「A moment ago.」

While the play of "True and False Artifact Spirits" unfolded at the Starry Sky Temple, Wu Wang was fully immersed in the quest for Enlightenment.

Wu Wang did not know that his mother was undergoing a rather severe trial. The Heaven Palace had made a move without warning. Using the fluctuation of Heaven and Earth in the North Sea as an excuse, they barged into the Star God's domain. When there was no response from the Star God, they stormed into her temple.

Naturally, Wu Wang also had no idea that his mother was fully focused, continuously influencing the spiritual minds of the six Sun Ritual practitioners. Even the old woman who subsequently appeared was a puppet she had meticulously cultivated.

And Wu Wang certainly could not have imagined it. A strand of the Star God's intent, which the original Artifact Spirit of the Ten Thousand Stars Plate had protected with its life, was about to descend before him. This would happen the moment it returned to the Star God's main body.

At that time, Wu Wang was pondering two questions:

How could he describe the Star Dao of the Star God in a way that he could understand?

And how could he redefine the Star Dao in his own way?

Truthfully, Wu Wang could not recite the entire Tao Te Ching. He only knew those famous poems from middle school that his teachers required him to memorize. When tactics were needed, he could barely recall half of The 36 Stratagems.

But he was an outstanding Blue Star spaceship pilot.

To secure the final opportunity, he strove for first place not just in physical training but also achieved noticeable grades in the various courses arranged by the instructors.

For instance, an overview of astrophysics.

He didn't need to study these theories or grasp the formulas and calculations, but as an explorer, he had to have an understanding of them.

Singularity explosions, Void Tides, black hole evaporation theories, pulsars, stellar evolution, cosmic rays, and so on.

Compared to mastering a spaceship with a cockpit full of buttons, learning this knowledge was merely a leisurely pastime for Wu Wang after class and meals.

This was his expertise.

And now, he was carefully perceiving the present Original Star Dao, analyzing the Star God's understanding of the Original Star Dao.

Wu Wang could extract a few simple characteristics.

The Star God believed:

[The stars have existed since time immemorial, revolving around Heaven and Earth according to a certain law, thus giving rise to changes in astral phenomena.

Stars are immortal and indestructible, possess uniqueness, and each star endows the Great Wilderness with star power of a different attribute.

Star power is a kind of Spiritual Energy.

The two intersecting galaxies are where the Star Sky Power converges.

The stars are untouchable; what is seen on the canopy of heaven are merely their projections.]

From this, Wu Wang fell into contemplation.

The world of the Great Wilderness is quite unique. As Wu Wang understood it at the time, it didn't conform to the idea of 'the sky is round and the earth is square.' Indeed, when observed from the air, the land exhibited curvature. It also didn't conform to the characteristics of a planet. There was a barrier to the east of the East Sea, so one could not directly reach the Western Wilderness. Beyond the barrier lay an endless ocean.

When Wu Wang had just learned to use the Praying Star Technique to condense wings for flight, he had explored this question. The conclusion he had drawn then was that the Great Wilderness was close to the concept of 'the sky is round and the earth is square.' Indeed, it seemed to be a mythological world.

He felt dejected for quite some time, feeling as if he had stumbled into an utterly strange world.

But now, the more Wu Wang pondered the Star Dao, the more he became convinced:

[The uniqueness of the Great Wilderness is simply because it is so special. The things he knew before still had patterns that could be traced.]

Then, what is my description of the stars?

Wu Wang's Nascent Soul opened its eyes and pushed open the door that had appeared at some point before him, beyond which lay a dazzling, boundless, and infinitely far starry sky.

He spread his arms and swam through the universe. The starry sky he beheld, aligning with the 'cosmic models' he had known and seen, now eerily converged.

It was the dance of a hundred billion stars in an elliptical galaxy spiraling through the dark cosmos. It was the splendor emerging from the depths of space at a supernova's explosion. It was the feeble sighs of starlight unable to keep pace with the expansion of the universe, and the causal connections severed by immense distances.

Wu Wang murmured to himself, "Stars cannot be touched because they are too far from us, and what we see is merely their former appearance. The intersecting pair of galaxies is simply the crisscrossing of the stellar walls of two giant colliding galaxies. Star power cannot be defined. It's related to the Great Wilderness's Original Dao and should be a collection of various types of rays. In the starry sky, every shining cluster of light is mostly an aggregation of a vast number of stars. Our only option is to utilize the power they transmit here. Stars have lifespans."

Existence implies negation.

In that instant, the frustration in Wu Wang's heart suddenly cleared.

There in his own Star Sea, a wall of starlight seemed to form right in front of him.

Wu Wang sat cross-legged out of thin air, facing this wall, and suddenly let out a light chuckle.

So this is the barrier.

The barrier set by the Star God on the Star Dao is her definition of the starry sky and her interpretation of the stars. It regulates the understanding of the starry sky for all beings who come into contact with this Great Dao.

Because she is the Star God, her definition resonated with the Great Dao.

But is this definition really correct?

Waves of realization surged in Wu Wang's heart, and he faintly heard the sound of a bell.

It was as if that Great Dao, shrouded in mystery, that endowed countless other Great Daos with the potential for divinity, was watching Wu Wang.

Wu Wang uttered, "All stars are the aggregation of the smallest entities."

The wall before him quietly melted away.

Wu Wang rose to his feet and stepped forward slowly.

Brilliant lights appeared in the starry sky. Countless stars enveloped Wu Wang, then blurred into elliptical galaxies, intersecting like a spider's web to form the pathways of stars.

A wall appeared again in front of him; the second barrier obstructed Wu Wang's path.

Wu Wang pondered carefully, then said, "Stars generate star power by burning themselves."

The wall in front of him cracked and then shattered like a Water Mirror.

Wu Wang walked slowly forward, the stars surrounding him transformed into orange, fiery red, light blue, and white-hot orbs of fire.

The third wall emerged as expected.

Without hesitation, Wu Wang spoke directly, "The stars we see are not the true image of the stars, and star power is not deliberately sent to the Great Wilderness but is scattered by the stars in all directions."

The third barrier collapsed with a thunderous crash.

Wu Wang continued to walk forward. Barriers appeared in front of him, and one by one, they were shattered by the words he uttered.

This was a contest of the Dao.

It was also a redefinition of the Great Dao that penetrated the Great Wilderness, a new understanding of the cosmos.

A step further was to seize the interpretation of the stars.

Wu Wang knew that at this moment, he was winning unfairly—the Star God's main consciousness had already been eroded by his mother, and there was no one to debate with him.

He advanced step by step, his speech unceasing, yet he had to use the concepts of the Great Dao of the Great Wilderness to depict this splendid universe.

His understanding of the universe was only a tiny fraction—perhaps one percent, one-thousandth, or even one ten-thousandth of the whole. Yet, it was enough to correct the Star God's original ideas, which were limited by the fact that she had never left the Great Wilderness.

It was like using the theory of the Big Bang to retroactively attack the geocentric model without having to consider whether contemporaries could understand it.

Such Enlightenment, how exhilarating it was!

At this moment, the Heaven and Earth of the Great Wilderness showed no change, but in the starry sky, the light of the stars became brighter!

Wu Wang said, "The ultimate mystery of Heaven and Earth exists in the starry sky; the Great Dao runs through it, and I stand above the Great Dao."

"In this realm, sunrises and moonsets are unrelated to the starry sky."

"Astral phenomena are but the superficial appearance of the stars, and star charts are merely descriptions of the stable configurations of the stars. The movement of the stars themselves is unrelated to the fate of the creatures of Heaven and Earth; creatures should not be bound by fate."

"Tiny entities gather to form stars, and the stars have their own mass; their presence compresses and twists Heaven and Earth. The coalesced Heaven and Earth exert a pull on other stars."

"In the observable dimensions of sentient beings, stars do not have consciousness."

"Star power does not come solely from the visible stars."

One by one, walls shattered, collapsed, and turned into dust, dispersing into the formless.

Seated cross-legged in his own tent, Wu Wang wore a confident smile, his expression surprisingly relaxed. The Dao essence around him rose and fell. His Nascent Soul cast a faint shadow before him, and his Golden Core trembled constantly in his ocean of qi.

The path to becoming an Immortal unfolded from here!

Transcendent metamorphosis originated from this!

Suddenly, the smile at the corner of Wu Wang's mouth stiffened, and his expression was startled for a moment.

This was the moment of the 'counterstrike' by the remnant Artifact Spirit of the Ten Thousand Stars Plate, releasing the Star God's final wisp of intent. Cang Xue was about to crush this last wisp of the Star God's intent before sixteen Innate Gods, thereby laying her cards on the table...

Wu Wang's state of Enlightenment.

No wall appeared before his eyes, but a blurred figure did.

This figure had hair like a waterfall, and one could vaguely see the upper body of a woman and the long tail of a Spiritual Snake.

Before Wu Wang could react, the woman seemed to walk out of the 'wall' and appeared before him. Her eyes, devoid of any emotion, showed a slight hint of disturbance.

"Who are you?"

The newcomer was the Star God. An oppressive force loomed, causing the hair on Wu Wang's body to stand on end.

Instinctively covering the necklace on his chest, he could no longer sense his mother's presence.

The Star God's consciousness! No, wasn't the Star God's consciousness erased by Mother...

A sense of foreboding surfaced in Wu Wang's heart, but at this moment, he had no way back.

His intuition told him that if he turned back, retreated, or even answered too slowly at this moment, he would be crushed by the Star God.

And it would be a crushing at the level of the Great Dao!

"I am a Moon Ritual practitioner," Wu Wang said calmly, "one who offers daily prayers to you."

The apparition of the Star God was wrapped in a faint starlight. She changed her appearance, assuming the form of an Innate Divine Spirit—a beauty that seemed to encapsulate all the splendor of the starry sky.

But no matter how breathtakingly beautiful this exterior was, Wu Wang had no mind to appreciate it.

At this moment, he sincerely felt the strength of a Heavenly Emperor-level master.

Even Senior Shen Nong fell slightly short compared to the Star God.

The tall figure of the Star God was draped in a simple gown. She gazed at Wu Wang and suddenly said, "You are comprehending the Star Dao, yet you have perceived a Star Dao entirely different from mine. Could you possibly have come from beyond the firmament? How can you know what is beyond the firmament?"

Wu Wang's heart skipped a beat.

My biggest secret was almost directly exposed by the Star God!

"I was merely daydreaming..."

"The Great Dao has acknowledged your Dao, and the Ten Thousand Stars have responded to your Dao." A faint melancholy passed through the Star God's phoenix eyes as she continued, "The Great Dao tells me that my Dao is full of errors and omissions."

Wu Wang weighed his words and spoke softly, "No Dao is constant; everything is continually evolving."

She abruptly asked, "Are stars not stars?"

Wu Wang replied, "Most stars we see are not individual stars, because the light of a single star is too faint in this sky."

"Does the light of the stars come from their own burning?"

"When a star is large enough, it bears great pressure. This is similar to a blessed beast that cannot support its own immense size and must be sustained by a power resembling a barrier. When the pressure becomes too immense, various changes will occur in the core of the star. If it can ignite itself completely, it will shine with a brilliant light. Even if it cannot ignite itself completely, there will still be a faint glow."

"You mean starlight?"

"Starlight is only the visible star power, not all star power."

"I have observed the starry sky since time immemorial, and the sky has shown subtle changes."

"How ancient can 'time immemorial' be?" Wu Wang said, "Even for deities, so-called 'time immemorial' is just a relatively long period. But compared to the changes in the starry sky, it is not ancient enough."

The two of them thus engaged in a back-and-forth debate, right within Wu Wang's realm of Enlightenment.

「Meanwhile, within the Starry Sky Temple.」

The deities of the Heaven Palace, the six Sun Ritual participants, and the old woman—the new Artifact Spirit of the Ten Thousand Stars Plate—were currently staring blankly at each other.

The atmosphere was a little stiff.

One of the Sun Ritual participants said in a low voice, "Do you all still insist? It is obvious that an Evil God is trying to frame us and wants to harm the Star God!"

"Wait a little longer." Young Master closed his eyes, his Divine Light growing increasingly intense. "I can sense that there is nothing unusual about the starry sky," he said. "The Star God may be on the verge of recovery."

At this moment, only Cang Xue knew that the Star God's intent was nowhere to be found and had not stayed within the Star God's body.

What could be more important than the Star God reclaiming control over herself? This left Cang Xue somewhat bewildered, and for the moment, she could not bring her staff down. If the staff fell, the cost would be too great, and the certainty of success too small. The intent of that Star God definitely could not have gone far; if it were to hide, it would create endless trouble. But would the Star God really hide? That was not in the nature of the Goddess; that Goddess was quite fanatical.

...

"You want to replace me and control the Star Dao?"

Within the realm of Enlightenment, Wu Wang, who had stopped speaking, stared at the figure standing in the starry sky before him. Hearing the question, he did not know how to respond.

"I want to forge my own path," Wu Wang said. "I am not a Divine Spirit, but a living being."

The Star God gazed at Wu Wang and spoke calmly, "The Great Dao cannot be controlled by living beings. That is the rule, and I will erase you in the simplest way possible."

"I will resist with everything I have." The expression on Wu Wang's face was indescribably calm.

"Just resist?" The Star God tilted her head slightly. "Haven't you thought about defeating me? My follower, have you become fearful?"

Wu Wang: ...

"The starlight tells me that you are a person from the Northern Wilderness. Why don't we make a bet?"

"What kind of bet?"

"Our duel will decide if the Northern Wilderness undergoes a culling and renewal of its inhabitants."

The Star God gazed at Wu Wang as specks of starlight emerged around her. She walked toward him from the starry sky. Each step was accompanied by the flickering of starlight underfoot, and with each step, the pressure bearing down on Wu Wang intensified.

She narrated unhurriedly, "If you lose, I will bestow the blessing of the stars, allowing one-tenth of the population of each race in the Northern Wilderness to survive."

Wu Wang instinctively clenched his fists. "Is that how Divine Spirits treat their own followers?"

"An Innate God needs no followers." The corners of the Star God's mouth showed a charming smile. "Heaven and Earth were conquered by us, and living beings are merely embellishments within it. You also prune the branches of plants in your own homes, don't you?"

Wu Wang suddenly laughed.

He looked down at his own hands. Here and now, in this realm of Enlightenment, his body could not exert force. He had only his spiritual mind, his Nascent Soul, and the power of his Divine Soul.

That's better. The strength of the body was only borrowed anyway. But the power in this moment was cultivated by myself.

He murmured, "Heaven Palace, Northern Wilderness, Women's Country, Rain Mistress Nation... You are all like this, always like this. Why should I hold onto any hope for you?"

"Kneel down," the Star God commanded softly. Immense pressure instantly bore down on Wu Wang, causing his body to tremble slightly as his legs were forcibly bent.

Suddenly, he looked up, the faint smile and the calm facade from before now gone. His eyes seemed to spit fire, and veins bulged on his neck. His bent legs were straightening little by little. The 'body' that was almost crushed was now becoming more substantial.

Behind Wu Wang appeared an orange-red star.

It was the star of the solar system where his home planet was located. It was the image he saw through the spacecraft's window, its harsh light filtered, as he glanced back one last time upon leaving the planet's orbit.

"No one can make me kneel."

Wu Wang gazed at the Star God. The star behind him transformed instantly: clear galactic spiral arms forming an elliptical disk, and elliptical disks converging into a galactic cluster...

The Star God's surrounding pressure intensified; behind her was the boundless and brilliant Star Sea.

And behind Wu Wang, darkness suddenly formed, within which seemed to be faintly discernible 'ripples' that flitted by.

"Defiant spirit." Star God spread open her left hand, and the stars behind her burst out with boundless starlight!

The pressure grew even stronger!

"Defiance?" Wu Wang exerted all his strength to lift his head, his Divine Soul's neck nearly snapping.

He stared directly at the Star God. Behind him, the dark mass began to show more and more ripples, as if heralding, gathering, and signaling something!

Suddenly, the ripples burst forth!

The pressure around Wu Wang dissipated; his figure lightened, and he took a step forward voluntarily.

He moved towards the Star God, who had already raised her left hand, step by step!

Murmuring words, the mass of darkness behind him seemed to swallow everything!

"You are here because you were born here. And I am here because this is all I have understood thus far! You actually want to see my Dao, right?"

A cold smile tugged at the corner of Wu Wang's mouth. The flames in his eyes receded, revealing a calm and clear gaze.

Behind him, the infinite ripples merged into one; the black region seemed to be rapidly receding.

Wu Wang sprinted with all his might!

From behind him erupted the anthem of space and time!

It was a darkness that light had not yet escaped. Within the blackness, objects were already taking shape. In the void, ripples began to appear—ripples that were overall uniform yet possessed minute variations.

These variations were the stars!

The Star God's eyes were nearly intoxicated, filled with surprise and astonishment. She couldn't peel her gaze away from that 'black porridge,' feeling the infinite might spreading evenly in the darkness, sensing the imminent eruption.

It was coming! Light was escaping from that mass of porridge!

That small, feeble figure leaped at the same time!

The black starry sky saw jets of Liu Guang, clusters of tangible objects like boundless and endless dust.

The dust coalesced, stars appeared, and these stars shone brightly; the overall expansion and regional clustering were so harmonious.

That was beauty in its most primordial definition!

Some stars suddenly collapsed.

The Star God shuddered, her gaze fixed on the collapsing star, indifferent to the fist enlarging in her view. She was questioning, wondering, as the starlight behind her extinguished in an instant.

BOOM...

The Star God's face caved in, her figure thrown backward, her body seemingly on the verge of disintegrating.

Boundless starlight bloomed behind Wu Wang, his body trembling continuously. Although he had no physical form at the moment, he could clearly feel his Divine Soul was nearly shattered.

His right hand made a grasping motion; the Dao weapon Star Sword at his Spirit Platform silently vanished, already coalescing in Wu Wang's palm.

"Ha, hahaha, hahahahaha."

At that moment, the Star God suddenly laughed, her laughter carrying a profound desolation, yet also relief and delight.

She slowly stood up. Her pressure was still immense, her power as strong as ever. Furthermore, she revealed a Divine Thought force that seemed almost vast enough to fill the entire starry sky.

The corners of Wu Wang's mouth twitched slightly.

He seemed to see it: meteors striking various parts of the Northern Wilderness from the firmament, turning the Royal Court into a sea of fire, and his tribespeople crying out in terror.

It didn't matter; it was just a fight to the death. Burn this soul, settle my spiritual mind.

A silver flame appeared on Wu Wang's forehead, his Dao essence rising swiftly.

To do all he could to prevent the catastrophe of the Northern Wilderness. If he couldn't even crush a strand of the Star God's Divine Soul, then what was there to talk about...

"Burning your soul? I like your temperament." The Star God flicked her finger, and the flame on Wu Wang's forehead was forcibly snuffed out.

Speaking as if it were a trivial matter, she said in a gentle voice, "Follow me. I am already a dying entity. The Ice God has shattered my Divine Soul and will not spare this last vestige of my consciousness. Young Master is too naive; he cannot stop the Ice God from acting against me.

"You are too weak at this moment to control the Star Dao, but your understanding of the Star Dao is enough to allow you to control it in the future.

"Follow me, and I will embed your mark into the origin of this Great Dao.

"You must grow strong quickly and advance your power swiftly to stop the Ice God from destroying the Heaven and Earth Seal. I will leave you a Divine Art. You only need to eradicate a third of the beings in the Northern Wilderness to quickly possess the strength to accept this Great Dao.

"The Star Dao is crucial.

"By then, not just the Northern Wilderness, but all of Heaven and Earth will fall into fear. The current Heaven Palace merely enslaves the Hundred Races, still allowing them a place to exist. However, if that entity returns to the Great Wilderness, both gods and living beings will be annihilated.

"Why... aren't you leaving?"

Wu Wang raised his head and looked at the Star God.

My mother, the Ice God. Of course, that's not how it could be phrased.

Wu Wang asked, "A third of the beings?"

"Yes." The Star God nodded lightly. "You can kill beings not of your race. The thoughts of living beings can replenish Divine Power, or you can start a war directly to harvest Divine Thoughts."

Wu Wang's brow furrowed slightly.

The subtle sense of guilt that had inexplicably risen in his heart just moments ago was swept away.

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