anwhile, a short distance away on another deck,
Qing Lianhua watched the chaotic group of elders quarreling with bright, curious eyes.
"...Seems like they’re having fun."
Beside her, Yu Lianru didn’t even bother looking and she just waved a hand dismissively.
"Ignore those old fogeys. That’s just their way of bonding."
"Really?" Qing Lianhua blinked innocently.
Then, speaking of bonding seem to remind her of sothing, she began to fidget nervously.
"Hey... about my disciple, Li Feng... what should I do?"
After all, this was her first ti having a disciple, and she wasn’t sure how to act.
The secret realm would end soon, so she would have to resu her duties as his master after that.
Yu Lianru simply smiled.
"Just teach him what you know. And if he misbehaves..."
She grinned mischievously.
"...then beat him up."
"E–Eh?!"
Qing Lianhua gasp and her eyes widening.
"That’s a bit... isn’t that too much?"
Yu Lianru snorted.
"Too much?"
She tilted her head, amused.
"You think disciples grow properly without getting beaten at least a few tis?"
Suddenly, another crash sounded from the nearby deck.
"STOP FLEXING DURING MY TURN!!!"
"IT IMPROVES BLOOD FLOW AND STRATEGY!"
Yu Lianru jerked her chin toward the chaos.
"Those old fogeys? Every single one of them probably got beaten half to death by their masters at so point."
"...O-Oh." Qing Lianhua blinked, still looking a little hesitant.
Yu Lianru noticed this too and softened her tone.
"But seriously... don’t overthink it. You don’t need to act like so perfect master or sothing. And of course, it is good to reward your disciple too if he behave and achieve sothing great."
She looked up at the night sky and smiled, as if rembering sothing.
"Just... be soone he can rely on."
Qing Lianhua lowered her gaze slightly, fingers tightening around her sleeve.
"...Rely on..."
For a mont, sothing flickered in her eyes as if she began to understand the way of being a master.
Then she looked at Yu Lianru with a bright smile, thanking her for the advice.
"I think I get it now. Thank y—"
But her words slowed down as she noticed the sudden serious look on Yu Lianru’s face.
"What’s wrong?" She tilted her head and ask but Yu Lianru didn’t reply as she simply stared at the sky.
Qing Lianhua blinked, then followed her gaze.
...And her breath were caught.
"...Beautiful," she murmured softly.
Right now, the night sky looked strangely vast to the point that it... no longer resembled an ordinary night sky anymore.
It looked as if the starry expanse of the universe itself had been laid bare.
And countless stars in that vast universe shone brightly as they seem to be... moving?
"Eh?"
Qing Lianhua finally noticed the strangeness.
The stars weren’t just twinkling... they were moving closer, growing brighter.
Not just one or ten or even hundreds...
But countless.
Right now as far as the horizon stretched, she saw a sea of stars, as if the veil of the heavens had been peeled away, revealing the endless truth beyond.
It wasn’t just her.
The noisy chaos of the elders had gone completely silent.
All of them had noticed the strange phenonon and were now staring upward.
They were all dumbfounded at the sight as the stars were no longer the stars they once knew.
They moved like shooting stars, millions of them streaking across the starry night sky in a majestic, almost overwhelming display.
....It felt as though the stars themselves were responding to sothing.
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’Eh? You want to use Yue Lan to bait out the one hiding in this tower?’
[That’s right... With that pill... if that thing dares to interrupt the rebirth process... I know my ancestor will intervene...]
’This...’
[...I want you to trust . Only this way can we draw him out...]
Li Feng hesitated for a mont, but then the mory of the future vision flashed through his mind...
And at his future self mourning over Yue Lan’s lifeless body...
He finally gritted his teeth.
’...Fine.’
The voice sounded relieved, but then hesitated.
[Thank you... But are you confident you can defeat him...?]
...Li Feng didn’t reply as he smiled coldly.
Those fleeting conversations he had with the voice suddenly replayed in his mind.
Inside the black tower,
The dark ceiling now contained a phantom of countless stars, shining down like a celestial canopy onto a...
...solid black hole that had suddenly appeared around Li Feng.
Instead of sucking in and destroying everything, it seed... to be containing sothing that should never have existed.
Suddenly—
Crack—
CRACK—
CRACKKKK—!
The "black hole" did not collapse as it began to broke
Like a shell that had no right containing what lay within.
Fragnts of darkness peeled away in jagged shards... dissolving into nothingness, as if even existence itself refused to acknowledge what was erging.
And then...
He stepped out.
His long white hair flowed behind him, weightless, drifting as though subrged in an unseen current.
Each strand shimred faintly.... not with ordinary light, but with sothing deeper... like distant starlight woven into its very existence.
His tall and broad body was utterly.... perfect.
Muscles carved with impossible precision stretched across his fra... not re flesh, but sothing closer to a living cosmos as veins of pale, radiant energy coursed beneath his skin, branching like constellations.
Each pulse sent faint cracks of light crawling across his form and behind him floated a halo of silvery light that seed to contain countless stars.
At the center of his chest was a star-
No... a core.
It burned quietly, yet with an intensity that made the surrounding darkness warp and tremble.
Thin fractures of light spread outward from it, like a universe trying to escape confinent within his body.
His arms folded slowly across his chest, calm and controlled, as if this tower, this world, even the heavens above ant nothing to him.
Then—
His eyes opened.
Two cold, radiant points of light.
"...Defeat? No..." his voice echoed softly, yet it carried as if whispered directly into the soul.
With a cold smirk, Li Feng, the Ruler of the Stars look at those two rats.
"...I am going to kill all of these bastards."
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[Here an illustration of the Ruler of the Stars:]
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