THUM! THUM! THUM!
Dull, heavy thumps resounded for thousands of miles with every dashing stomp made by the cloaked figure. Under the pursuit of this swarm of tens of millions of Stellar Rain, the figure kept sprinting forward.
The first thought that came to Wei Wuyin's mind was relief that he hadn't taken flight. If this figure was being pursued yet refused to fly through the usage of ambient mana or innately refined energies, then this likely meant there was a greater danger to doing so. After all, cultivators generally moved faster through flight than running with their legs.
Wei Wuyin didn't panic at the sight of millions of Stellar Rain. He didn't feel any danger from their approach, a stark contrast to the lingering danger he felt every second from the environment. Seeing how they were like glittering rays of starlight in the distance, they didn't seem to take on the commonly known appearance of Stellar Rain, a ray of crystalline light.
He discreetly sent his spiritual sense to investigate, and while he met some resistance as the swarm roiled in response to coming in contact with his spiritual strength, he discovered that their energy levels were depressingly lower than he expected. Each individual lifeform barely qualified as having the aura of an Astral Core Realm cultivator at the first stage, and even then, it felt limited and restrained.
'They must've sent their collected solar energies to the Zenith Stellar Source already, if what the world's known knowledge of these beings are true.' Wei Wuyin then inspected the cloaked figure, noticing their unique mask, and a concealment ward that caused his spiritual sense to be obstructed from identifying anything else, be it cultivation, gender, appearance, race, or age.
It was quite thorough.
Wei Wuyin noticed that within the masked figure's hands was a miniaturized star of multiple colors, gorgeous and alluring as a celestial pearl of myth. Was this the Zenith Stellar Source?
Suddenly, the masked figure seemingly noticed Wei Wuyin. The figure seemed taken aback by his appearance, and then with a slight movement of its upper torso, reminiscent of a heavy, disappointed sigh, the figure twisted their body mid-step. Their cloak expanded, spun around their body like a cyclone of cloth, and enveloped them entirely before shrinking into nothing. Without warning, before Wei Wuyin's spiritual sense, the masked figure disappeared!
"What?" Wei Wuyin was startled by this vanishing act, using his spiritual sense to permeate the surroundings. The Stellar Rain grew agitated when they came into contact with his Spiritual Strength. Frowning, he ignored this as he gushed throughout the surroundings for hundreds of miles to discover nothing. There weren't even clues of where they went.
The Stellar Rain also seemed confused by the masked figure's disappearance. They twisted and raged in the distance, creating a beautiful scenery of starlight, and then they scattered into hundreds of clustered swarms. They seemed to be scouring the area for the masked figure.
"Strange," Eden commented.
Wei Wuyin nodded, slowly walking towards the Stellar Rain. That masked figure disappearing had stroked his curiosity, but there were some doubtful points to his disappearance.
Firstly, if the figure used some spatial shifting tool, then he would've certainly sensed it with his bloodline. Secondly, if the figure could have escaped so easily, they would've already left the Stellar Rain behind. Why the unnecessary chase? Lastly, the swarm of Stellar Rain didn't scatter further than a few dozen miles in every direction.
"Environmental Integration?" Eden speculated. Wei Wuyin nodded in agreement, continuing his brisk walk towards the hectic swarms of Stellar Rain. Every step he took brought him tens of meters forward. A formless pressure began to develop.
Wei Wuyin was adept in using the environment to conceal his existence. He had used it multiple times to hide from his enemies or to perform sneaky actions, such as to run from a vengeful Demi-Mortal Lord and hide from an arrogant Legion Commander. He recognized the signs after a little bit of contemplation.
"It's not elemental," Ori added excitedly. Its excitement didn't stem from its inclusion of input, but from Wei Wuyin's gathering of its astral force. Clearly, he was about to make a move!
Suddenly, a chilly air emanated from Wei Wuyin's mouth. Despite the superheated environment, a gush of white icy mist was expelled with every exhale. The white icy mist began to generate from his fingertips, his torso, hair, and ears. Despite his closed eyes, the sides of them were generating long wisps of icy mist that slithered like snakes.
His activity began to stir the Stellar Rain as they seemed to shift their focus towards him and only him. Their bodies of light began to flash sporadically. The hectic flashing of their starlight was likely a form of communication between swarms, and as if they received some order, they began to gather to face the oncoming threat.
A single gigantic swarm reformed, composed of tens of millions of lifeforms. For several miles, there was nothing but glittering starlight in sight. Wei Wuyin was tiny, almost insignificant in comparison to their gathered size. A single man versus tens of millions of strange lifeforms. However, while one side took a step forward, the other recoiled back.
'They can sense my strength.' From how they reacted to his spiritual strength to his current state, these Stellar Rain lifeforms were clearly intelligent enough to pinpoint a threat. That being said, his spiritual strength was quite abnormal, and so were his various forces. Yet they remained, clearly unwilling to retreat without finding what they wanted.
Wei Wuyin soon became a humanoid figure gushing out icy white mist from every orifice and pore in his body. Using the Absolute Zero Ice Intent, the apex-level Intent of the Ice Attribute, Wei Wuyin brought forth his elemental origin force, transforming it into the purest form of ice origin force.
"Freeze," Wei Wuyin softly spoke like a demon of frost, his voice chilly both figuratively and literally. The air from his lungs gushed out alongside copious amounts of ice origin force that summoned forth a raging storm of icy mist. In milliseconds, the storm reached tens of miles in every direction. If one was looking at it from afar, they would find its shape was that of an icy-blue dragon's head.
With its maw wide open, it rushed to bite at Stellar Rain's swarm with deadly ferocity.
Giiiizzzz!
A strange sound unlike anything Wei Wuyin had ever heard before was released from the Stellar Rain. Their battle-ready state deflated instantly. They scattered in haste.
Unfortunately, they were too slow.
The bite of the dragon's head was too fast, too large, and encapsulated them all in one go. They were overwhelmed by ice origin force, subjected to the Absolute Zero Ice Intent's unique instant-freezing capabilities. Not only were they frozen, their glittering starlight emissions were seemingly frozen with it!
"Huuuuu!" Wei Wuyin deeply inhaled, recalling every bit of icy mist into his mouth. It returned to his body, clearing the field of its presence entirely. The superheated environment took shape once again, but the view that remained was far different than before.
Tens of millions of icy-blue gems scattered across the ground, as small as marbles each. They cluttered to the ground with a uniquely harmonic sound that was extremely satisfying. The superheated environment did nothing to melt these icy-blue gems.
Wei Wuyin's spiritual sense swept the immediate world, frowning slightly as he walked towards the cluster of frozen Stellar Rain. He made a pulling motion and one of the icy-blue gems shot towards his hand. The gem was clear, and within it, the glittery starlight and the Stellar Rain's unique form.
He felt amazed by its true form. It was an eel with clear crystalline skin, see through organs, and six wings. Two of these wings were on both sides of its head, two at the midsection of its body, and other two were not directly connected to its body, but had a tether of starlight. Those last set of wings weren't crystalline like the other two, but pure black.
Clearly, those sets of wings served entirely different functions than the other two. He was curious about what these things were, but he also noticed the complete lack of soul aura. They were truly not capable of cultivating. But shockingly, they didn't have a Sea of Consciousness either, yet they had mental energy fluctuations.
This meant they weren't exactly sentient lifeforms either. "Avatars?" Was his first guess, causing his interest to elevate to another level.
CRACK! CRACK! SHATTER!
Without warning, sounds of ice cracking and breaking occurred, drawing Wei Wuyin's senses to the large icy-blue gem a mile away. It violently exploded to reveal a masked figure that was staring in Wei Wuyin's direction.
The masked figure looked around for a moment, and then turned to Wei Wuyin.
Wei Wuyin matched his 'gaze', and despite neither of their eyes being able to be seen, you could tell their eyes aligned with each other.
"You came from the outside?" The masked figure asked via spiritual transmission, casually inspecting the multicolored mini-Solar Star in his hand. After seemingly determining that it was unharmed, the masked figure returned his focus to Wei Wuyun.
Wei Wuyin, on the other hand, was deeply intrigued how his ice entrapment was broken so quickly. The speculations that this figure was a suppressed Ascended being using the United Source True Queen to hide his activities or as a ploy might have some weight.
Wei Wuyin didn't bother lying, directly nodding in admittance.
The masked figure was silent for a moment, then asked in a strange tone: "Did you come from the entrance near the United Source Starfield?"
Wei Wuyin realized the masked figure's words carried hope. This took him by surprise, but he nodded again.
The masked figure deeply inhaled through the nasal passages of his mask, and then exhaled heavily through his mouth. Saying only one word along with all sorts of emotions: "Shit."
"..." Wei Wuyin.
"She ruined everything."
Suddenly!
GIIIIIIIZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
That strange sound once again resounded, but this time, it was like thunder within a closed echo chamber. It could cause one's ears to bleed!
Wei Wuyin instantly spread out his spiritual sense, and his expression drastically changed as he reached tens of thousands of miles away, discovering tremendous activity.
"How unfortunate," the masked figure said as they looked left and right. "The horde…"
The horde? Wei Wuyin then sensed it, tens of millions, no, tens of billions, no…TENS OF TRILLIONS!
Every direction, for miles, all coming towards their location with frightening speeds! As far as his spiritual sense went, the Stellar Rain extended further!
