Swallowing the Stars: Heart of the Martial God

Chapter 226 Unexpectedly Picking Up a Wu-Slaying Wing

Cao Benqi encountered several crises during his adventures in the dangerous places of the universe, and even accidentally captured one of the strongest beings in the universe. That conflict made the powerful beings of the various forces in the universe finally understand why humanity would let Cao Benqi go.

The Mountain Dweller!
It turns out that the hermit was protecting Cao Benqi!

The news, like a cosmic storm, instantly swept across all the high levels of the primordial universe and the cosmic sea.

All the previous doubts and illogical points were perfectly explained at this moment.

Why was Cao Benqi able to leave the human territory so easily?

Why didn't Emperor Yan and the human race launch a relentless pursuit afterward?

It's not that I don't want to, it's more likely that I'm afraid of causing harm!
Humanity is currently in a period of rapid development, and maintaining territorial stability and the rise of the race are key. It is really not advisable to provoke a mysterious, unpredictable, and extremely powerful lone universe powerhouse like the Mountain Dweller.

Once targeted by such an existence, unless multiple of the universe's strongest beings are constantly gathered to defend against it, the human race's territory will never have peace. The potential losses it causes may far exceed the benefits of eliminating Cao Benqi.

"So that's how it is! Cao Benqi is actually backed by the Mountain Hermit!"

"No wonder the human race chose to endure. It's not that they didn't want to kill, but the cost was too high and the losses outweighed the gains!"

"This Cao Benqi is actually related to the Mountain Hermit. Cao Benqi's defection could not possibly be a conspiracy by the human race!"

All suspicions and concerns vanished at that moment.

Cao Benqi was no longer a dangerous "spy," but a highly sought-after person with an invaluable connection to the "Mountain Guest."

In an instant, the attitudes of the major powers underwent a dramatic change.

The elite races such as the Demon Race, the Insect Race, and the Mechanical Race have presented truly sincere recruitment plans, promising massive amounts of resources, precious treasures, and even autonomy over parts of their territories.

Among these forces recruited, the "Nine Domains Alliance" was the most proactive, even going so far as to spare no effort.

They are an alliance of several powerful races, with a considerable number of universe lords and formidable overall strength. Their only weakness, and fatal one, is the absence of the strongest being in the universe.

This makes them always feel inferior when facing top-tier forces with the strongest leaders.

Now, Cao Benqi's appearance has given them a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—not only is it the addition of a fourth-order universe master, but also the best bridge to build a relationship with Zuoshanke!
If they could gain even the slightest favor from the Mountain-Sitting Guest, the Nine Domains Alliance's status would rise significantly, giving them the confidence to truly engage in equal dialogue with top-tier powers!
The envoy of the Nine Domains Alliance approached Cao Benqi with almost humble sincerity and irresistible conditions: a permanent seat in the Alliance's Supreme Council, near-independent autonomy, priority allocation of the Alliance's resource pool, and even a promise to do everything in his power to help him reach the realm of the strongest in the universe!
These conditions perfectly matched Cao Benqi's needs.

He knew that even if he joined a force with the strongest person in the universe, he would still be an outsider and unable to reach the core.

In the Nine Domains Alliance, he became an absolute giant upon joining, holding a prestigious position and wielding immense power.

The two sides hit it off.

At the grand and solemn joining ceremony, Cao Benqi stood tall amidst the attention of the crowd, receiving congratulations and respectful glances from all directions.

His face was calm, with a faint smile playing on his lips as he savored this belated honor and power, proving that his decision to betray humanity was "correct."

However, deep within his seemingly calm eyes burned a cold flame.

Whenever he thought of those stubborn and unyielding former members of the Flame God Clan who would rather follow the Lord of Ice Peak back to the human race than follow him, the true king, to create glory together, the excruciating pain of being betrayed by his closest relatives and the overwhelming hatred surged within him.

The existence of these "traitors" is the only glaring stain on his glorious rebirth.

……

Just as the primordial universe was in turmoil due to the Cao Benqi incident, far away in the "Cosmic Ship," one of the three forbidden zones of the Cosmic Sea, Yan Emperor Ling Xuan's Zhou Heng avatar was exploring alone within this vast and endless ancient civilization's remains.

This is a dangerous area called "The Path of the Molten Core" at the core of the spaceship.

What met the eye was not the cold metal walls, but a strange passage that seemed to be made of liquid flames and shattered stars.

A dark red torrent of energy flowed slowly through the void like magma, occasionally unleashing high-temperature rays powerful enough to annihilate ordinary cosmic beings.

Countless fragments of star cores, forged over billions of years, dotted this scorching torrent like black tombstones, their surfaces shimmering with the eternal flames of the laws of nature.

The spatial structure was extremely unstable, the heat waves distorted the view, and every now and then an invisible heat death storm would sweep by.

An invisible force field surrounded Zhou Heng's clone, keeping out the heat waves and deadly rays that could melt metal and stone.

Like a patient hunter, he traversed destruction and chaos, sensing the subtle fluctuations hidden behind the raging energy.

After an unknown amount of time, he passed through an extremely hidden spatial fold, and the scene before him suddenly changed.

This is a relatively independent and stable spherical space, completely different from the scorching and violent outside, filled with a kind of cold and deathly stillness.

At the center of the space, there were no flames or star fragments, only a silver vortex that seemed to be made of countless tiny ice crystals slowly rotating.

At the very core of that vortex, a pair of wings floated silently.

These wings are a deep, soul-absorbing silver color. The material is neither gold nor jade, yet it naturally exudes a chilling light that makes one's heart tremble.

They are not fully extended, but rather slightly contracted in a posture of poised readiness, each arc full of the beauty of power and speed.

Upon closer inspection, they were not soft feathers, but rather thin, almost invisible metal blades with extremely sharp edges!
These blades, layered upon each other, form the main body of the wings. Between the blades, tiny silver arcs of electricity silently leap, radiating a terrifying sharpness that can cut through everything and tear apart all things.

Its natural sharpness alone caused fine black cracks to constantly appear in the surrounding space, endlessly arising and ceasing.

Those silver vortexes surrounding it are cosmic dust captured and shattered by its invisible force field, stained by the sharpness of its wings, and transformed into cold sand that protects it.

The gaze of Zhou Heng's clone was instantly drawn to the sharpness emanating naturally from the dark silver wings, a sharpness that seemed capable of cutting through the soul.

He flew closer and landed in front of the enormous wing that was nearly a hundred meters tall.

Observing it up close, one can better feel its restrained yet incredibly pure sharpness, as if it were not an inanimate object, but a sleeping ferocious bird that might spread its wings and tear the starry sky apart at any moment.

"What fine wings," Ling Xuan exclaimed, reaching out to tuck them away.

With his abilities, acquiring an unclaimed treasure would be a piece of cake.

However, as soon as he got the wings, Ling Xuan frowned slightly.

"Hmm?" The wings felt icy cold to the touch, but the expected transmission of information from the treasure and resonance with the laws did not occur. The wings were excessively silent, like ordinary iron.

Furthermore, with his keen perception, he could clearly tell that the energy fluctuations emanating from the wings were only at the level of "ordinary treasures," completely different from the earth-shattering sharpness that seemed capable of tearing everything apart just now.

"What's going on? Was it just my imagination?" Even Ling Xuan, who was very knowledgeable, couldn't help but feel suspicious at this moment.

A barely perceptible golden flame flickered at his fingertips, gently brushing across the surface of the wings in an attempt to uncover their secrets, but it remained as if the flame had sunk without a trace, showing no unusual reaction whatsoever.

The process of recognizing the Lord went much more smoothly than I had imagined, with almost no obstacles encountered.

With a thought, the enormous wings rapidly shrank to the size of a palm, lying quietly in his hand.

Ling Xuan examined it closely. The shrunken wings were exquisitely crafted, with layers of dark silver blades that still radiated a cold metallic luster. However, the "momentum" that could cut through everything had been completely suppressed. It looked like a decent quality, but by no means a top-tier flying wing treasure.

"Hmm?" Just as he was about to put it away and stop investigating for the time being, his gaze suddenly sharpened.

Hidden within a fold at the base of the wing, he saw a strange, ancient script, its strokes sharp and incisive—

"Wu".

The moment the word caught his eye, a piece of information from his past life flashed through Ling Xuan's mind like lightning.

In the original novel, the Lord of Chaos City told Luo Feng that he had unexpectedly obtained a pair of treasure wings with the character "Wu" engraved on them. Because they contained extreme sharpness, they were named "Wings of Killing Wu"!
That treasure, seemingly ordinary, was actually a component of the "Chaos Golden Wings," a mechanical treasure from the Origin Continent and the supreme masterpiece of the Wu Kingdom. It greatly helped Luo Feng's growth and accompanied him all the way to the peak!

“The Wings of the Slayer of Wu!” A glint flashed in Ling Xuan’s eyes as he instantly realized, “So, Chaos found these wings here… What a treasure, it was worth the trip.”

He understood that the wings' ordinariness at this moment was simply due to the absence of their core components.

Its true potential far exceeds what people imagine.

Carefully putting away this unexpected joy, Zhou Heng's clone no longer lingered, transforming into a stream of light and continuing its exploration deeper into the "Path of the Molten Core".

According to the star map left behind by the Ancient Lord, the end of the "Path of the Molten Core" leads to an extremely dangerous place. The spacetime structure there is chaotic and filled with all sorts of unimaginable dangers. Ordinary universe lords who step into it will almost certainly die, and only the strongest beings in the universe have a chance of venturing there.

His purpose in coming to the spaceship was to explore this dangerous place, but he unexpectedly found a pair of Wu-killing wings along the way.

With his exceptional skills and daring, Zhou Heng's clone followed the map's guidance, penetrating layer upon layer of scorching and chaotic energy barriers, finally arriving at the region that was even marked as a deep red forbidden zone on the map.

The scene before him suddenly changed, completely different from the fiery and violent "Path of the Molten Core" that seemed capable of burning down galaxies. It was as if Zhou Heng's clone had stepped into a deathly realm forgotten by time.

The void presented an eternal, oppressive, dusky yellow, as if the twilight of millions of years ago had been frozen in time, permeated with a suffocating stillness and heaviness.

There is no sound here; even the energy seems to have fallen into a deep sleep and ceased to flow.

Only countless huge, jagged, dark boulders, like countless nameless tombstones, silently float in the void, slowly drifting along some ancient and eerie trajectory, forming a vast and boundless boulder graveyard.

On the surface of some boulders are huge, dried, blackened claw marks, deep enough to see bone, exuding a faint but fierce aura; others are covered with holes pierced by terrifying attacks, their edges smooth, retaining a chilling wave of destruction, silently telling the story of the unimaginable and brutal battle that once took place here.

Zhou Heng's clone concealed its aura to the extreme, its energy fluctuations almost completely contained, like a void shadow, cautiously traversing this desolate graveyard.

His senses were heightened to their limit as he meticulously scanned every inch of space in front of him.

This place appears peaceful on the surface, but it is actually fraught with danger. In some areas, the spacetime structure is like shattered glass, full of invisible wrinkles and cracks. Once you stray into it, you may be instantly cut off or banished to an unknown dimension. Inside some floating boulders, there are extremely unstable and destructive energy cores, like dormant volcanoes. They will erupt with a roar and annihilate everything around them if disturbed by external forces. In other places, there is an invisible "wind of annihilation" that silently erodes the body and soul of the intruder. If you are not of a high level of cultivation, you will probably turn into ashes without even realizing it.

Every step must be taken with utmost caution, for this is a perilous place where even the most powerful cosmic rulers could perish instantly.

After wandering through this dangerous graveyard for an unknown amount of time, the view ahead suddenly went dark.

A massive, jet-black rock, far exceeding all the surrounding boulders and comparable in size to an ordinary planet, stands majestically, like the silent ruler of this graveyard.

The giant rock exudes a dark aura that devours light. At its base, a deep, irregularly shaped hole, unlike anything formed naturally, is clearly visible, with smooth, mirror-like edges, indicating that it was carved by human hands.

At the edge of the cave entrance, there are ancient patterns that are long since blurred but still exude a desolate and ancient aura. These patterns vaguely form a pattern similar to an emblem, revealing an inviolable majesty.

"A tomb chamber?" Ling Xuan's mind stirred as he recalled the famous tomb site within the spaceship that could only be reached by the "Tomb Ship." He had once been fortunate enough to enter one of the tomb chambers.

This place is clearly not that place.

The owner of this hidden tomb must have had an astonishing background.

Without further hesitation, Zhou Heng's clone transformed into an even more subtle stream of light, almost merging into space, and silently disappeared into the deep, dark cave entrance that seemed to be devouring people.

The cave is not the cramped passage one might imagine, but rather an extremely vast underground space that appears to have been hollowed out from the mountainside.

The dome hangs high, hidden in endless darkness, and even with the eyesight of Zhou Heng's avatar, it cannot see the end.

Beneath my feet were cold, hard, black stone slabs covered in thick dust, forming a straight path leading into deeper darkness.

On both sides of the space stand huge stone sculptures of various shapes.

They are not humanoid; some resemble ferocious beasts with multiple limbs, baring their teeth and claws; some have broken wings on their backs, resembling demons from hell, with exposed fangs; and some are completely incomprehensible, twisted, and bizarre forms, as if they came from a nightmare.

Without exception, these stone sculptures all maintain a posture of charging forward desperately or struggling in extreme pain. They are twisted and frozen, filled with despair and fear, as if at some moment millions of years ago, they were transformed into eternal stone statues by some supreme force along with their last life marks, silently telling the tragic story and unwillingness of that time.

Simply gazing at these stone sculptures can send a chill straight to your soul.

The air was thick with an aura of death, so dense it was almost impenetrable, chilling to the bone, as if it could freeze divine power and erode willpower.

With each step Zhou Heng's clone took on the cold stone slab, the clear sound of his footsteps echoed in the absolutely silent space, sounding particularly jarring, as if awakening some slumbering being.

He proceeded cautiously along the passage silently "guarded" by countless statues of despair, his divine sense scanning his surroundings like the most sophisticated radar, wary of any possible traps or remaining restrictions, slowly making his way to the deepest part of the tomb.

At the end of the passage was not the coffin one might expect, but a massive, tightly closed bronze door.

The ancient gate is adorned with intricate bas-reliefs depicting a disciplined and powerful legion that commands countless strange warships and conquers the four corners of the starry sky. The legion is magnificent and imposing.

On the bas-relief banners and warriors' armor, an ancient "Wu" character emblem appears repeatedly, shining brightly.

A chilling pressure emanated from the crack in the door, as if an ancient being capable of shaking the universe slumbered behind it.

(End of this chapter)