Lord of the Rending Stars

Guided by the virtual cosmic coordinates provided by the Ancient God Venerable, Qingyang piloted the spaceship at 50 times the speed of light through the dark universe. Decades later, the spaceship emerged from the dark universe, slowly revealing its hull like a streak of light.

An ancient continent, more than three light-years in diameter, came into view, and the core of humanity—the majestic Holy City—stood there, untouched by the passage of time.

As they approached the entrance to the Holy City, Qingyang put away his spaceship, saw the Immortal Guardian, and bowed, saying, "I am a disciple of the Ancient God Venerable. I need to enter the Holy City to study the Chaos Stele. Please inform the great being in the Holy City."

"Please enter. The great being has already given instructions that the disciple of the Ancient God Venerable may pass," the Immortal Guardian said respectfully.

Qingyang cupped his hands and said, "Thank you for letting me pass."

Inside the holy city, as soon as Qingyang entered, he was stopped by a woman who called herself Venerable Youlan. She was wearing black armor and her head was covered in blue, lustrous scales, which made her look very imposing.

"My teacher is the overlord of the universe, and this person's aura is weaker. He must be a high-level Venerable. Could he be my teacher's old flame?" Qingyang thought to himself, and respectfully said, "I have met this Venerable. May I ask what brings you here?"

"That ancient god asked me to mentor you in the Holy City, worried that his precious disciple might suffer," Venerable Youlan said with a raised eyebrow and a teasing smile.

"Thank you for your help, Venerable One."

They walked and chatted along the way. Venerable Youlan's cold and beautiful face was adorned with a teasing voice. As they became more familiar with each other, Qingyang took advantage of the situation and started calling her "Aunt Lan" repeatedly, which made this usually stern-faced female Venerable much happier.

Venerable Youlan inwardly scoffed, "Much better than that lump of iron. All he does is refine weapons and cultivate. He really doesn't understand romance. Humph!"

Along the way, Venerable Youlan tirelessly taught Qingyang a lot about the basics of the Holy City. When they arrived at the core of the Holy City, Qingyang's eyes were drawn to the three ancient and mysterious Chaos Stele standing in the core area.

"This is the most precious supreme treasure of the Holy City of Humanity. It is a treasure created by the supreme beings to guide the younger generation of cultivators in the clan to the supreme path. Once you comprehend it, each one will be no less powerful than your teacher, who is a cosmic overlord. Your teacher has applied for 10 opportunities for you to comprehend the Chaos Stele."

"Please follow me, Qingyang. First, choose the Chaos Stele you wish to study. Also, once you cultivate to the level of King Immortal, you can apply for permanent residence in this Holy City, which will make it easier to study the Chaos Stele."

"These three are the Dragon Chaos Stele, the Giant Axe Chaos Stele, and the Mother Ancestor Chaos Stele. Does that mean that our clan only has three beings like the Lord of the Universe? I remember that the Primordial Ancestor was also a super strong person," Qingyang asked doubtfully, but then he thought that the Primordial Ancestor did not leave behind any Chaos Steles in the original work.

Venerable Youlan shook his head. "How would I know about the affairs of important people? Perhaps they are busy comprehending the heaven-defying secret technique of the Virtual Universe. Hurry up and go, I will take you to see the guardian."

At this time, the Primordial Ancestor had not yet broken through to become the strongest being in the universe. Due to the limitations of the secret technique level, the virtual universe could only cover the initial continent region. Nearly 80% of the human race's strongmen were gathered on this continent, while a few Venerables were scattered and stationed in the core secret realms. For example, the Ancient God Venerable was stationed in the Ancient God Continent's Ancient Secret Realm.

Upon entering the Holy City, Qingyang's consciousness simultaneously logged into the virtual universe. He received a message from the Ancient God Venerable in his email, instructing him on the guidance of his friend, Venerable Youlan, and on comprehending the Chaos Stele.

In the email, the Ancient God Venerable emphasized, "The three existing Chaos Steles can be used as a reference, but we should not rely too much on other people's paths, otherwise we will have no hope of becoming the Lord of the Universe."

Shaking his head, Qingyang felt a warmth in his heart. The Ancient God Venerable treated him like his own son, though the old man had given him a small scolding for the incident with his first clone. His consciousness quickly returned to the Ancient God Venerable, "Don't worry, everything went smoothly."

Beside the three Chaos Steles, a spatial ripple appeared, and an aged-faced avatar of Kander appeared. He bowed slightly to Venerable Youlan and looked at Qingyang, saying, "Junior, follow me and choose a Chaos Stele first."

"Remember, each meditation session only lasts for 7 days. After the meditation period ends, you can visit the deserted dwellings around the Chaos Stele to learn from the insights that the early cultivators recorded on the Chaos Stele. Some of these insights were casually inscribed, while others were naturally inscribed when a glimmer of insight was triggered, but most of them can only serve as a reference," Kander warned.

Qingyang replied respectfully, "Thank you for the reminder, Lord Kander."

Soon, Kandri led Qingyang through a long corridor to the three rubbings of the pictures in the corridor.

"Qingyang, you have half an hour to watch. Let's begin."

Qingyang first looked at the rubbing of the Mother Ancestor Chaos Stele. He saw an ancient, towering tree with countless withered yellow leaves falling. He could feel that the countless leaves falling in the air formed exquisite military formations, one after another.

Ten minutes later, Qingyang moved to the Dragon Journey Chaos Stele rubbing. He saw that the core nine shallow beast claw prints were arranged in an extremely mysterious array, while the outer ninety-nine beast claw prints were in the shape of some kind of innate beast god, showing either crawling or roaring.

Ten minutes later, Qingyang moved to the rubbing of the Giant Axe Chaos Stele. There, 36 axe imprints were arranged in an extremely mysterious way to form a pattern of chaotic evolution and a giant holding a giant axe to open the sky. Each axe imprint contained the profound laws of spacetime and the perfected way of the axe.

"Alright, time's up. Tell me which Chaos Monument you've chosen," Kander said in a deep voice.

After a moment's thought, Qingyang said, "First, I'll rule out the Mother Ancestor Chaos Stele. Its complex evolutionary flow can't provide me with any direction for the laws I need to learn from. I'll also rule out the Dragon Chaos Stele. The Path of the Beast Gods can be referenced from living Beast Gods. Currently, all eight Beast Gods are still alive. The Giant Axe Chaos Stele can provide me with references for creating sword techniques. In terms of spatial laws, the Giant Axe Chaos Stele is also the most profound of the three, and it can provide me with guidance for a long time."

Qingyang answered seriously, "I choose the Giant Axe Chaos Stele."

Kandri nodded, and with a thought, he had the virtual universe record the information. He then led Qingyang to the Chaos Stele's meditation chamber. "You're lucky. No one is meditating on it right now. Remember, you have seven days to meditate. When the time is up, I will remind you that your meditation is over."

"Alright, you can go in now. Next time you need to meditate, you don't need to inform me. Just enter the secret room when no one is there, and I will keep an eye out."

"Thank you," Qingyang said with a slight bow before striding inside. Inside the secret chamber, Qingyang paused for a moment, then sighed in admiration.

Kandri actually existed in the early stages of the primordial universe's evolution. Currently, he hasn't broken through to the Venerable level; he's likely a King-level Immortal. His rare talent for creating an external avatar destined his cultivation journey to be long. Even after countless years, he still hasn't broken through to the Universe Lord level. Alas, his talent is both his strength and his weakness!

After gathering his thoughts, Qingyang immediately focused on the first nine axe marks and the middle twelve axe marks on the Chaos Stele in front of him, completely immersing himself in them. In the blink of an eye, seven days had passed, and Kander's voice rang in Qingyang's mind, "Time for comprehension has come."

Qingyang reluctantly left the secret chamber. He was confident that if he used another opportunity to comprehend, he could create a sword technique at the King-level Immortal realm. However, he knew he couldn't be greedy with his comprehension; this was the experience of his predecessors, and the effect was better after repeated refinement.

After bidding farewell to Kandri, Qingyang headed towards the numerous residential areas beside the Chaos Monument in the Holy City. Kandri watched Qingyang's retreating figure and murmured with slight emotion, "Good temperament, strong will—a promising talent."

As Qingyang walked along, he observed the scattered inscriptions on his dwellings, which contained various laws and traces of various weapons.

Qingyang examined the knife marks and spatial law inscriptions closely, but finding nothing amiss, he could only shake his head. A moment later, after finding a secluded dwelling, Qingyang sat cross-legged and began using his fingers as blades, combining them with the laws of fire to create a rudimentary sword technique. Ten years later, after consuming another opportunity to comprehend the Chaos Stele, the black-armored youth muttered during his cultivation, "No, this isn't right either, it should be like this." With that, a series of knife marks flashed across his hand, and then a beautiful, dazzling spatial rift flower appeared in the void.