"DIE!" A harsh, masculine voice laced with ruthlessness and seething killing intent exploded outwards. Hidden within the voice was exhaustion and urgency, fueled and upheld by desire and forged by fire determination.
Within an isolated realm, known as a Shell World, sonorous sounds of fighting and effort resounded continuously alongside the incessant fluctuation of Mystic Power, Heavenly Radiance, and the distinct aura of Law. Not a single aura of Law flowing about exceeded the Nurturing Phase of the Seed of Law.
Five distinct figures, three males and two females, all humans, were clashing in a chaotic battle of rapidly shifting alliances and spontaneous crisis. Each figure had the stellarly impressive cultivation of an Original Magistrate, a genuine Heavenly Saint, and their robust or pure auras alongside their young physical features and life auras indicated their outstanding talent among cultivators and young ages relative to the Heavenly Saint Phase of cultivation.
They wielded high-grade Mystic-World armaments, not a single Heavenly Treasure among them, but each armament was exceedingly precious, the type that one wouldn't easily see in the hands of Heavenly Saints.
Each figure wore easily discernible robes with different indications of their respective organizations, either as a large insignia on their backs, or small, glowing depictions on their upper torso, and shoulders, or littered across their outfits that were unmissable to the average observer. They were worn with immense pride.
However, these robes were either damaged or in tatters at the moment, with only a single figure's clothes remaining untouched, only stained by the blood leaking from their mouth, ears, and nose, dripping down their chin and neck like an overflowing river. The ashen pale shade of their countenance wasn't due to external injuries, but internal injuries and excessive blood loss. Despite their horrific state, the figure was relentless in their fight, wielding a long dark-red spear with decisive stabs that sought to reap lives.
The Shell World's boundaries were well-defined as resplendently glowing Mystic Runes shone beautifully at the edges of the Sky Layer, constantly pulsating with restrictive mystic power. A restriction was established that prevented cultivators at the Ascended Saint and True Sage Phases from entering, only allowing those at the Heavenly Saint Phase and below to enter.
A tall, sturdy figure with lime-green eyes wielding two metallic gauntlets with two-inch spiked knuckles fastened to their arms unleashed a punch, a punch, and another punch. He was handsome with an aura of imposing righteousness, with an anchor beard that accentuated his masculine jawline and a bald head. He was dressed in red and gold robes, sporting a large pointy mountain with a white halo hovering around its tip.
From his aura of vibrant life that was radiating intensely as he placed that very life on the line, relying on that to throw each punch followed by the next, it was clear he was roughly 8,000 to 9,000 years old. For Heavenly Saints whose lifespans averaged 55,000 years, especially considering how difficult cultivation was, this was remarkably young, the mortal equivalent of a late teen to early adult.
He represented and belonged to the Sincere Mountain Sect, a force that was led by three Mystic Overlords, and located in the Prosperous Ruin Galaxy! In the Prosperous Ruin Galaxy, Utmost Purity Galaxy, and Treasured Vale Galaxy, this was not an unknown human genius, and he was widely known as Cao Zhulian.
With a surge of Mystic Aura, he double-fisted out an attack to execute an Ascension Art that clashed with the torrential wave of sword light threatening to slice him into unrecognizable strips of flesh and bone. He blocked the attack.
The culprit of that lethal, life-claiming wave of sword light was a young maiden garbed in dark violet robes whose colors were intense and captivating, and her forceful, direct aura that unleashed waves of sword light with the grace of a true swordswoman accentuated those traits. She was a valiant beauty, with sharp eyes, short, shoulder-length hair with swaying bangs and tied into a ponytail.
She was slightly older, roughly by five hundred to a thousand years in comparison to the red and gold-robed Serene Mountain Sect, similarly of human lineage. Her aura was exceedingly pure and sharp. She belonged to a Void Hunter organization, those who existed by exploring the depths of the unknown, seeking treasures and fortunes in the Dark Void's Void-Blank Spaces, named Violet Breath, and was a subsidiary of an Utmost Purity Galaxy stationed force.
Not many were familiar with her given her occupation, but she was known by those of the Violet Breath as Sui You.
After unleashing that attack, she hurriedly positioned her sword to defend her flank, unfurling her Mystic Ward that was crashed into by a spinning tomahawk. She released an exclamation of pain as she was blown back as her ward was nearly sliced in half, causing her abdomen to bleed, threatening to spew her internal organs with any sudden movement.
With a roar, the tomahawk vanished as it shifted through fixed space like an elusive snake that could not be stopped entering the river, reappearing beside another woman who was short and slender, completely contradictory to her fierce fluctuations of heated, steaming physical power emanating from her. She was a Martial Cultivator, and while her physique was slender and her stature was short, each movement she made crushed space and distorted time.
She wore a sleeveless green robe that seemed to be torn at the upper arms without any shoes or leggings, her thin arms were bulging with veins as she held two tomahawks, her exposed legs, and feet were stained with blood and scars, and her eyes were glowing with murderous intentions that could kill a mortal with a single glance. Her age was between Cao Zhulian and Sui You, an equally astounding talent.
She was a Void Pirate! Her pirate crew scoured the Dark Void for victims and resources, and their base of operation was unknown, hidden within the depths of the Dark Void in some Secret Realm that was likely mobile and inconstant in location. They were infamously known and feared under the banner of the Seventh Wave Pirates!
They were not ordinary Void Pirates, and their lineage extended for hundreds of thousands of years.
She interestingly carried the name Wei Yinan.
After launching that attack and seeing how it had failed to take down her target, she hurriedly shifted focus with a spin that caused her robes to flourish, and she rushed toward a masked young man dressed as a scholar in pristine white robes that resembled Young Master Shang in design and fashion, yet enhanced by a scholarly air and hat. His mask was porcelain in make and had standard, nondescript features with the only difference being a symbol at its glabella of an open book stabbed by a pen.
He wielded an open book with text that seemed to leap off the book, exuding a mixture of mystic light, heavenly radiance, and enlightened scholarly light produced by the utilization of Enlightened Scholarly Mist. Three large swords of black ink swirled around him. With both hands on the book, he read from the texts in a language that was hazy to the ears and incomprehensible to the spirit.
One of the ink swords transformed into a kite shield that expanded for two miles in distance, blocking Wei Yinan's path as the two tomahawks sliced into the ink but were unable to breach its liquid surface. A roar of great frustration echoed from Wei Yinan.
The masked figure was older than the rest, only two or so hundred years greater than Sui You. He belonged to the Utmost Purity Galaxy's Seeking Profound Palace, a recently formed faction within the Utmost Purity Galaxy that had recently migrated from the Treasured Vale Galaxy shortly after a particular prophecy was made.
He was known as Chen Minghui, often referred to as the Faceless Scholar by his peers, and was a revered talent that had startling success in his cultivation.
After blocking Wei Yinan, Chen Minghui spoke a few more syllables, and an ink sword turned into an inky black sword light that sliced beautifully across the skies like a pen wielded by a great scholar penning majestic poems towards the long dark-red spear-wielding cultivator as they tried to fly toward Sui You and deliver an opportunistic attack to end her life. Unfortunately, Chen Minghui had other ideas, as he delayed that figure and caused him to spit out another wad of blood that stained his clothes further and ward, blocking that attack desperately.
The black-robed, spear-wielding young man was the youngest, but he had the weakest life aura as he had expended a considerable amount of lifeforce. If his aura was any indication alongside the extent of his internal injuries, a single glance could easily deduce that this young man was the strongest here.
Regardless of who, the four others all kept a portion of their Spiritual Sense affixed to this young man. He was originally exceedingly handsome, with sharp eyebrows and chiseled jaws, genuinely a gorgeous hunk of a man, with a firm body and a steady presence.
With a vehement glare, the black-robed young man blocked that ink-black sword light, unleashing an extraordinary Ocular Spell targeted at the masked figure through thousands of miles of space. The masked figure trembled as a heavy cough resounded as they reeled back slightly, his spiritual aura waned by quite a bit.
With a flourish of his spear, the sword light was batted aside as he then threw his spear toward Cao Zhulian. The Serene Mountain Sect disciple guarded with his gauntlets, not even trying to reply with a punch, and was blown back for ten thousand miles before slamming harshly into the boundary of the Shell World. Besides tiny ripples, the boundary remained undamaged. A sign of its extraordinary strength.
With two moves, the young man temporarily took two geniuses out, and he kicked off, blitzing toward Sui You with a murderous light.
The others all knew his name—Lu Xuanyu. The one and only youngest Alchemic Knight of Exalted World-Saint Azureriver, the most prominent Exalted Worldly Saint Alchemist of Utmost Purity Galaxy's Zenith Creation Tower!
His aura was by far the strongest out of the five, and his cultivated foundation was at least a league and a half beyond their own, the only equality was the Seed of Law's cultivation at the Nurturing Phase, one of them had anything beyond 18%! Unfortunately, it was clear they had, at some point, ganged up against him to weaken his momentum and strength.
Still, he remained utterly dominant. Not a single one of them could touch his clothes, only injure him through an overexertion of his cultivation base and sly, sinister spells that harmed his Sea of Consciousness and drove his cultivation base into chaos with foreign energies.
The vast majority of his spewed blood was expelled foreign energies that forcefully carried some blood with it.
While they fought, an extremely tiny planet hovered at the center of the Shell World encased in only dense earth. The Edict Seed was there! It was an Edict Seed of Earth!
Earlier, they were all alerted by their respective forces using various means to breach the Shell World that the situation beyond was changing as the Sincere Mountain Sect, the strongest in terms of numbers and Void Vessels, had launched their Great Ruination Cannon, a unique item exclusive to the Prosperous Ruin Galaxy's Forgers, without any warning.
Furthermore, the region where the attack had struck was undergoing unpredictable changes. They all urged them to obtain the Edict Seed at the fastest possible time, regardless of how!
Yet the situation in the Shell World was far too complex as feelings, emotions, and history were preventing a quick conclusion. For example, Sui You was saved a total of six times by Chen Minghui after the swordswoman was targeted by joint attacks multiple times, while Cao Zhulian refused to attack Chen Minghui due to their friendship during their younger years prior to the migration of Chen Minghui's organization to the Utmost Purity Galaxy.
This further complicated things as Cao Zhulian never capitalized on any of Chen Minghui's openings and the reverse was equally as true.
But the fighting kept intensifying as Sui You fought through her injuries with a sword in hand and a steady heart.
Just as it was reaching an inevitable climax, a new fluctuation startled the five immediately. They all guarded themselves before looking at the region of the disturbance.
Without warning, a large figure was tossed into the Shell World and was unable to obtain its footing, slamming against the ground with a crash that shook the entire Shell World. Clearly, they were thrown a little too hard into the isolated realm from the outside.
Slowly rising, the muscular male figure spat out the earthy dust that had accumulated due to the presence of the Edict Seed of Earth, coughing lightly as he scratched his bald head while patting his dirty pants.
Wei Si's beady eyes blinked as he sensed five terrifying auras focusing on him. With a shy smile, he waved toward the figures with his big hand.
"Hello there!"

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