Chapter 1772: Manifesting the Major Cycle
“Ah Zhi?!” Lu Yun went slack jawed when he saw the newcomer. He immediately grasped the situation when he saw the World Star over Ah Zhi’s head.
Light from the sun, moon, and stars was the most magnificent in any world. The sun and moon originated from the primary worlds and were projected onto all of the secondary worlds and Major Cycle Worlds. Illumination from the stars came from the Major Cycle Worlds and was, in turn, reflected back to the primary and secondary worlds.
The Major Cycle Worlds of the Land of Reincarnation had shattered and reformed into the secondary worlds. The World Star was their core essence and proof that their brilliance had once existed. It alone survived when the Major Cycle Worlds collapsed and their stars were extinguished. The original emperor eventually obtained it and sent it to the worlds of the Hongmeng to become the stars, so that the light of the sun, moon, and stars was complete once more.
There was a Mount Buzhou on the World Star because it was the Mount Buzhou of the original Hongmeng. It was the same as the Mount Buzhou in the cosmos of the ancestral planet.
The World Star survived yet again when the worlds shattered in the original Hongmeng. It fell into the fourth realm and a cultivating Ah Zhi unwittingly came across it. It helped her comprehend the dao of the stars and enter dreams through the stars, tracing destiny through dreamlike slumber.
Far from being an ordinary star, the World Star nurtured a vast expanse of other major cycle stars. As long as it remained, the core essence of the stars pertaining to the Major Cycle Worlds continued to live on, carrying out their age-old duty.
What remained of the secondary worlds after the Major Cycle Worlds crumbled away wasn’t enough to support the primary worlds. The true existence that held up the primary worlds was the World Star.
And now, the zombie kings’ major cycle formation was attempting to create a new major cycle that would wrest power from the World Star. Hence, Ah Zhi had come with it.
She’d been at eight levels sequence before, but set foot into nine after switching to immortal dao. Beams of snowy immortal light radiated out of the World Star and it landed right where the crystal coffin had sat moments earlier. Every living being on it, including all of the worlds a.s.sociated with it, had departed. Only the star itself and the power of the major cycle stars had come.
Ah Zhi smiled brilliantly at Lu Yun. Her eyes were bright and there was no trace of her customary languidness to be found.
“The Corpse Refiners may have been scheming after the major cycle stars, but I was also plotting against them!” she cackled. “I failed in the previous three hundred and sixty-five cycles, so I’m going to succeed on the three hundred and sixty-sixth time no matter what!”
Since she cultivated destiny dao, she could naturally clearly pick out the threads of her fate. After Lu Yun told her about the thirty-three loops that he’d personally experienced, she’d gained a deeper understanding of her destiny through employing formula dao.
She was very familiar with the past because she’d observed it three hundred and sixty-five times in her dreams. She’d witnessed how she always brought the World Star to this place, attempted to manifest the Major Cycle Worlds through the formation, fail, then die after her failure.
This was the three hundred and sixty-sixth attempt and her fate had completely changed. She was always the only one on the scene, but this time, she had Lu Yun, Chu Xingran, and Diexi by her side.
“You’re here!” Dixie smiled radiantly when she saw Ah Zhi. She knew Ah Zhi of Mount Buzhou because Diexi had been the Taiyin G.o.ddess in the great wilderness. They were old acquaintances.
“You’re not allowed to bite me this time!” Ah Zhi glared at her.
Diexi’s smile turned sheepish. Since there were three hundred and sixty-five versions of her here… it meant that she’d bitten Ah Zhi three hundred and sixty-five times. The crimson stars over their heads were shattered World Stars!
Before Ah Zhi died on the premises, she destroyed the World Star so the Corpse Refiners couldn’t have it. They collected only a tiny bit of core essence that was left behind, which was sufficient to derive three hundred and sixty-five b.a.l.l.s of stardust.
Their core essence was the World Star, so now that a complete World Star was present, the three hundred and sixty-five showed signs of returning to their origin. All of this had been accounted for by the Corpse Refiners, including Ah Zhi’s arrival with her star.
But this time, the plan had failed at every step of the way due to various factors. The final step was an utter failure as well because of the preceding defeats.
“Collect!” Ah Zhi shouted and commanded her star to emit brilliant splendor, taking the place of the other stars in administering the formation.
Humm!
Affected by their core essence, the other stars turned pure silver and slowly drew near the World Star. Seeing the change, the three hundred and sixty-five Diexi’s madly rushed Ah Zhi. Paling with horror, she subconsciously glanced at Chu Xingran and relaxed slightly when he showed no signs of movement.
“Away with you!” Diexi stepped forward and slashed outward with her shortsword, sending all of the other versions of herself flying backward.
Rumble!!
Ah Zhi summoned another flare of radiance from her star and devoured the other three hundred and sixty-five. The zombie kings immediately ceased to move. Diexi beckoned to them and gathered them all in the kingdom of h.e.l.l. She was close friends with Wanfeng. Since the former maid had the authority to freely come and go from the kingdom of h.e.l.l and collect new residents for the kingdom, she naturally requested the same privilege for her friend.
The real World Star was upon the scene and holding down the fort in the center of the palace. The major cycle formation continued to operate and support the local void. Bits and pieces of silver starlight drifted in all directions, showing signs of rebuilding the Major Cycle Worlds.
“That’s it?” Chu Xingran blinked. He might have missed it if he blinked a few times more. He smiled ruefully at Ah Zhi’s sudden appearance. “You did it this time!”
“Uh huh! Of course I did it without your curses in the way!” Ah Zhi snorted. “I’d thought you wouldn’t plot against me because you’re enemies with the Corpse Refiners, but you were the one to deliver the final killing blow the last three hundred and sixty-five times!”
She hadn’t ultimately died to the sect—but to the Curse King.
“Well, thirty-three times,” he refuted weakly. “I didn’t arrive until thirty-three loops ago. This is my thirty-fourth loop in this land. I chose the Curse King because I wanted to ruin the Corpse Refiners’ plans, but then realized that I couldn’t shake off his fate and had to kill you with my curses.”
“Hmph,” she snorted again and looked at Lu Yun.
“Don’t look at me,” Lu Yun protested feebly. “I saw from the thirty-three loops that I would’ve only just made it out of the Hongmeng during this time. I am a speck of dust drifting around the lowest rungs of the fourth realm.”
Other than meeting Ah Zhi in the great wilderness and her replica Yu Hengluo in the world of immortals, he didn’t run into her again in the fourth realm during the previous thirty-three loops. That was because she died here before he’d grown into his strength.
“That does it for the Corpse Refiners, right?” Chu Xingran closely observed their surroundings. Bones were piled up as miniature mountains and some were just flat out stone. “The World Jail layout is still present, though, so the world will still explode if Lu Yun leaves.”
He sighed dolefully. Since Lu Yun’s presence was on him and tightly connected to the World Jail, he would have to stay here in Lu Yun’s place. He was very familiar with the young man since they’d been enemies for thirty-three loops. He knew what Lu Yun wanted to do, so he didn’t say anything else. All he could do was quietly become Lu Yun’s subst.i.tute.
“Don’t worry, you won’t be lonely. I’ll stay here with you,” Ah Ahi chuckled. “The World Star is refining the major cycle formation and recreating the Major Cycle Worlds. I need to stay here to keep watch over it.”
Chu Xingran nodded with a rueful chuckle. It’d be good to have some company. He’d been alone for far too long since he’d been by himself over the past thirty-three cycles.
The Poison King was his replica, so was he supposed to talk to himself? Who in the heavens knew why the Curse King had wanted to maintain the facade after he refined his senior brother? He kept up the act even when they were alone!
“I’ll stay as well,” Diexi said after some thought. “I feel like I have some sort of connection to this palace… The three hundred and sixty-five copies of me… Well, they were all me. Having three hundred and sixty-six instances of my strength should be enough to explore the palace.”
Chu Xingran showed a heartfelt smile. Neither Ah Zhi nor Diexi needed to stay—it was Lu Yun who’d asked them to.
“Since that’s the case, the three of you can stay here. I’ll take you with me when I return from the other three h.e.l.ls.” Lu Yun lifted his eyes and looked upward. “You can use the Infernum in the h.e.l.l battles.h.i.+p and the vessel itself as you will. If you meet anyone from the Corpse Refiners, just blast them out of existence without another word.”
etvolare"s Thoughts
1) OG Curse King is one weird kid.
2) This is gonna make for some interesting conversation between Ah Zhi and Chu Xingran...