Prior to the Neo-Dawn Ascendant Emperor's arrival, the populace of Mystic Ascendant Realm experts throughout the eighteen regions, both open and concealed, could be tallied within the tens of millions, with the vast majority of these cultivators having 'failed' their ascension from mortality, entering the Mystic Star Phase and forming a Mystic Core enveloping their Astral Souls. As for the number of top experts, open and concealed, Earthly Saints barely exceeded two hundred.
These numbers might seem comparatively low when considering the overall population of the eighteen regions, where the population of just the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region was in the tens of quintillions, those numbers were proof of the eighteen regions' ungodly enriched and plentiful resources, including its rapidly developing Alchemical Society. This was especially astonishing considering the very first publicly recognized Earthly Saint, Tian Taizong-the Aeternal Sky Divine Emperor, was twenty thousand years ago and the written history started only eighty thousand years ago.
Unfortunately, the lacking legacies meant many resources accumulated wildly and remained unused, resources that could cause Earthly Saints to salivate and Worldly Saints to argue over. The rate of resource growth vastly outstripped what the lowly numbers could consume, especially given the difficulties of cultivation when it came to refinement times of these resources.
The Sealed Regions was, by every definition of the world, a treasure trove. A critical sign of this reality was the severe lack of expensive alchemical materials and the overly priced, always in-demand but forever scarce, Alchemical Products. This issue had propagated and displayed effectively on a small-scale in the Everlore Starfield, where the Myriad Monarch Sect had a literal vault of high-level treasure that was barely touched, most too volatile or high-level to properly refine with insufficient or incompatible Cultivation Methods.
And this was just the Myriad Monarch Sect.
It was to the extent that, due to the ambient Solar Essence generated by the Aeternal Sky Star and other Solar Stars weren't properly pulled into the planets and hoarded greedily by the native cultivators of the Sealed Regions, even comets and asteroids to be floating treasures with rich resources after millennia of exposure with the Aeternal Sky Starfield. The very Dark Void itself, when the Chill of the Dark Void was ignored, was an incredible environment for cultivation!
The population of Mystic Ascendant Realm experts within the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region skyrocketed by the intrusion of the World Between the Fold and the Chosen of the World Beyond, and they all immediately noticed these points at a single glance.
"What bountiful mystic-graded Solar Essence!" A Soul of Mysticism Phase expert of the Celestial Race exclaimed a few millions of miles away from the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region's borders, floating in the Void-Blank Space. Even from here, the Ascended being of his level could feel the unregulated Solar Essence pumping through. "Most stellar regions have their arrays lock down their Solar Essence and funnel them into planetary cores, world realms, or secret realms, but this one! This one doesn't! Am I lucky or what?!"
The cultivator was endlessly excited at the prospect of an unregulated Solar Star with a Mystic Radiance Belt. In the World Beyond, the vast majority of the environment was outright desolate, with only the most insignificant degree of light energy being allowed to illuminate the world. The Void-Blank Space of his home stellar region was as barren as a desert and as desolate as a forgotten tomb, utterly empty. Only the disastrous and inexhaustible Chill of the Dark Void or Chaos Mana was present.
He had heard that the Ancient Sealed Region was a fledgling society of savages, forgotten by the society of cultivation and abandoned by the Ascended Sovereigns. Considering how divergent its society was from his home, this was evidently true! INCREDIBLE!
BOOSH!!! He didn't hesitate as he unleashed a Movement Art, blitzing his way toward the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region with a wide mouth with his tongue hanging out and a hearty, avaricious-filled laughter. In the face of great resources, even Ascended beings can tap into their most animalistic nature. Or perhaps it was just him being weird.
BOOSH! WHOOSH! From all over, throughout the eighteen stellar regions, the Aeternal Sky Star's radiance was shining far too brightly, its size extremely noticeable, and the Mystic Radiance Belt was openly exposed to all. They all recognized it at a single glance, their experience plentiful and their knowledge of the Mystic Realm far more concise alongside a good foundation of mystic-level education.
Who wouldn't recognize the legendary Mystic Radiance Belt?!?! Hundreds of thousands of scattered Ascended beings from the World Between were making their way over to check out the area that was likely the most precious. To them, the Aeternal Sky Star and its surrounding areas was no different than a Secret Realm's most precious environment with unfathomable treasures, with the Ancient Sealed Region as the Secret Realm itself!
Those really far away cursed the Spatial Vortex for placing them there, especially considering their competitors were hundreds of thousands or even millions of miles ahead of them. With gritted teeth, they resorted to any means to make their way over.
Meanwhile, the size of Baby Defiant was certainly abnormal, but only those who were close could feel some semblance of its uniqueness. Due to the bubble-like barrier that emanated a threatening, repelling aura, and the lack of a Mystic Radiance Belt, those who appeared near the Neo-Dawn Starfield were easily distracted by the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region and the Aeternal Sky Star. This was largely due to the relatively small region of the formerly known Heptasage Stellar Region that was occupied by Defiant Dawn, with far fewer planets, and World Dawn being deeply concealed by the barrier.
Meanwhile, the Aeternal Sky Star was surrounded by the heavily populated and contained extremely numerous planets, lunar satellites, and continental flat earths that each gave off an aura of an abnormally rich quality, especially considering they were all bathing in the unrestrained Solar Essence of the Aeternal Sky Star for tens of thousands of years.
They would give the barrier a try or two, failing regardless of their cultivation and suffering varied injuries before giving up and making their way toward the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region. This only became more common as countless auras were explosively making their way over.
Within the depths of the Stellar Nest, beneath the unreasonably and mysteriously icy ground, the movement of violet light became more prominent. The Stellar Rain above was rather restless, stirring up luminous storms as swarms of raindrops. Shortly after, they all flew toward the exit as one.
However, as they tried to exit, several exquisitely placed formations personally laid by Wei Wuyin alongside the assistance of a few specialists of formations activated, reeling them in like a net, left squirming without escape, their bodies flickering with increasingly brighter light. Unfortunately, all their actions were useless.
"Another batch has come through! Wooo! These things are cooperating today," a burly man with a bald head and a large, messy black beard patted his belly as he made his way over with a crew of two hundred men and women on a skyship. In his hand was a glistening oval stone and it pulsated with a similar aura as the formations entrapping the Stellar Rain.
"Is this our seventh batch today? That's a full month's worth! I wonder how the other area's doing?" A young woman was bright-eyed and excited as she ruined her hands greedily, containing no bearing that a young woman was presumed to have, resembling more of an experienced fisherman.
"I've heard the Stellar Rain has been acting a little agitated recently. Should we be concerned, Captain?" An elderly man with a tall stature and scarred face asked with furrowed brows.
"Why should we be concerned? The Ascendants or his Majesty hasn't sent any additional orders despite being informed of the situation. If they're not concerned, why should we? Instead, we should feast!" The burly man referred to as Captain piloted the skyship and reeled into the net, bringing the Stellar Rain into a storage container through an opening in the hull.
They were just workers fishing for rain? What should they worry about?! They just had a single job. Let the Ascendant Emperor hold up the heavens while they dug up the earth.
Meanwhile, from below the icy ground, the violet light that faintly shines at times intensified in brightness, yet this sinister, dangerously ominous sight was ignored by the crew. They glanced over and looked away, entirely unbothered by the phenomenon. From their expressions, one could tell it was a normal occurrence.
Throughout the Stellar Nest, various skyships pulled great hoards of Stellar Rain as they ran into their traps as if they were moths to a flame. It was a great day.
Beyond one of the outposts, the group of several dozen figures that had been watching for a while had a gloomy air about them as they observed the events. A few had gritted teeth, frustration in their eyes as they watched the mortals in the city celebrate the news of a great harvest which would lead to a greater reward from the Ascendants.
"Let's act now!" A short, slender woman said through the gaps of her sharp teeth, rage seething within her tone. The leading figure, a tall figure with a strong masculine aura, remained silent.
"They're stopping the Star Harvesters from leaving! If we don't stop them, how can we-" Another figure within the group chimed in, yet was interrupted by a wave from the leading figure's hand.
"I've studied the city. It has a triple-layer formation. One designed for defense against the Light Harvesters' swarms, another for escape that contained very high-level spatial energy, perhaps even Void Energy, and the last for offense. Additionally, while Ascended beings are not allowed into the entrances without causing it to collapse into Chaotic Space, it doesn't mean they can't arrive through special means. I speculate there's an Earthly Saint standing guard." When those words left his lips, the expressions of the group of dozens of cultivators changed slightly.
"So?" The woman argued, "We're strong enough to deal with any Earthly Saint."
"..." The group remained silent, but they silently agreed. Moreover, if they didn't eliminate this outpost and let loose the Core Swarm of Star Harvesters, how could they fulfill their plans?
"There's something strange about this Earthly Saint...I'll assess for a little longer." The leading figure was cautious. The young woman by his side with violet hair frowned. Her beauty was demonically supreme, with endlessly seductive charm and youthful exuberance. Her pure, limpid violet eyes contained unfathomable allure of the soul, capable of corrupting one's base instincts.
"I wonder how Sister Xinyi is doing now..." Her thoughts were utterly idle and irrelevant to the situation, especially considering how she wasn't a powerhouse of this group of a few dozen. She could only assist from the side and learn.
If Na Xinyi knew that the young woman that she was debating a large quantity of effort to find was within what she and largely the eighteen stellar regions consider as the Ascendant Emperor's property, the Stellar Nest, who knew how wonderful her expression would be.
Long Tianyu!
Within the outpost, quietly sitting upon one of the watchtowers, looking out into the direction of the group of several dozens under concealment was a middle-aged man with a long, string-like glossy mustache that reached his chest and a head full of luscious black hair with the edges of his temples showing signs of graying tied into a bun, which only accentuated his aura of wisdom and experience.
He twirled his mustache in a habitual manner as if he had done so since it had grown out until present day. Those beady eyes of his narrowed as he felt another burst of deeply hidden spiritual sense.
If those from the Endless Voyage Realm could see this middle-aged man, they would immediately be baffled and confused. Firstly, he was considerably younger! Secondly, he should have been trapped in the Time Vortex!! The only saving grace that would verify if this person was the same one as before was his aura!
The aura of a Worldly Saint!!!
It was Xu You!
NO!
It was Zhan You!
"These demons are weird..." Zhan You commented under his breath.
