"Void Energy…"
The masked figure's escape left Wei Wuyin with further questions, especially regarding how he escaped. A fluctuation of Void Energy had manifested, enveloping the masked figure before sending them into the Void. The Void Energy felt impure, chaotic even.
After realizing the Stellar Rain's aggression was imminent, Wei Wuyin had stored away his half of the Astralis Ultimate Star. While he had some regret at not being able to take it all, considering the lengths that the masked figure took to leave the Stellar Nest, this was far better than allowing the Stellar Rain to reclaim it due to their tug-of-war. In the end, half was better than none at all.
Inspecting his Saint Ring, he looked at the void crystallized Astralis Ultimate Star. He felt relieved to see it in a stable state. When the masked figure had severed the Astralis Ultimate Star in half, it was on the brink of detonation. If he hadn't brought it inside his Saint Ring, crystallizing it using Void Force, the resulting damage might be on par, or greater, than the Star Implosion ability of Starlords.
"He must have a way to stabilize it as well. Who was that?''
Wei Wuyin felt perplexed by everything that happened. There were so many contradictions that beguiled him. Firstly, why did the masked figure reveal the Astralis Ultimate Star's name and effects? It seemed unnecessary, an act of instigating conflict. Even a restrained Ascended being ignorant of what an Astral Idol was might act out of curiosity and greed.
Was it possible that the masked figure needed a conflict as an impetus for something? As he thought in this line, he felt more and more certain that this was indeed the reason. When he recalled the last couple of words said by the masked figure, it's possible their spiritual auras might've been used to try and find the exit.
Or there was another reason. Regardless, it didn't seem like someone with such knowledge and means would reveal such crucial information without purpose. He even used his words to influence him in battle. Someone like that isn't exactly loose-lipped for the sake of it, the habit of thinking of their words was needed to perform such distractions.
Secondly, he had the means to escape at any time. Why the conflict if he could've left as he wished? If so, then perhaps the chaotic void energy he sensed wasn't controlled. If he gathered all his knowledge of spatial energy and void energy, it would suggest that chaotic space might've been invoked. Did this mean send him to a random location?
When he thought about that, his expression paled slightly. Not at the aspect of it being randomized, that wasn't as important as unknowingly entering certain locations. For example, if the destination was at close proximity to the Aeternal Sky Starfield's Solar Star or any Mystic Radiance Belt Solar Star's heat zone, all his powerful means by damned.
He was dead.
There was no other alternative. Even if he invoked every last of his abilities, Intent or Draconic Bloodline, he would disintegrate faster than his first thought could form. But there were even greater dangers, such as strange, exotic creatures that existed in the Dark Void or strange phenomena that made Vanishing Points and Stellar Rain seem like snowballs on a hot day, refreshing and safe.
After the myriad of dangers circulated through his thoughts, he could sympathize with the reluctance. However, this also suggested that the exit might be compromised. He knew the Stellar Nest was without an horizon, and his spiritual sense that could reach an extremely far distance could see no end, so perhaps this Stellar Nest was unimaginably massive or too dangerous to explore.
If the exit's location was too far, or only one existed, he wouldn't want to spend years, decades, or longer trying to search for it. What if it moved about sporadically? While he searched for it, it had returned to his previously searched location. Such a task wouldn't just be daunting but hellishly torturous.
"Spatial Arts at the Mortal Limits must be unable to break through the Stellar Nest's internal defenses. If so, it makes sense. If that power is exceeded, the entire Stellar Nest might collapse and lead to your inevitable demise. Quite a peculiar location, I must say." It was a cage, with an area that seemed to have no walls and an inconsistent door.
Rationalizing with various theories, he felt somewhat certain as to why the masked figure had escaped the way he did. He might have even realized that a battle of attrition was not his forte, refusing to be drawn into the mud and beaten into exhaustion.
That or…
"Could staying here for a certain period of time lead to further complications?" This thought was sudden, but if the masked figure truly had more trump cards, more means, and only revealed a fraction of his truest abilities, then this might be the reason.
As he contemplated this, he felt a chill bite at his ankle. With his refined physique, there were few things that destabilized his internal homeostasis. As someone who refined his body with Absolute Zero Ice Energy, feeling chill was even more unlikely. He sent his spiritual sense downwards and discovered nothing, just an encroaching chill that slowly entered his soles and to his ankle. It kept rising.
He had always felt this chill, and even more so at his soles, yet it wasn't too great. It would be like a mortal entering a 11°C environment, while chilly, it wasn't enough to be cause for concern. A warm clothing was enough to fend against most discomforts.
A ticking time bomb. That might justify it all. But Wei Wuyin wasn't the masked figure. He wasn't bothered by the environment or finding an exit.
He was the exit.
Kratos once said there was no place it could not enter, no place it could not escape from, and after experiencing that Paradoxical Correction, likely instigated from time traveling, he no longer doubted this claim. While most of Kratos' words were nonsense, its confidence was not baseless.
Yet, he couldn't help but grin. He brought out half of the Astralis Ultimate Star, unsealing a portion of its aura, and allowed it to leak. Almost immediately, the air began to vibrate. A result of the strange sound emitted from the Stellar Rain. The air was already experiencing drastic changes.
"They're coming," he felt satisfied. Hastily resealing the aura, he hid away like before, integrating with the ambient wind. If the masked figure was skilled in Environmental Integration, then as long as the elements existed, Wei Wuyin was a master of it. While it was raw, untrained, and lacked stability, as long as he wasn't assaulted, his concealment was perfect.
The Stellar Rain lifeforms returned with raging fury. It seems a swarm consisted of roughly three hundred thousand of them. The masked figure must've attracted more during his robbery. They began to scan the surroundings with their starlight bodies, zoomed here and there like a detective looking for clues.
They lingered at the area where the Astralis Ultimate Star's aura was released, and Wei Wuyin remained right there, unmoved and observing them all. They then left after two hours of fruitless searching.
After they departed far away, Wei Wuyin dispelled his concealment with furrowed brows. He didn't need to act against them, just wished to verify if they could discover him or not—they couldn't. They didn't discover his hidden spiritual void aura either. With this anchor, he could pinpoint and open a Void Portal from there to wherever he was.
"My hunting grounds," while he was frowning, he felt more and more excited. This entire Stellar Nest was a treasure trove. If the masked figure obtained the Astralis Ultimate Star from this location, there was bound to be more. If this was the honey of the bees' nest, this was certainly the case.
As for the Zenith Stellar Source, he decided to not investigate for now. He traveled for three hours aimless, placing multiple Void Anchors, his own version of Spatial Marks, at random intervals. By the time he had finished, there were more than three hundred Void Anchors.
He had always felt dissatisfied when Wu Yu told him the Devil War Realm was meant to be his. While he didn't regret causing its detonation, he felt frustrated that such a beneficial environment was ruined. Of course, he would do it again if given the choice. The power source was the lifeblood of dragons, after all.
"I now know why he had to fly high to escape, allowing the Stellar Rain to attack." Wei Wuyin had discovered that the chill emitted from the surface was swiftly eating away at pure spatial energies with an unbelievable speed. Even his Void Force was decaying far faster than normal, ruining its Permanence. If the masked figure used such chaotic void energy to escape in the range of the surface's chill, his escape method might not even work.
This only suggested that the masked figure was extremely knowledgeable about Stellar Nests. He was curious how he became so experienced. Was he truly a being beyond the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region? Was the Stellar Nest a multi-regional space? That didn't seem right. The size of a single Stellar Region was stupendously large.
Moreover, the Stellar Rain has been documented to exist solely within the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region. There was no presence of them outside of it, such as the Desolate Dragnet Stellar Region.
Wei Wuyin heavily sighed. He 'looked' upwards and thought about revisiting when he regained his sight. He wondered how colorful and interesting this location would be visually. Perhaps Yue Songli might find beauty in such a distressing, hopeless location, capable of drawing inspiration for a painting. One day, he could bring her here to see the beauty of the Stellar Rain amassing the endless glitters of starlight they emitted. Even with his Spiritual Sense, he knew it was breathtakingly gorgeous.
"It's time to leave," Wei Wuyin decided. The chill had already reached his chin, and it kept growing. From the rate of the spread, he knew he could only stay for roughly three days before being fully infected. And this might be solely due to his strong physical body having resistance against the chill. With this environmental fault determined, he felt confident in bringing the Ascendants here to slowly farm the Stellar Rain in the future.
Unbeknownst to Wei Wuyin, the glass-like surface beneath his feet was transparent. For the last hour, a long, thick shadow followed him in. The shadowy mist that covered its figure, but a faint scaly skin could be seen. It moved like an eel in tainted water, swishing back and forth.
Just as Wei Wuyin declared his desire to depart, another shadow of similar shape, size, and features appeared beneath the translucent glass, directly beside the other. These two shadows pressed against the glass-like ground, dark shadowy mist and slid until a sea of violet was revealed. If one were to fly high, high enough to view hundreds of miles of distance, they would witness the emergence of a sea of violet. It was sharply angled, much like the eye of a serpent. The scaly skin at its edges vibrated slightly.
It, including the long, thick shadow, vanished without warning. All that remained was that dark shadowy mist behind translucent glass. There was no sound and nothing else.
Wei Wuyin communicated with the now-awakened Kratos, opening a Void Portal with ease. Just as he predicted, it was far too easy as long as he had a Void Anchor outside. However, just as he was about to leave, he felt a strange vibration from his Sea of Consciousness.
It originated from Eden.
"Something's wrong?" Wei Wuyin hadn't felt this type of vibration-like response from Eden in a long time.
"...Just a strange feeling. It might just be an unintended response to analyzing the Stellar Rain lifeform's mental transmissions. Deciphering them is still difficult, all over the place," Eden answered.
Wei Wuyin frowned but he eventually dismissed it. He had tried to communicate with the Stellar Rain and decipher their unique means of communication but to no avail. Eden was a Spirit of Cultivation imbued with the Mind Dao, so if there was going to be any success, it would have it. Still, he had time later to delve into it. After all, he had claimed it all.
He stepped into the Void Portal.
Just as the Void Portal was closing up, the shadowy mist began to roil aggressively, like the beginning of a storm, and the shadow that was thick and long started to grow and expand, larger and larger and larger until…
Bam.
Crimson flesh dripping with violet-colored fluid smashed against the glass. The center of this crimson flesh led to an unfathomable abyss, and it was directly where Wei Wuyin was. Unfortunately, the glass didn't even shake.
And Wei Wuyin was gone.
