Firmament Sword

After challenging all the sects that could potentially threaten the Starlight Sect, Xu Luo could finally leave with peace of mind.

He had no intention of returning to the Starlight Sect, not even for a last look. He knew that if he went back now, the siblings Yang Dan and Yang Ming would be incredibly sad to see him go. This was especially true for the young Yang Dan; the look in her eyes made Xu Luo, who already had three fiancées, a bit uneasy.

The other reason was that Xu Luo didn’t want to return to the Starlight Sect as their benefactor. Although the sect had saved him, what he had done for them, in many people’s eyes, had long since surpassed the repayment of that kindness.

Therefore, Xu Luo didn’t want to put any pressure on the Starlight Sect. He only hoped the sect would develop smoothly from now on. Whether or not it grew into a major sect of the Southern Celestial Divine Continent wasn’t important. What was important was for the disciples of the Starlight Sect to all possess strong hearts!

As long as they had strong hearts and a sense of unity, the sect would be strong!

Otherwise, they would be like the Blazing Fire Sect. Despite its great power and ranks filled with experts, it crumbled into disarray the moment it faced a crisis. A sect that can only win easy battles will never last.

The Southern Domain was vast, and the Starlight Sect was located in just one small corner of it. There were countless other places worth visiting.

Xu Luo then began his journey across the lands of the Southern Domain. The sights and experiences along the way all led him to new insights. To his eyes, the world now looked different than it had before.

As he continued to cultivate, Xu Luo’s Treasure Hunting Skill grew stronger and stronger. At first, it could only cover a radius of a few dozen meters, but now it could span several hundred, even approaching a full kilometer!

Thus, along the way, Xu Luo gathered a great deal of Spirit Medicine and found various rare metals he had never even heard of, all of which resonated with his Treasure Hunting Skill.

Time flowed like a river, and in the blink of an eye, Xu Luo had been on the Southern Celestial Divine Continent for nearly a year.

His power had long since recovered to the Divine Power Realm. By constantly cultivating with the help of small Spirit Stone Veins he discovered, Xu Luo’s strength had already reached the Second Layer Peak of the Divine Power Realm!

Such a cultivation speed would be inconceivable to most people in the world. Even Xu Luo himself felt that the rate at which his power was increasing was, indeed, a bit too fast.

’If the outside world were to find out,’ he thought, ’I’d likely be hunted down by numerous major powers, even if I had no connection whatsoever to Beidou’s Eighth Star.’

’After all, with a cultivation speed this fast, what cultivator wouldn’t want to know my secret?’

Xu Luo was starting to feel homesick. He was on the Southern Celestial Divine Continent, an immense distance from the Central Plains Star Continent, with a vast, boundless ocean between them. Returning home was far easier said than done.

Even though Xu Luo’s power was great enough to achieve Broken Void, it was impossible for him to fly directly back across the boundless ocean.

As for sailing a ship back like those merchant adventurers... Xu Luo hadn’t even considered it.

The weather on the open sea was fickle and unpredictable. He didn’t fear the violent winds and monstrous waves, but a ship certainly did!

So, although Xu Luo yearned for his family and friends back home, there was nothing he could do for now. His only option was to search patiently, hoping to find a powerful flying Spirit Beast like Sister Ying’s. With one of those, his chances of returning to the Central Plains Star Continent would be much higher.

Xu Luo had also tried communicating with his five awakened Star Souls to see if they had a solution. After all, his sudden, inexplicable appearance on the Southern Celestial Divine Continent had to be related to them.

But to his disappointment, the five Star Souls all flatly denied having anything to do with it. The Shaking Light Star Soul even advised Xu Luo to spend more time gaining experience on the Southern Celestial Divine Continent.

According to Shaking Light’s suggestion, it would be best for Xu Luo to break through directly from the Divine Power Realm into the Saint Realm... and *then* return home.

All Xu Luo could do was roll his eyes at this suggestion.

Advancing even a single minor layer within the Divine Power Realm was incredibly difficult. Moreover, the higher a Divine Power Realm expert’s layer, the more powerfully they could suppress those below them.

The reason Xu Luo could gain the upper hand against a powerhouse at the Third Layer of the Divine Power Realm wasn’t because of his own layer, but because of his Five-Star Dharma Aspect. It could shatter all techniques; almost no one’s Dharma Heaven and Earth could gain an advantage against it.

As for suppression via the pressure of a higher layer, Xu Luo wasn’t concerned in the slightest. After his training in that mysterious starry space, it was nearly impossible for any powerhouse below the Saint Realm to suppress him with pressure alone.

Plus, he had the Shaking Light Step, an unparalleled Body Technique, and he wielded the world’s strongest weapon—the Beidou Sword!

Even though Xu Luo had always called it the Seven Star Sword, the Beidou Sword was a genuine Divine Artifact!

The Time Reversal Skill... was also an incredibly heaven-defying Cultivation Technique. As for the Jade Balance Demon Sound, even powerhouses three or four layers above him could easily fall prey to it...

It was his mastery of so many of the world’s most top-tier, profound, and heaven-defying Cultivation Techniques that allowed Xu Luo to challenge opponents of higher layers within the Divine Power Realm, a realm where immense gaps in power existed between each minor layer.

That was how he was able to gain the upper hand in battle against powerhouses at the Third Layer of the Divine Power Realm.

’But I know perfectly well that if I encounter a powerhouse at the Fourth Layer of the Divine Power Realm or higher, I’ll be no match for them! My only option would be to flee!’

Not to mention that in this world, there very likely existed powerhouses at the Saint Realm.

He recalled when the White Flood Dragon Saint Beast in the Small World had given him one of its reverse scales. The beast had said that the scale could block a single strike from a Saint!

At the time, Xu Luo had assumed the ”Saint” the White Flood Dragon spoke of was a Sword Saint at the Divine Power Realm. Only later did he realize that above the Sword Saints was an even more powerful realm, whose practitioners were simply known as Saints!

’Without the reverse scale the White Flood Dragon Saint Beast gave me, I probably couldn’t even take a single blow from a Saint.’

’Reaching the Saint Realm... how many years of accumulation would that take? Even with my heaven-defying luck, I don’t dare to imagine when I might step into the Saint Realm.’

That realm seemed truly far too distant for him.

One day, while chasing down a Frost Giant Python, Xu Luo ran into several young men and women with extraordinary auras.

They all appeared to be around twenty years old, though one girl looked to be only sixteen or seventeen. Her features were exquisite, with a slender waist, long legs, and skin as fair and delicate as a newborn’s. Her pair of sparkling, beautiful eyes held a faint hint of innocence.

The other young men and women all exuded a subtle arrogance. It wasn’t a feigned, pretentious sort of pride, but an aura born from a deep-seated confidence in their own formidable power!

When they met, Xu Luo was in pursuit of a Frost Giant Python that carried the bloodline of a Holy Beast. The reason was simple: the python was hungry, and so was Xu Luo!

After his power advanced to the Second Layer of the Divine Power Realm, Xu Luo suddenly found that his need for food had increased immensely!

To be precise, it was his body’s demand for all kinds of energy that had suddenly multiplied many times over!

As a result, Xu Luo could only hunt powerful Spirit Beasts. The purer a Spirit Beast’s bloodline, the more it replenished his own energy.

The moment he spotted the Frost Giant Python, it saw him too. Before Xu Luo could even react, the massive serpent ferociously launched an attack.

The Frost Giant Python’s cavernous maw snapped open, and a chilling breath tinged with a sweet fragrance rushed toward him!

With his profound understanding of all kinds of toxins, Xu Luo knew at once that this Frost Giant Python not only possessed the Cold Ice attribute, but was also venomous!

He dodged instantly. As he watched the venomous, icy mist freeze a large patch of the forest solid before corroding it into nothingness, even Xu Luo couldn’t help but feel a shiver of alarm.

However, the vast difference in their power levels meant that Xu Luo had no trouble dealing with the Frost Giant Python. In just a few moves, he grievously wounded the massive serpent, and it began to flee.

Xu Luo wasn’t in a hurry to kill it. For a Spirit Beast like the Frost Giant Python, only if it died at the peak of its despair and rage would the energy within its body be perfectly preserved. At the same time, its meat would be at its most succulent!

Having survived on his own for so long, Xu Luo’s culinary skills were also improving by leaps and bounds. The meat he roasted was so impossibly tender and flavorful it could make a person want to swallow their own tongue.

It was just a shame that, for a long time now, no one had been lucky enough to share in the feast.

”Whoa... Look! There’s a Frost Giant Python over there!” the sixteen-year-old girl exclaimed, spotting the fleeing serpent that was easily over a hundred meters long.

”It really is! A creature like that is incredibly rare. What’s it doing running wild out here?” a strikingly handsome, golden-haired young man said in surprise.

”Heh, our luck is holding out. To run into a prize like this... we’re going to eat well today!” another young man with purple hair said with a chuckle, completely unfazed by the ferocious Frost Giant Python.

An alluring woman in a white dress with long, dark-red hair furrowed her delicate brows. ”It looks like the Frost Giant Python is fleeing from something,” she said. ”It’s wounded! Someone has injured it!”

By the time she finished speaking, the Frost Giant Python was already very close, and the group could all clearly see the grievous wounds on its body.

The purple-haired youth frowned, annoyed. ”What kind of idiot has no eyes? Don’t they know how precious a Frost Giant Python’s skin is? To just slice it open like that... What an absolute waste of a heavenly treasure!”

The golden-haired youth nodded. ”It’s a good thing we came along. Otherwise, a prize like this would have been completely ruined!”

The pretty, sixteen-year-old girl looked at the two of them, bewildered. She asked with a charming innocence, ”Are you planning to steal someone else’s kill?”

”AHEM...” The golden-haired young man cleared his throat in embarrassment. ”It’s not stealing. A prize like this can’t be allowed to fall into the hands of an amateur who doesn’t appreciate its value, understand?”

The girl nodded, though she didn’t seem to fully grasp the concept. ”But... isn’t that a bit wrong? After all, someone else hunted it...”

A tall, brawny youth beside the purple-haired one grinned. ”Miss Xuan’Er, that’s where you’re mistaken. In a place like this, the prey belongs to whoever is strongest!”

”Ah? But isn’t that just robbery?” The girl furrowed her delicate brows, seeming genuinely troubled by the idea.

The golden-haired youth put on a serious expression. ”It’s called the law of the jungle!”

”The law of the jungle?” The girl’s eyes lit up. ”The strong devour the weak, right?”

”Haha, Xuan’Er is so smart! That’s it exactly—the strong devour the weak!” the golden-haired young man laughed, nodding.

The others also broke into faint smiles, all of them clearly doting on the girl named Xuan’Er.

Just then, Xu Luo’s figure emerged from nearby. With a relaxed smile, he called out to the group, ”That prey is mine. Want to join me for a bite?”