The Stars Beyond

Chapter 426: Battle Of The Roses

The man's laughter was off-putting to Wang Xuan.

Is this his strong protective instinct I sense, manifesting especially when it comes to his beloved little cotton blanket?

Naturally, he'd jumped to conclusions. He suspected the couple had something to do with the Demon Lord, possibly being her parents who had snuck back to the human realm early.

"Go on," urged the shadow of the man on the wall. His voice, still laced with amusement, caused Wang Xuan's nerves to fray.

Wang Xuan, with a flick of his wrist, brandished the Godslaying Banner. What are you trying to do? White Tiger thought. Are you trying to show off in front of a Peerless-level master?

Covering his mouth with the banner and activating its golden runes, Wang Xuan shielded his mind, preventing any more unguarded truths from spilling out. The mention of the little cotton jacket seemed to provoke the man, suggesting a challenging personality Wang Xuan wasn't eager to confront.

Nevertheless, he had to say something. "Demon Lord Yan Yan is a true saint and very gentle. She recently took me to outer space to explore an ancient spaceship and alien civilizations together," he managed to say behind the flag.

"Gentle, together... What are you trying to tell me?" The man's shadow on the wall tremored slightly with the question.

The monk and Little White Tiger were frozen in place. They stood still in complete silence, despite their usual fiery temperaments. Wang Xuan pondered if he had indeed encountered a fiercely protective father, who was not old but in his prime and full of vigor.

"I mean, despite Demon Lord Yan Yan's unparalleled beauty and caliber, she has a tender and gentle side, and she's kind to everyone. It might be tied to her upbringing, might even be the loneliness after her parents left. She would dance to the moon, missing her family..." Wang Xuan scraped the bottom of his brain, painting a sentimental picture of the Demon Lord. He hinted that her traits were a result of her parents' absence, aiming to make this father figure feel guilty and leave him alone.

"You speak of the Demon Lord? Somehow, I get the feeling her dance could decimate a battlefield. When she's gentle, even the mightiest fear her. Her melancholy, perhaps, stems from not being the absolute strongest yet?" The man's voice was calm, untouched by Wang Xuan's narrative, almost as if he saw right through him.

Indeed, the man on the wall spoke again, "Kid, you've got a dark heart!" Following his words, an arm still in shadow form emerged from the wall to pat Wang Xuan's shoulder. The touch nearly sent Wang Xuan into the ground.

"Enough, don't scare the child," the woman on the wall interjected, pulling the shadowy arm back into the wall.

Wang Xuan pondered whether these two were truly the Demon Lord's parents. They seemed to fit the bill, yet he feared it might be a trap meant to mislead him.

"And how do you fare with Fang Yuzhu?" they inquired, shifting the conversation's focus unexpectedly.

Wang Xuan was puzzled. Were these two really Yan Yan's parents? The legendary couple of unparalleled beings he had theorized?

"Fang Yuzhu is doing well. Once you get to know her, she's very approachable, just like Yan Yan. Neither of them puts on airs despite their celestial status. They're gentle, dignified, and generous. They both enjoy cooking; I've had the pleasure of tasting their culinary creations... truly, delicacies of the mortal realm and treasures of the celestial world!" Wang Xuan was treading dangerously with the duo of shadows, probing their relationship with the two immortal beauties.

The monk, present throughout this charade, had turned mute, deciding not to engage. Little White Tiger remained unusually quiet, feigning sleep for self-preservation.

"They cook for you, huh? You must think quite highly of yourself!" The man's shadow replied with evident displeasure.

"Whose cooking do you prefer?" asked the woman, her tone gentle and calm.

"Both are delicious. Fang Yuzhu's dishes are more on the lighter side, while Yan Yan's dishes focus on exotic and lavish meat," Wang Xuan responded calmly. He felt as if he were standing on the thinnest of ice.

The man was inclined to reach out to him again, his hand almost at Wang Xuan's shoulder before the woman pulled it back once more.

"If you had to choose between them, who would you pick?" the woman surprisingly asked, throwing Wang Xuan off guard. How could he possibly choose?

Despite his daring probes, Wang Xuan had never contemplated such a choice, as he felt the two celestial beings and himself were worlds apart.

"I'm being asked," the man noted.

"My family always says, don't attempt multiple-choice questions," Wang Xuan hastily covered his mouth, sensing he was being led into a trap again. With residual laws meddling in the conversation, the overwhelming power of the person before him was evident.

"So, you're saying you'd choose them all if you could?" the woman spoke, her shadow tilting as if to gaze at Wang Xuan.

"You really dare... We're leaving!" The man seemed displeased, huffing coldly. Both shadows departed from the wall in a flash and quickly disappeared into the distance.

"Thank you, esteemed ancestors, for your protection!" Wang Xuan expressed his genuine gratitude, shouting after them into the dark, rainy night. However, they were long gone.

Little White Tiger and the monk suddenly sprang back to life, engaging in trivial chatter.

"The thunder tonight is loud; it's a good time for transcendence."

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Wang Xuan stared down at them. Where were they earlier? The unreliable bastards had feigned death throughout.

"Were they the Demon Lord's parents?" Wang Xuan inquired.

The round-faced girl replied, "I don't know. I only saw them from a distance back then. And these two only appeared as shadows without their real bodies, so it's hard to say."

"That person won't show up again soon, but don't wander around recklessly." From the edge of the lightning-streaked sky, the shadows' voices emerged.

In an instant, they moved hundreds of miles away with terrifying speed. They had passed on their final warning.

Wang Xuan's expression changed. The enigmatic shadow was still alive! This was a burden on his psyche. Even with the immense strength of the Old Covenant's bearers, that ethereal shadow couldn't be completely eradicated. Just how powerful was he? This mysterious individual, likely having opened an inner landscape in his mortal days, now targeted Wang Xuan—intending to snatch everything he had.

The chilling realization of his predicament left Wang Xuan shivering; Zheng Yuantian's pressure was nothing compared to this. The silent, effortless breach of his inner landscape by that mysterious shadow the night before had felt like the shadow of death itself had loomed over him.

"I'm still not strong enough," Wang Xuan mused aloud, feeling the weight of his circumstance. "In these final days of myth, as the world descends into madness, I must become stronger, quickly."

The round-faced girl and the monk fell silent, each thinking to themselves that if Wang Xuan became any more powerful, they would be the ones losing their minds. For someone only nearing celestial status to surpass them in the mortal realm was unthinkable.

Just then, Huang Ming entered, bearing a pot of warm, fine tea, only to overhear Wang Xuan's reflection. He grimaced, feeling a pang of despair. Why? Each shockwave from Wang Xuan's achievements seemed to push him further back, while the 'anomaly' of a person continually evolved.

The same sentiment was shared by all. Zhou Qinghuang and Gu Mingxi, having just returned and cleansed themselves, were particularly struck by Wang Xuan's words.

"Sigh, with mythology dying, why bother with aspirations? Soon, we'll all return to zero together," someone uttered in resignation.

Even Qi Liandao, typically fractured in thought, fell silent. Having hopes of making it through the cold night of mythic decline seemed increasingly futile.

Acceptance of their grim reality settled among them. Even those of unrivaled strength, like the decaying man from the heart of the earth or the strongest in the fairy realm like Fang Yuzhu, seemed destined to fall to mere mortality.

Perhaps the strongest could endure a little longer, but from the perspective of the eternal night of transcendence, resisting the inevitable seemed a futile effort.

The tea house grew heavy with despondency, a stark contrast to the excitement of the recent immense battle. The prospect of a world devoid of mythical feats in just a few months left a profound weight on everyone's heart.

"It's just seven or eight months left now," someone remarked bleakly, exposing the raw wound further.

Everyone longed for a miracle, yet reality only grew harsher. No exceptions could be spared.

The struggle for sacred relics among the fairy realm's elites was naturally a bid for survival in the dire times ahead.

"Even with a sacred relic, one might only retain the strength of a ground immortal at best, and even that is likely to diminish over time," noted another.

Yet, Wang Xuan's spirits weren't dampened. He continued to inquire about historical figures known for their special inner landscapes, seeking knowledge amidst the encroaching despair.

At the same time, Wang Xuan also inquired about realms, and the different levels of cultivation such as Earth Immortal, Celestial Immortal, and the peerless tier.

Recently, he had been consulting various sources about the matters of the Immortal Realm, focusing mostly on significant and secretive issues concerning higher planes, inadvertently neglecting the basics.

"Humans can only cultivate up to the fifth major realm," the round-faced girl explained simply, as these were common knowledge questions in the Immortal Realm.

The four major realms before this were: the Mortal World realm, Wanderer realm, Life Essence Lord, and Ascendent, with each realm theoretically consisting of nine stages or levels.

The tenth stage in any major realm is considered a breakthrough of limits, and the eleventh stage is the forefront of the mythical domain!

An Earth Immortal is on the sixth level of the Wanderer realm, a being truly capable of traversing from the Northern Seas to the Cangwu in a single day.

Of course, this so-called travel often refers more to spiritual journeys, where one's spirit wanders far to visit others.

Reaching the realm of Ascendent, one is truly considered an immortal. According to the old covenants, all beings at this level should enter the 'Great Veil', that is, the Immortal Realm.

A being at the ninth stage of Ascendent can be referred to as a Demon Saint or Celestial Immortal, which are essentially on the cusp of the peerless tier.

Sometimes, the term Celestial Immortal is also used to compliment certain female immortals of extraordinary beauty and grace, rather than their actual realm.

Undoubtedly, there are Ascendents who have broken the limits, reaching the tenth stage. These almost peerless beings, once they ascend to the peerless level, become truly formidable.

Advancing beyond Ascendent, one reaches the true peerless masters, a realm known as—Curtain Heaven!

The character 'Curtain' in this context evolves from the 'Great Veil', situated within it, reaching the peak of Curtain Heaven. At this fifth major realm, it becomes incredibly difficult to advance further.

There are those who, disillusioned, regard the Great Veil as a grave or lonely tomb, difficult to escape. They claim that even the peerless masters are but prisoners in a cage, destined to perish with the myths, their lives too fleeting, like meteors streaking across the sky, unable to truly preserve their strength in the cosmic order and unable to live long in the present world.

As for the so-called "Peerless Transcendent", this actually does not completely transcend the realm of Celestial. It represents the highest domain within the fifth major realm, where the spirit undergoes nirvana and rebirth, embodying the supreme beings who have undergone further transformations.

"Beyond the pinnacle, within the realm of the sublime, stands the Transcendent Beyond," Wang Xuan pondered aloud. The weight of the celestial hierarchies pressed upon his thoughts. "It's said that those within the tenth stage of the Celestial Veil realm have no rival within its boundaries."

At the Time Dilation Bar, a young scientist clad in a white lab coat, hailing from the Departed Lands, had once mentioned that Fang Yuzhu may have undergone not just one cycle of spiritual nirvana and rebirth.

This hinted at the possibility that Fang Yuzhu, having breached the limits once, might have experienced yet another transformation of her spirit, positioning her possibly within or even beyond the eleventh stage of the Groove of the Heavens—suggesting a prowess that extends beyond just the tenth tier.

"Could Sister Yuzhu, possibly at the eleventh stage of the Celestial Veil, also be unable to completely transcend the fifth grand realm?" Wang Xuan mused softly.

The round-faced girl shook her head in response. "How would she? For beings at that pinnacle, further ascent is as arduous as an ant climbing to the highest heavens. Rather than breaking into an even higher realm, undergoing another spiritual transformation to possibly step into the theoretical yet possibly nonexistent twelfth stage might be more plausible."

"And what of those supreme artifacts? Where do they stand in all this?" Wang Xuan couldn't help but inquire further.