Lord of the Rending Stars

Three days later, the second trial began.

This time there was no choice of path; everyone was teleported to the same place: a vast starry sky in the ninth layer of the Chaos Sea Eye, where a dilapidated city floated in the center.

The city spanned only tens of thousands of kilometers in circumference, its walls forged from an unknown metal and riddled with cracks. Within the city were palaces, towers, and plazas, but most had collapsed. Only a nine-story tower remained relatively intact, its spire emitting faint spatial fluctuations.

"The second trial: repair the Demon-Suppressing City," the will of the Chaos Sea Eye issued the instruction.

"The Demon-Suppressing City is the core of the Chaos Sea Eye, damaged by numerous battles. Repairing it requires three materials: Sands of Time, Space Crystals, and Sources of Law. These materials are scattered throughout the starry sky, and you must collect them."

"Once the restoration reaches 30%, the third trial, the inheritance competition, will begin. The higher the restoration level, the greater the advantage in the third trial."

"The time limit is thirty days."

After the chaotic sea eye's will fluctuations subsided, tens of thousands of points of light lit up across the starry sky. The golden ones were sands of time, the silver ones were spatial crystals, and the seven-colored ones were the source streams of laws. But these points of light were not static; they moved rapidly across the starry sky, some even hidden within spatial layers.

The three teams immediately sprang into action. The machine race excelled at gathering. The eighty-one puppets (sixty-nine remaining) dispersed, each carrying a space detector and a law-capturing device.

They had a clear division of labor: thirty were responsible for location, twenty for collection, ten for transportation, and the remaining nine for guard duty and combat.

The Zerg employed a "swarm tactic." The hive spawned 100,000 engineer Zerg, each only at the level of a World Lord, but their sheer numbers and wide coverage made them devastating. These engineer Zerg swarmed like locusts, sweeping away all the light points in their path. However, the cost was extremely high attrition, as the starry sky contained numerous natural traps; for every ten light points collected, one engineer Zerg perished.

There were only three humans on their side, making them seem the weakest. But Qingyang had a plan. "We won't compete with them on quantity; we'll compete on quality."

Qingyang activated the nine Origin Crystal Hearts, and the power of the nine basic laws extended like tentacles, sensing the most hidden and precious material points in the starry sky.

He quickly pinpointed a direction: "There! There's a vein of Time Sand, a hundred times purer than ordinary Time Sand!"

The three transformed into streaks of light and flew in that direction. Sure enough, hidden within a distorted fold of spacetime was a golden river—a vein of pure sands of time! Each grain of sand in the river contained a fragment of memory from a specific time period.

However, three spatial-temporal beasts dwell around the river. These beasts have no physical form, but are composed of distorted spacetime. Each of them possesses the ultimate combat power of a king, and their abilities are bizarre. They can reverse, accelerate, or stop time, making them extremely difficult to deal with.

"I'll do it."

With a single step, Ice Peak transformed the Frost Abyss Armor into an ice giant. "Perfect timing to test my new insights."

He formed hand seals, and the Law of Water was no longer just about low temperature, but began to influence the flow of time.

"Nine Transformations of the Frozen Abyss: Time Freezes into Ice!"

Centered on him, the laws of water and the sands of time resonated. The frost giant's palm struck the time-space beast, and as the wind from his palm swept through, the flow of time began to slow. The three-headed beast's movements grew increasingly sluggish, until it was finally frozen completely in spacetime. Not a spatial freeze, but a temporal standstill.

"Excellent!" King Jiuyu exclaimed, "Ice Peak, your move has already touched the threshold of the Laws of Time!"

The three successfully harvested the ore vein, obtaining enough Sands of Time to raise the restoration progress of Demon Suppression City to 5%. Over the next twenty days, the three parties used their respective strengths to engage in a fierce battle for materials in the starry sky.

On the seventh day, the Machine Race discovered a region rich in spatial crystals, but it contained a natural spatial labyrinth. The King of Killing Spirits personally led the team, and it took them three full days to decipher the labyrinth and obtain a large quantity of high-purity spatial crystals.

On the twelfth day, the Zerg Queen sensed a fountain of fundamental laws, from which the primal power of various basic laws surged forth. However, there were turbulent currents of laws surrounding the fountain, and the Zerg lost 30,000 engineer Zerglings before they were able to successfully collect the energy.

On the eighteenth day, Qingyang and his companions found a secret realm containing the Sands of Time, spatial crystals, and the source of laws. However, the secret realm contained a guardian puppet of invincible king-level status.

After a day of arduous struggle, Qingyang used the Nine Source Crystal Heart as a foundation and laid down the Nine Source Sealing Secret Technique to barely suppress the puppet and obtain the materials.

The three parties sometimes cooperated and sometimes competed, but always adhered to the contract and did not directly attack each other. On the twenty-fifth day, the restoration progress of Zhenmo City reached: Humans: 41%, Machine Race: 38%, Zerg Race: 36%. The differences were not significant, but the humans had a slight advantage.

On the twenty-eighth day, an unexpected event occurred. While collecting the last source of the Law's essence, the Zerg triggered a hidden trap in the starry sky. The trap exploded, creating a Law Storm that swept across a significant portion of the cosmos. Wherever the storm passed, materials were destroyed, space shattered, and even an invincible King-level expert could not withstand it.

"Join forces to resist!"

Qingyang acted decisively. The Nine Universe King's sword formation transformed into a barrier, the Ice Peak's icy domain froze the edge of the storm, and Qingyang's Nine Origin Crystal Heart stabilized the surrounding space.

The Mechs also activated their combined shield, with the energy cores of sixty-nine golems linked together to form a silver light curtain covering thousands of miles. The Zerg hive shrank to its limit, its surface covered with layers of bio-armor, enduring the storm.

The storm lasted for a full six hours. When it subsided, all three sides had suffered heavy losses. On the human side, the Nine Heavens King's divine body was damaged by ten percent, while Qingyang and Bingfeng, relying on their top-tier treasure armor, remained unscathed.

The Mechs lost twenty-three golems, the Zerg hive armor was nearly half destroyed, and the Engineers were almost completely wiped out. But more importantly, the storm destroyed a large amount of the collected materials.

The restoration progress of Zhenmo City has decreased instead of increased: Humans: 33%, Machine Race: 31%, Zerg: 29%.

"There are only two days left," the mechanical voice of the King of Killing Spirits said with a hint of solemnity. "At the current pace, none of the three parties can reach the 30% repair threshold."

The two Zerg Queens were filled with anxiety: "We must find a new source of materials!"

Qingyang fell silent. He closed his eyes, and the nine Source Crystal Hearts slowly rotated within his body, creating a subtle resonance with the Demon Suppression City.

Suddenly, Qingyang opened his eyes and said, "We've made a mistake."

"What's wrong?" Bingfeng asked, puzzled.

"Repairing the Demon-Suppressing City doesn't necessarily require those materials."

Qingyang pointed to the ruined city, "You see, the damage to Zhenmo City is mostly at the level of laws, not at the level of matter. We have been looking for materials to 'repair' it, but perhaps we can fill it with our own laws."

King Jiuyu was taken aback: "You mean, we can directly repair the damage to the laws by comprehending them?"

"Exactly!"

Qingyang's eyes shone brightly. "This is the true purpose of the trial—to test our understanding and application of the laws! If it's just about collecting materials, what's the difference between that and hard labor?"

The three immediately flew towards Zhenmo City. Qingyang arrived at the largest crack in the city wall, which was ten thousand meters long and whose internal law structure was completely broken.

He activated the Nine-Source Crystal Core, channeling the power of several fundamental laws into the cracks like threads. The law of fire filled the structure, the law of metal reinforced the connections, the law of water lubricated the nodes, and the law of wood fostered new legal veins. The cracks began to heal at a visible speed.

"It works!" Bingfeng was overjoyed and found a damaged area, which he repaired using the laws of water. His laws of water were no longer just about low temperature, but also included properties such as solidification, eternity, and order, which were perfect for repair.

King Jiuyu then used the laws of space to repair the distorted spatial nodes. Seeing this, the Machine Race and the Zerg Race immediately followed suit.

The King of the Killing Spirit mobilized the mechanical race's ability to analyze laws, using highly precise manipulation to repair intricate structures. The Queen of the Zerg, on the other hand, used her soul power to repair damage involving the soul level.

In the final two days, the three parties ceased their competition and focused entirely on repairs. As the thirtieth day ended, and the will of the Chaotic Sea Eye reverberated across the starry sky, the restoration progress of the Demon-Suppressing City was frozen at:

Terran + Mech + Zerg combined repair: 72%!

"Second trial passed."

"The legacy of the Chaotic Sea Eye is not for lone wolves who worship force, but for wise men who understand balance and cooperation."