The Thunderstrike Star Domain was exceptionally vast—far broader than the Milky Way Star Sector. It held boundless stars and a limitless sea of celestial lights.
Stars drifted through the cosmic expanse, rotating without pause as they cast forth rays of seemingly eternal light.
The starry sky before their eyes was truly immense. More remarkably, within its core region, flashes of lightning surged forth, their origins and ends nowhere in sight.
As though living up to the domain's name, the power of thunder had always endured here. At this moment, the group stood upon a planet—more accurately, atop a teleportation platform—looking up at the star-filled cosmos.
"In the Thunderstrike Star Domain, there are many planets that harbor life," Jiang Ningxian spoke. Though she did not know everything about the Thunderstrike Star Domain, she was very clear on the basics. "And over ninety percent of them are essentially vassals of the Celestial Clan, holding them in supreme reverence."
As in many star domains, the Celestial Clan was essentially the master of this cosmos. Anywhere within the bounds of the Thunderstrike Star Domain, the Celestial Clan reigned supreme; after all, this was one of the top hundred star sectors.
Naturally, another reason was that not every life-bearing planet could embark upon the path of cultivation. Many resembled Earth before its upheaval, inhabited solely by ordinary mortals. When faced with beings like the Celestial Clan, such mortals had no choice but to submit.
"Where is our destination?" Lu Yuan nodded from beside her. He did not care much about planetary politics; what concerned him most was arriving early, rendezvousing with Jiang Taiyu and the others, and seeing those Extraterrestrial Demons for himself.
After all, their group had already spent over half a month on the road. While that was extraordinarily brief across cosmic scales, time was relative. Who knew how much the situation might have changed in that half-month?
"It is the Celestial Star, where the Celestial Clan resides. We only need to cross one more teleportation platform to reach it," Jiang Ningxian checked and answered immediately. "My father and several experts from other star sectors are there as well."
The Celestial Star was the homeland of the Celestial Clan. In other words, it was roughly analogous to Lu Yuan's Earth, though vastly different in many aspects.
Extraterrestrial Demons had already appeared there, marking the first time in the entire cosmos that such beings had been discovered within a star domain.
"No time to lose. Let's head out," Lu Yuan nodded. Having crossed so many teleportation platforms, he was thoroughly familiar with the process. Just as before, he immediately channeled power into the ground.
Yet in the very next moment, the entire planet began to tremble, and a colossal roar reverberated between heaven and earth.
The earth quaked violently as massive fissures split open in dense networks, tearing deep ravines across the terrain. Seeing this, Lu Yuan immediately ceased his actions, his brow furrowing deeply.
For he sensed that if he continued, he would likely cause the entire planet—the teleportation platform itself—to shatter completely.
Beside him, Jiang Ningxian and her brother sensed it as well, confusion in their eyes. "How could this happen?"
Like life-bearing planets, teleportation platforms were shielded by certain cosmic rules. Unless one possessed a terrifying level of personal strength, destroying one was next to impossible. Yet now, such a thing was actually happening.
"It seems someone has tampered with this teleportation platform." Lu Yuan straightened up, saying no more as he gently closed his eyes.
In the next breath, an inscrutable force welled from his body, surging restlessly outward. It was the destiny power carried by the Ancient Heavenly Emperor Token and the Investiture Decree.
Buzz!
As Lu Yuan continuously released this power, the entire planet shuddered once more. From within the crisscrossing ravines, wisps of black qi bearing an eerie, sinister force were gradually forced out. Seeing this, Lu Yuan raised his hand, sweeping destiny power forward to envelop the black qi and prevent it from dispersing.
"Is this... the power of the Extraterrestrial Demons?" Jiang Ningxian stepped closer, looking at the black qi before them, a tremor of shock in her eyes. No wonder something was wrong with the teleportation platform.
As it turned out, Extraterrestrial Demons had acted to corrupt and damage it. Because of this, they were completely unable to use the platform before them to reach the Celestial Star.
"The Extraterrestrial Demons likely foresaw that reinforcements would arrive later and tampered with it in advance," Lu Yuan said, essentially understanding what had happened.
From this, one could deduce that the Extraterrestrial Demons had probably begun making preparations long ago, perhaps with the intention of severing the Thunderstrike Star Domain's connection to the outside world.
"What do we do? Without a teleportation platform, reaching the Celestial Star will probably cost an immense amount of time. We might even get lost in the Thunderstrike Star Domain, unable to determine our bearing," Jiang Haokong spoke up, a trace of worry in his eyes.
Even for him, this was the first time encountering such a situation. Losing the teleportation platform was equivalent to having their path across the star domain severed.
Admittedly, with the strength of everyone present, they could traverse the void of space on their own, and running into minor perils would hardly pose a threat.
The crucial issue was that the Thunderstrike Star Domain was too vast. Even with domain points, the odds of pinpointing a specific star's exact location were extremely low.
Just as had been said, it was easy to get lost and fail to find the right path. Even if it posed no mortal danger to them, it would squander far too much time.
Beside him, Jiang Ningxian's gaze grew grave as well. She had assumed everything would go smoothly, but she had never anticipated this.
"Having no teleportation platform will not actually affect much," Lu Yuan spoke up suddenly at this moment, a faint smile in his eyes. "All we need is to find the right path. As it happens, I have a few ideas.
"As for taking time along the way, I think that might even be a good thing. The Extraterrestrial Demons made a move against this teleportation platform, which indicates their reach extends far beyond the Celestial Star—it has very likely spread across the entire Thunderstrike Star Domain."
His point was simple: they could seize this opportunity to investigate thoroughly what the Extraterrestrial Demons were scheming, and furthermore, what role the two great factions were playing in all of this.
All of this had to be investigated clearly; otherwise, what if the situation shifted again without their knowledge?
Lu Yuan had never fought an unprepared battle, let alone now when facing extraterrestrial beings.
These were existences that even the ancient forebears had treated with utmost solemnity, so there was no room for carelessness. His words met with the agreement of those around him.
As for how to find the right path, Lu Yuan said nothing more. With a slight wave of his hand, radiant ripples of light began to emerge.
Chapter 466