technique to scan the area from time to time, but he couldn't find anything strange. Eventually, he got tired and returned to his cabin to meditate.

The four Void Realm cultivators who came to escort him all appeared calm, but in reality, they were extremely vigilant. They sat by the window and did not actually enter a meditative state.

There was another person on the ship. This person was a true late-stage Void Realm expert, a member of the Jinbei Chamber of Commerce. Before parting, he followed the chairman's instructions to take the lead in navigating and contacting another Chamber of Commerce, Chutong.

To this day, no one has discovered where the other fleet is.

And so it went, drifting for two days.

According to the normal route, it would take three days to reach the destination from Beishi Star and the Second Auxiliary Star. If the space pirates did not arrive soon, they would reach their destination!

By then, I'll have ten star stones in my hands without any danger. This deal is really worthwhile.

The other four relaxed slightly. It would be best to avoid conflict. After all, they had come out to make money, and it would be best to secure their profits peacefully.

Lin Shan was slightly disappointed, but considering he had made a profit for free, it wasn't a complete loss.

However, the leader, a late-stage Void Realm cultivator, had a gloomy expression.

The Chamber of Commerce spent money and hired people for nothing, but the space pirates didn't come. How was he going to explain this to the chairman?
No, this can't go on.

Silently, the fleet deviated from its course and gradually headed towards the third auxiliary star. This process was extremely secretive, and no one except the few helmsmen from the merchant guild on board noticed it.

Thousands of miles away on their original route, ripples appeared in the starry sky, and a curtain turned from transparent to deep blue, revealing a group of people.

"Boss, why did they suddenly change lanes? Did they spot us?"

"That's strange. According to the intelligence, we were supposed to go to the second auxiliary star. Why did we suddenly change our route? It looks like we're going to the third auxiliary star."

"We waited so long and even set up a large ambush, but they just bypassed it!"

"Damn it, they dared to play us for fools."

The young man leading the group had a blue scar between his eyebrows that twitched; he was none other than Xiu Rong Su, the wanted leader of the Gathering Star Alliance!

At this moment, he was also quite puzzled, not understanding why the Jinbei Chamber of Commerce was acting so strangely, bypassing him right under his nose. Could it be that there was a traitor among his own people?

As his gaze swept over them one by one, the group of space pirates all lowered their heads, none daring to meet his eyes.

"Go, take down the star array first, dig out the array bases of each void node, then catch up with them and settle accounts!"

The group frantically began to retrieve the items, all cursing and swearing. Just as troublesome to set up the formation was, it was just as difficult to retrieve them now.

By the time they finished tinkering with it for ages, the Jinbei caravan had long since disappeared.

Chase!
The group, seething with anger, chased after the Third Auxiliary Star.

The caravan had already traveled for half a day.

The leader, a Void Realm expert, realized they hadn't encountered the space pirates yet and ordered them to turn around and head towards the Fourth Auxiliary Star!

The people recruited on the ship realized something was wrong.

An old woman stood up and walked out of the cabin. She took a star chart and a compass and began to compare them. On the celestial orbit, the Big Dipper was located in the south, clearly deviating by a few inches.

The others were also seasoned veterans, and they all used the star coordinates to locate themselves. After meeting up and discussing it, they realized that they had been tricked!
"Master Xu, this isn't the way to the Second Auxiliary Star, is it? Where are you taking us?"

The late-stage Void Realm cultivator, who was still pretending to be stupid, unexpectedly opened his eyes.

"What did you say? Not the way to the Second Sector?"

He immediately beckoned to the captain and ordered him to investigate the situation, but he seemed to know nothing about it.

The group felt slightly uneasy, stepped out of the cabin, looked around, and suddenly became tense.

Lin Shan watched the whole thing unfold, remaining seated and unmoved as they continued their game of wits.

Xu Gongfeng sneered inwardly. Did these people really think they could just go through the motions after getting on the ship? Did they think money was so easy to get?

That kid, on the other hand, remained so calm from beginning to end. Where did he get his confidence?

Another day has passed.

At this point, everyone knew something was wrong. They should have reached the second auxiliary star by now, but they were still wandering in the starry sky. Several Void Realm elders realized they had been tricked and joined forces to interrogate Elder Xu about what was going on.

The other party stopped pretending at this point, knowing that there was no point in delaying any longer, so they simply told the truth and changed the destination of the flight path to the sixth auxiliary star!
"Gentlemen, I promise this is the last time we will change course, and there will be no more accidents."

Now that things had come to this, they had no choice but to keep their eyes glued to each other.

But it was clearly too late!
A white line was rapidly approaching from behind, drawing a long arc along the starry sky, and then bypassing it from the side to block its path.

Then a huge net was cast over, covering everything and leaving nowhere to hide!

"Hmph, you guys are really cunning. You made us chase you around for a while. You dare to mess with my Juxing Alliance? You must be tired of living!"

The pirate gang was chasing them relentlessly, and they were already seething with anger. The caravan's constant changes of course had made them take many detours, and they finally managed to catch up with them with great difficulty, leaving them exhausted.

The chase only fueled their determination to make these cunning individuals pay the price once they caught up!
The caravan was caught off guard. They had assumed that since they had been swaggering through the stars for the past few days, changing course from the second auxiliary star to the sixth auxiliary star without attracting any attention, it was highly unlikely that space pirates would appear.

Little did they know that the other party had been following them closely, and they were completely outmaneuvered by the team leader's bizarre tactics!
At that moment, the giant net fell, and none of the three ships escaped its grasp; they were all caught within. The ships' hulls reacted with a surge of spiritual energy, only to be immediately corroded by the net, which began to hiss and smoke. The net continued to tighten rapidly, with a constricting force comparable to that of a giant cosmic python!
Xu Gongfeng immediately stepped forward, a flash of white light appeared in his hand, and a crescent-shaped magical artifact spun and flew past, slashing fiercely at the large net. The sharp blade struck the thin, silk-like net.

Boom~~~
It let out a heartbreaking cry!
"My treasured sword!"

Xu Gongfeng roared in disbelief as he stared at the crescent-shaped sickle broken in two, its ends pitted and scarred, as if it had been pierced by the deadly poison.

Meanwhile, the three ships were also losing their grip, being squeezed, twisted, and deformed by each other. The protective shield of spiritual light outside was also shrinking rapidly, and the star stones were being consumed at an alarming rate.

The Nascent Soul and Nascent Soul stage crew members on the ship were terrified and helpless, and could only watch as the Void Transformation stage cultivators took action.

Seeing that Xu Gongfeng had suffered a loss using spiritual treasures, they all turned to supernatural powers to break the deadlock. However, the large net was made of an unknown material and was incredibly tough, even possessing the ability to ward off magic.

In short, when supernatural powers approach, they will all be diverted through the mesh, leaving the user completely untouched!
"Oh no, we need to find a way out quickly, or we'll all die here."

While they were in a hurry, the space pirates outside laughed loudly and spread out in a circle, completely surrounding them.

"That old bastard, Chairman Jinbei, never learns his lesson! Last time I wiped out an entire fleet, and now he's not satisfied, so he's recruited a few useless guys to try and get revenge?"

Xiu Rong Su smiled wickedly.

"Unfortunately, this number isn't enough; they'll only become my resources. I'll have to thank President Jinbei for sending me such good food later, hahaha~~"

The laughter was so shrill that it made many people feel uncomfortable.

Seeing everyone in a panic, Lin Shan realized that so many Void Realm cultivators couldn't even break through a net. He knew that someone must be holding back, hiding themselves and waiting for others to take the lead so they could pick off the rest later.

So he wasn't in a hurry, and just played dumb to wait it out.

As the net tightened, the hulls of the three ships cracked under the pressure, and suddenly everyone felt their feet sink into the ground. It turned out that Xu Gongfeng had taken all the ships away!

These ships are capable of sailing the oceans and gazing into the stars, and each one is extremely expensive to build. The loss of any one of them would be a blow to the Jinbei Chamber of Commerce, so in critical moments, saving the ships is the priority.

The people above were dumbfounded.

Without the ship's protective shield, the large net instantly tightened, threatening to shred them into pieces!
At the critical moment, an old man couldn't hold back any longer and pulled out a large umbrella from his arms. The umbrella surface spun rapidly, forming a sharp turbine that instantly cut a gap in the net.

Everyone hurriedly fled.

The edge of the umbrella was also damaged, a case of injuring the enemy a thousand while losing eight hundred of your own, leaving no one unscathed.

The space pirates had anticipated this, and upon seeing this, they all drew their magical treasures and began to exchange blows from a distance.

In an instant, the six of them were surrounded and became live targets for Lingbao and Shentong, only able to parry but not retaliate.

Lin Shan realized that he could no longer hide even if he wanted to, because his defenses were simply not enough to withstand so many attacks. He could only try to rush over and get close, because they would definitely suffer losses if they were outnumbered and engaged in a direct confrontation.

Xu Gongfeng and the others thought so too, and they immediately reached a consensus, no longer holding back and all pointing the finger at one side.

"rush!"

Six natal stars rise slowly, a unique way for star cultivators to pave their way, and also the strongest and toughest thing in their entire bodies.

The opponent dared not resist head-on; no matter where they were hit by the six giant stars, they could not withstand it and had no choice but to retreat and create an opening.

At the same time, nine natal stars followed closely behind!

Humans are certainly not as fast as shooting stars; they can only turn back the moment they break through the encirclement.

That's how violent the battles between star cultivators are—a head-on clash of natal stars to see who comes out on top!
Boom, pump pump pump pump pump~~~
A tremendous roar resounded through the starry sky, causing all those in the Nascent Soul stage to lose their hearing, and half of the Nascent Soul stage were directly killed by the shock!
The threshold to reaching the starry sky is the primordial spirit; the nascent soul is merely a flower in a greenhouse, unlikely to survive when exposed to the starry sky.

Lin Shan gritted his teeth and bumped into the group. It was his first time participating in such a head-on clash between star cultivators. He felt as if the calamity star had crashed into three hard objects after rushing in.

After the final collision, they each flew back to check.

The surface of the star has three craters, one large and two small, and there are also irregular small holes around it, scratched by many fragments, making it pitted and uneven like a meteorite!
He gasped. How much would it cost to fix this?

But when he turned around, he saw that there were many others who were in even worse situations than him.

The natal star of Xu Gongfeng was directly smashed into a flattened round shape, looking like a steamed bun, and now it was glaring angrily.

The other four were also in different shapes; some were crushed into thin, long fried dough sticks, and some were even half-collapsed!
The opposing space pirates weren't having an easy time either. Three of them were completely dumbfounded because their natal stars were hollow inside and out, and had been pierced through by someone's star. It seemed like one of them had actually pierced through all three of them.

Xiu Rongsu, the leader of the Gathering Star Alliance, was the only one present who was largely intact. His natal star was only inlaid with tiny fragments of other stars that had been smashed and thrown into his body.

"Very good, there are actually experts among you!"

He also noticed that his team had been wiped out by one person and three others, but the starlight scattering was too dazzling just now, and no one could see whose natal star was so fierce, so he immediately roared.

"Again!"

The space pirates over there were incredibly ruthless. They unleashed their star power and hurled it all at once, creating a terrifying display of force.

Here, the offering master had no choice but to encourage everyone to accept the challenge, and they all threw their natal stars over again!

In comparison, Xuan Tian Ling Bao dared not get involved at all. The magnetic fields between the stars collided with each other, and more than a dozen magnetic fields were enough to paralyze all the spiritual restrictions inside the Ling Bao. No one could afford such a loss.

Lin Shan didn't want to play like this, but he couldn't resist the team fights on both sides. It was a bit much for him to go solo and push, and if all his teammates fell, he would be left alone and couldn't turn the tide.

We had no choice but to bite the bullet and fight back.

Inside, starlight, gravity, and magnetic fields interfere with each other, making it impossible to tell who is colliding with whom, and another round of reckless action ensues!
After it was over, they each took a closer look.

Lin Shan was heartbroken. "I just came out to earn some military merits, how did I almost lose my natal star?"
Two more large craters were punched into the calamity star, and the surrounding area was full of star fragments. It would take at least ten spirit stones to repair it. This trip with the caravan was a complete loss.

But the others fared much worse; they were all crushed into flattened rounds, and several were blown apart in mid-air!
Losing their natal star caused them to turn pale instantly, suffering severe injuries and having no choice but to use their domains for defense, completely losing their means of attack.

In the Star Cultivation Battle, the domain represents defense, while the stars represent offense. One-sided defense will inevitably lead to defeat in the long run, and only Xiu Rongsu's natal star is relatively intact on the field.

The aura of a peak Void Realm expert was overwhelming, radiating outwards and stunning everyone around him. He could no longer suppress the urge to smile!

"None of you will have a good day today. Just accept your fate of defeat!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the space pirate gang launched their third space attack!

"Run!"

Without a word, Elder Xu, knowing he was no match for them this time, activated his domain and led the escape. (End of Chapter)