Lord of the Rending Stars

Several days later, the group finally arrived at Zhenhuo City.

It was a colossal fortress suspended in the center of a shattered star field, forged entirely from an unknown dark golden metal, its surface engraved with dense defensive runes. The fortress was over a million kilometers in diameter, resembling an artificial planet, radiating a chilling aura.

Around the fortress, thousands of warships and countless immortal warriors patrolled, forming an impenetrable defensive line.

After staying in Zhenhuo City for three days without seeing Cangyin Venerable, Qingyang and Bingfeng decided to head deeper into the battlefield.

The outline of Zhenhuo City gradually blurred behind me, eventually turning into an insignificant point of light in the starry sky.

Qingyang and Bingfeng flew side by side at a moderate speed, maintaining a cruising pace typical of peak-level Kings. This was a decision they made after three days of rest at their frontline base, in order to discreetly infiltrate the Third Front and investigate the truth behind the Fireworm Clan's unusual movements.

"Have you finished reading the patrol records provided by Iron Feather King?" Ice Peak's voice echoed through the void, carrying a hint of coldness.

Qingyang nodded, quickly reviewing the data from the seven patrol logs in his mind: "In the past three months, the Fireworm Clan's activity level in the Third Battlefield area has tripled. Encounters at the King level have increased from two to three times a month to five to six times a week."

"It's not just about the numbers," Bingfeng raised his hand, and an ice-blue light screen unfolded between the two of them, marked with densely packed battlefield coordinates. "Look at the locations of these attacks. They're not random; they're following an arc, contracting from the outside inwards."

Qingyang stared at the light screen and indeed found that all the marked points were distributed in a clear fan shape, with the tip of the fan pointing to an unknown area deep in the third battlefield.

"They seem to be driving things away," Qingyang said slowly. "It's not like they're expanding their territory, but rather they're driving all the creatures in this area out."

"Including our human patrols, as well as explorers from other races," Ice Peak added. "King Ironfeather said that in the last three months, the number of alien corpses they have found on the battlefield has also decreased significantly. Those aliens who could escape have escaped, and those who could not escape have been eliminated."

The two exchanged a glance, both seeing seriousness in each other's eyes.

The Fireworms' elaborate efforts to seal off an area suggest either they are nurturing some precious resource or guarding the entrance to an undeveloped secret realm. Either way, it warrants in-depth investigation.

"Be careful," Bingfeng suddenly whispered.

Qingyang also sensed that more than ten energy fluctuations were approaching from millions of kilometers away. These were the unique, scorching energy fluctuations of the Fireworm Clan.

The two simultaneously concealed their auras, their figures merging into the spatial folds in the void.

A moment later, a patrol of fireflies swept past less than a million kilometers from their hiding place. There were twelve fireflies, the two in the lead being nearly a thousand meters long with deep dark red exoskeletons, and the other ten being slightly smaller, but all ranging from peak Marquis to high-ranking King.

They were arranged in a standard search formation, with twelve perceptual ripples spreading forward in a fan shape like a spider web, leaving no inch of space unchecked.

Qingyang's heart skipped a beat. This patrol was stronger than the one Iron Feather King had encountered, and they weren't wandering aimlessly. Or rather, they were clearing the area.

Once the Fireworm patrol had gone far away, Qingyang and Bingfeng emerged from their hiding place.

"A team led by a peak-level King, with a mix of Marquis and King members." Ice Peak's voice was cold and clear. "This kind of setup is already an elite patrol team in the Third Battlefield. What exactly is the Fireworm Clan doing?"

Qingyang didn't answer, but instead reached into his robes and took out a silver-gray compass. It was a top-tier detection device he had requested from the Star Forging Pavilion, capable of sensing energy anomalies within a radius of hundreds of millions of kilometers.

The compass needle trembled slightly before finally pointing northwest, exactly in line with the area provided by the Iron Feather King, where the Fireworms attacked most frequently.

"Go," Qingyang put away the compass, his figure transformed into a streak of light, with Bingfeng following closely behind. The chill around him was contained, only a thin layer of ice crystal armor appeared on his body.

Day 13, deep into the third battlefield.

Qingyang stopped on a shattered piece of continental debris, his gaze falling on the compass. The needle was vibrating several times more violently than it had seven days ago, indicating that the energy anomaly ahead was rapidly intensifying.

"This isn't right," Bingfeng landed beside him. Several charred marks were on his silver-white armor, left from the encounter with the Fireworm Clan's King-level squad two days ago. Although his divine body had recovered, the marks on his armor would take time to heal.

That was the third time they had encountered the Fireworm Clan since they ventured deep into the region. The first time was when two patrol teams led by peak-level Kings took a detour to avoid them; the second time was when three peak-level Kings joined forces, and they fought briefly before disengaging; the third time was two days ago when an invincible fireworm led a battle group consisting of seven peak-level Kings and more than ten advanced-level Kings.

"With the invincible king in charge, Bingfeng's voice carried a rare hint of solemnity. "This setup is no longer a patrol; it's a blockade."

Qingyang put away his compass and turned his gaze to the northwest. The starry sky there looked no different from anywhere else, but his consciousness detected a faint fluctuation of law. It wasn't the scorching aura of the Fireworm Clan, but a more primal and violent pulse of law.

"The Law of Fire," Qingyang said softly, "and it's an extremely concentrated Law of Fire."

Bingfeng also sensed it. His water and fire laws were naturally incompatible, making him more sensitive to this fluctuation than Qingyang. "The concentration is increasing, which means the source is not far ahead."

"But the Fireworms have sealed off this area so tightly that it's difficult for us to go any further," Qingyang added.

"Not necessarily," Bingfeng said, flipping his hand to take out an object, which was a gray, disc-shaped treasure of the domain.

Qingyang's eyes flickered: "You're going to use a powerful domain artifact to infiltrate?"

"right"

Bingfeng raised the domain treasure in his hand, "Once it is unfolded, it can distort the spatial structure within a certain range, making our aura difficult to detect. If I add a layer of ice barrier inside the domain, it should be able to deceive the Fireworm Clan's perception."

Ice Peak Divine Power was released slightly, activating the gray disc. Its surface runes lit up, and a silver sea of ​​light with a diameter of one million kilometers unfolded around the two. Within the sea of ​​light, the spatial structure was distorted and folded, enveloping the two's auras layer by layer.

At the same time, the ice peak activated the Law of Water, condensing a thin layer of ice crystal barrier within the inner layer of the gray sea of ​​light. The barrier isolated temperature, smell, energy fluctuations, and even suppressed the resonance of the Law to a minimum.

Let's go.

The two transformed into an almost invisible phantom and sped off in the northwest direction.

The effects of the domain's treasure far exceeded expectations.

Over the next two days, under the cover of the gray sea of ​​light, Qingyang and Bingfeng passed through three lines of fireworm blockade. Each line of blockade was guarded by fireworms at the King-level invincible, but their sensory ripples lost their accuracy due to the distortion of the Binding Sea, and they passed by the two's hiding place several times without detecting anything unusual.

By the third day, the fluctuations ahead had become so intense that they were almost visible to the naked eye.

Qingyang stopped behind a floating meteorite and looked ahead through the gray sea of ​​light from the ice peaks, his pupils suddenly contracting.

Tens of millions of kilometers ahead lies a "scorched earth" with a diameter of over one billion kilometers.

It was called scorched earth because all matter in that starry sky, including star fragments, meteorites, and even space itself, had been melted into a dark red, semi-liquid state by some terrifyingly high temperature. Countless dark red liquid clumps flowed slowly in the void, colliding, merging, and splitting, emitting suffocatingly hot fluctuations of the laws of nature.

In the center of that scorched earth, dozens of fist-sized, blood-red crystals floated. They hovered silently in the void, and with each pulsation, they caused a large area of ​​the surrounding space to collapse.

"That is..."

The voice from the ice peak carried a rare hint of awe.