Lord of the Rending Stars

Whoosh! Qingyang transformed into a thin blue line, cautiously cutting into the surging extreme cold current.

Qingyang focused intently, his body nimbly weaving through the turbulent waters, avoiding the larger fragmented voids and energy vortices.

Several hours later, the advanced detector Qingyang carried issued a warning: "Strong energy reaction detected 3,000 kilometers to the left, not naturally occurring!"

Qingyang's mind stirred, and he immediately changed direction, meandering towards the location sensed by the detector.

It was a relatively calm "ice vortex," where the extreme cold current formed a slowly rotating funnel-shaped depression. At the bottom of the ice vortex, three creatures, shaped like giant lizards and composed entirely of deep blue ice crystals, were coiled! They were over a hundred meters long and were circling a strange block of ice the size of a playground, seemingly drawing energy from it.

"Ice Core Essence?" Qingyang recognized the strange ice as a rare cosmic treasure that was highly beneficial to ice-attribute life forms. "A three-headed, high-ranking ice lizard, lacking intelligence, would be easy to deal with."

Qingyang pointed his right hand like a knife and gently slashed at the three-headed ice lizard. With Qingyang's mastery of the laws of space, there was no earth-shattering explosion, only a microscopic spatial collapse. The three-headed giant lizard disappeared silently, as if it had been thrown into a black hole.

Where the three-headed ice lizard vanished, Qingyang waved his hand and collected the "Ice Core Essence." He didn't linger, continuing to venture deeper into the "Eternal Silent Ice Abyss" indicated by the intelligence.

Ten days later, Qingyang stood in a relatively calm void. The extremely cold current in front of him seemed to be blocked by an invisible boundary, becoming thinner. And beyond the boundary was a dark abyss that seemed to freeze even light.

"The Eternal Ice Abyss is where the Frost Whale was last seen."

Qingyang's eyes were sharp as knives as he stared at the darkness before him. "According to intelligence, the Frost Whale does not stay here all the time, but rather periodically swims and forages in several extremely cold regions on the outskirts."

Qingyang cautiously approached the edge of the ice abyss, and the probe tried to probe downwards, but it was like a mud ox sinking into the sea.

Just as Qingyang was about to explore along the edge of the ice abyss to look for possible traces, a faint but incredibly clear peculiar fluctuation came from the depths of the ice abyss without warning.

The fluctuations carried a powerful life force, contained profound spatial laws and rhythms, and even a faint pressure that seemed to come from a higher level of genetic life.

The fluctuation was fleeting, but both Qingyang and the Time Shadow Beast hidden in the ring noticed it.

"A cold whale! It's definitely the life force of a cold whale!"

Qingyang's heart skipped a beat, then he was overjoyed. This aura perfectly matched the description provided by the Ancient God Venerable! Moreover, although this life force was subtle, its level was extremely high, far surpassing all the ice-type creatures he had encountered before; it was undoubtedly a special life form!

Just as Qingyang was concentrating on trying to pinpoint the source of the fluctuations and hesitating whether to immediately pursue it or make further preparations, a sudden change occurred!

An invisible ripple, directly affecting the soul, swept towards Qingyang without warning. This fluctuation was not a soul attack, but rather a probing soul probe.

"Hidden head and bare feet, dare you show yourself?" Qingyang said calmly to the starry sky ahead.

Immediately afterwards, the starry sky in the left, center and right directions was as if torn apart by an invisible hand, and three figures descended with the aura of being crowned kings and immortals.

Emerging from the rift in the starry sky on the left was a strange beast, a hundred meters long, with dark golden scales all over its body, resembling a Qilin but with a scorpion's tail. Its pair of dark golden vertical pupils were cold and ruthless, looking at Qingyang as if he were sizing up prey.

According to the information about the demon race in the Virtual Universe Company, Qingyang learned that the beast in front of him was one of the royal bloodlines of the demon race, known as the "Gold-Eating Beast" for its ability to devour everything and its indestructible hide. He sensed the aura it was releasing and found that it had reached the limit level of the King-level.

To the right, a strange ancient tree, its roots firmly planted in the void and its branches and leaves flowing with a verdant aura of time, slowly emerged. The tree stood fifty kilometers tall, moving without wind, each leaf's veins seemingly inscribed with the laws of time. The tree's leaves rippled gently, subtly affecting the flow of time in the surrounding area. The newcomer was none other than the outer member of the Ancestral God Cult, a special plant-type life form, the 'Time Source Ancient Tree,' possessing invincible strength at the King level, the 'Time Thorn King.'

In the center stood a powerful wolf-like warrior, clad entirely in crimson armor, with a wolf's head and three scarlet eyes. The Three-Eyed Blood Wolf was a branch of the Sky Wolf Clan. Its murderous aura stained the surrounding starry sky a dark red; it was none other than the infamous, peak-level King-ranked 'Blood Howl King'.

Two demons and one member of the Ancestral God Cult formed a triangle, subtly surrounding Qingyang in the center and sealing off the surrounding space, clearly indicating that they had a prior agreement.

"Human ants, daring to come to the Cold Mountain Secret Realm alone, then leave your lives here. Hahaha, it's been a long time since I've devoured a human," the Blood Howling King said with cruelty and arrogance.

Qingyang's expression remained unchanged as his gaze quickly swept over the three figures, a thought flashing through his mind. The simultaneous appearance of two powerful, immortal-level figures from different factions here was no coincidence. They were likely also after the Cold Whale, seemingly trying to eliminate a competitor beforehand.

"You little wolfhound, so arrogant! I'll knock your teeth out!" Qingyang sneered. No sooner had he spoken than Qingyang's Heavenly Flame Blade slashed in a half-arc, the black trail of collapse in its path striking the wolf's head.

"Roar!" Blood Howl King unleashed a solid pillar of blood from one of its vertical eyes. In the instant it collided with Qingyang's blade, it used the momentum to roll over, its hind legs gathering power as its front claws grew larger. The two claws slammed down towards the space where Qingyang was, with enough force to shatter a neutron star.

"Good, take this!"

Qingyang neither dodged nor evaded, but instead raised the Heavenly Flame Blade upwards, its speed increasing rapidly. The blade and claws clashed, sending the Blood Howling King flying backwards. One of its claws was severed, and its divine aura slightly diminished.

Blood Howl King exclaimed in horror, "One strike has damaged five-thousandths of my divine body. Human, you have been hiding your strength. You are an invincible king."

Clad in ordinary heavy-grade armor, the Blood Howling King was renowned for its exceptional defensive capabilities among the Immortal Kings. One strike had cleaved off five-thousandths of its divine body; two hundred more strikes and it would be finished. Thinking this, the Blood Howling King immediately moved closer to the Gold-Eating Beast on its left.

Qingyang stood with his sword in hand. Seeing that the intimidation effect had been achieved, he said calmly to the space around the two demons, "There is another friend here, come out as well."

"Hahaha, the newly crowned king of the human race is invincible, his strength is indeed extraordinary. Let me introduce myself, I am the 'King of the Void Prison', your strength is worthy of knowing my name." In the starry sky next to the Blood Howl King, a demon with two heads and four hooves, and a body resembling a Qilin, appeared, and even the surrounding space-time was affected by the golden and silver intertwined domain it spread out.

Qingyang's expression was solemn, his eyes narrowed as he looked at the Void Prison King. According to the demon race's records, this 'Void Prison King' belonged to the Time-Space Nightmare Beast clan, one of the demon race's royal families. It was born with an affinity for the two superior primordial laws of time and space. Its golden eyes could control the law of space and unleash its power, while its silver eyes controlled the law of time and could unleash its power. They could also intersect to form a spacetime-intersecting domain, making it one of the most talented royal families in the demon race.

"Humans, quickly state your names. With your unparalleled strength as kings, you must not be nobodies," the voice of the Sky Prison King boomed.

"You little demons, you may call me 'King of Rift Beacon,' but speaking of which, when did the demon race and the Ancestral God Sect start to mingle together?" Qingyang frowned and asked curiously.

The ancient tree leaves rustled, and the ethereal voice of the 'Time Thorn King' echoed, "I am a subordinate of the Frost God General, dispatched by the General to invite the special life form, the Frost Whale, to join the Ancestral God Cult. As for why I am traveling with the demon race, it's because several members of the demon race also want to invite the Frost Whale to join. Hehe, they are my competitors."

"Since we all share the same goal, let's wait for the Frost Whale to come out and then each of us can use our own methods to win it over. But the key is the Frost Whale's choice," Qingyang suggested to the three Immortal Kings of the Demon Clan and the Time Thorn King of the Ancestral God Sect.

King Shiji and King Kongyu didn't think much of it and both nodded in agreement.

Qingyang's words cleverly concealed his true purpose.