Felix's Ancestor

While the Painter was lost in thought, the Starry legends boldly revealed the trump cards they had held in reserve for so long. Faced with evil sorcerers who dared threaten the interests of the stars, they would never spare their glory! The Night King opened the black umbrella he had never once unfurled. Radiant hexagram runes surfaced across its canopy. As he moved to fold the umbrella closed, the shaft let out a tooth-grating creak. At the same time, the space above Yaxiu and the others contracted and folded inward like a closing umbrella. Even their movements were imprisoned; they could only stay frozen in place, about to be folded into spatial rifts! Miracle: Folding Umbrella. This was a top-tier Dazzling spatial miracle from the Starry Miracle Catalog, named for how its activation resembled an umbrella folding shut. The umbrella in the Night King's hand was a secret heirloom of the Starry royal family, capable of elevating a spatial miracle to the level of a divine miracle, originating from a distant, prehistoric era. Only back in the age when gods still walked the earth could sorcerers steal their might to forge artifacts surpassing legendary rank... And once gods departed the mortal world, divine artifacts had naturally turned into the dust of history. "Hurry!" the Night King roared with nearly all his strength. He hardly believed a divine miracle alone could slay a pack of evil sorcerers whom even the Divine Lord of Stars regarded as a grave threat. "Come." The Pope's voice was as impossible to pin down in age as her appearance—as melodious as a young maiden's, yet imbued with the serene calm settled by the passage of time. Her hands gripped the glazed, translucent Star Staff tightly. Behind her, a star-studded sky suddenly unfolded, and tens of thousands of starlight beams thrust down like swords toward the evil sorcerers trapped within the umbrella's domain! Divine Miracle: Star Sword Rain! The Church could be called quite a mysterious organization in the Starry Kingdom. Even the nobility did not know how to join it, but in truth, the Church had only a single entry requirement: demonstrating talent as a star sorcerer. Only star sorcerers were qualified to join the Church. As the supreme head of faith, the Pope was naturally a legendary star sorcerer. She was the only sorcerer in the Starry Kingdom who could wield divine miracles unconditionally. Through resonance with the Church's heirloom, the Star Staff, she could channel the power of the stars to unleash the Church's secret divine miracles. In truth, the Pope felt a touch of regret, as the Divine Lord of Stars had not yet completely taken possession of the true starry sky, meaning the divine miracle she borrowed possessed only thirty percent of its full power... Yet she was also rather exhilarated, because even at thirty percent, it was far stronger than any divine miracle back under the false starry sky! The sorcerers in the hall were dazzled. A confining divine miracle of collapsing space, a destructive divine miracle of piercing starlight—this was war at the pinnacle of sorcery! Their Starry Kingdom truly was the greatest sorcery civilization! "A little interesting." When Weixi's teasing, lazy voice echoed in the Night King's mind, he felt as though his soul had been impaled... This was no metaphor; a needle had truly pierced through his soul, vibrating incessantly to shatter his sanity! Wonder: Soul Screech Sonic Wave—Needle Piercing! When Weixi activated it, she even spared Yaxiu a glance. Yaxiu naturally understood the unspoken words choked back in her throat—though focusing the area-of-effect Soul Screech Sonic Wave into a single-target armor-piercing strike greatly enhanced its damage, the primary reason Weixi had devised this application was actually that Yaxiu didn't want her splashing too many collateral victims when using the miracle. Even though Weixi doing this was only right and proper, Yaxiu unexpectedly felt a tiny stir of emotion that she had genuinely curbed her temper. He almost wanted to praise his maid, though he naturally wouldn't show it. Reproaching himself internally, he glared fiercely at Weixi. Weixi also caught the evasiveness in his eyes. While amused inside, her face remained cold with contempt, wearing an expression that said: *Ending up with a master like you is truly a waste of all my talents.* With the Night King grievously wounded, the sustained Folding Umbrella miracle naturally broke off, and the fox-handled umbrella, having been used once, bent completely and shattered. However, the Star Sword Rain had already engulfed them. Yaxiu expanded a Refraction Shield to ward off the sword rain for everyone. Just as he was about to step forward, the petite figure beside him rapidly grew into a lively teenage girl, declaring impatiently: "My turn!" The Pope shuddered, looking down to see several silk threads coiled around her body. Before a single thought of resistance could form, the power of time deferred all her actions. She was frozen in time, and the Star Sword Rain, devoid of control, ceased with it. Wonder: Time Lock! The Black and White Witch unfurled her virtual wings, her fingers entwining the Pope like a spider preparing to dine, pouncing gracefully upon her prey. But right at that moment, the Mentor, having constructed his miracle with blinding speed, finally turned the tide before the situation could collapse! Truth Miracle: Inversion! Even though Diya had wanted to charge forward, her body instead ducked into Yaxiu's embrace; even though she had intended to unleash Time Lock upon the Pope, it turned into casting Time Acceleration upon herself. The others attempted to assist, only to find their own actions thrown into bizarre disorder. This did not simply affect their minds or central nervous systems; it temporarily distorted both the effects of sorcery spirits and the laws governing neural signals within the area. This was precisely why the Mentor required casting time: he had to first discern the types of sorcery spirits his enemies possessed before adjusting his miracle on the fly to target them specifically. He naturally could not warp sorcery spirits directly through their masters, but sorcery spirits were creatures of rules; alter the rules, and the sorcery spirits would naturally alter along with them. Thus, the true effect of the Inversion miracle was to slightly warp the natural laws in the area, thereby throwing sorcery spirits into disarray. Only when they could not mobilize their sorcery spirits did altering neural signal patterns serve any purpose; otherwise, they wouldn't need to move their bodies at all and could simply rely on sorcery spirits and miracles to maneuver and attack. The Mentor was the only legendary sorcerer among them without a divine miracle trump card, yet as a Truth Legend of the three esoteric factions, his combat strength was already at a pinnacle far exceeding ordinary legends. Even a true demigod, so long as they were not proficient in the truth faction, would be powerless to resist his Truth Inversion! Although the Night King was still struggling, the Mentor saw the Pope preparing to unleash the Star Sword Rain once more and the Painter taking out her paintings. Everything would turn out all right— Yet a beam of dazzling silver light shattered the Mentor's illusion entirely. In the area blanketed by silver light, all inverted laws of nature reverted to their original state. His Truth miracle, which had never failed before, proved so fragile beneath the glow of the Silver Lantern. *It's over,* Victorique thought. She, the Night King, the Pope, and the Mentor had all played their ultimate trump cards, yet every single one was dismantled by these evil sorcerers. All they had left to do was... "Starry Sanctuary!" Professor Nidala, the Rhythm Sword Saint, roared across Star Bridge Hall. "Join me in surrounding and exterminating the evil sorcerers!" "We are the Stars!" The evil sorcerers looked up to see eighteen Sanctuary sorcerers descending from above, pincering them alongside the battling legendary sorcerers, swearing to annihilate these fate-defying rebels endangering the Starry Kingdom! ... "Principal," Sonia sheathed her sword. "As a Sword Blossom student, I am proud of you." In the grand Star Bridge Hall, only seven standing silhouettes remained, with Daidalos's ethereal singing echoing in the background. The Painter sat in a corner like a Little Grey Wolf plush doll, a sword wound having nearly cut her in two; the Pope lay in a pool of blood, bloodstains crisscrossing her body; the Night King hung lifelessly over a railing, his gaze hollow and his fingers trembling uncontrollably; half of the Mentor's body had turned to silver, plunged in a deep slumber. Yaxiu embedded the last two Sanctuary sorcerers into the wall and turned to look around. Seeing the Sanctuary sorcerers scattered across the floor in disarray, he couldn't help but sigh. Weixi kicked aside a Sanctuary sorcerer next to her and scoffed, "Oh my, did we hit too hard and make our merciful master hold a grudge against us again?" "Huh?" Diya blinked, instantly shifting back into her little girl form. She stared nervously at Yaxiu. "Aren't they still alive?" Yaxiu knew why Diya was nervous. In fact, he had faintly noticed back in the Void Realm that Diya seemed to really enjoy... torment. Unlike Sonia, who enjoyed combat, or Weixi, who slaughtered to refine souls, Diya derived pure pleasure from the process of inflicting pain. Especially when facing large creatures like fierce-clawed dragons, she could clearly finish them off quickly, yet she insisted on severing tails, snapping claws, shattering armor, and ripping scales, torturing the dragons until they were covered in wounds and driven nearly mad before finally dealing the killing blow—almost like grinding achievements. The legendary and Sanctuary sorcerers dealt with by her looked progressively more miserable than the last. Although he felt a twinge of fear inside, Yaxiu didn't harbor much aversion toward Diya's hobby; after all, she still understood boundaries and restraint. It was just that Yaxiu had to keep a close eye on Diya's condition at all times, because "Personality Drift" caused Diya to continuously veer toward the Black Fiend. If the extent of Diya's hobby ever crossed the limit of what Yaxiu could bear, it would mean the girl in his arms was no longer family, but a ferocious monster from the future. For now, however, Yaxiu first wiped his hands clean, rubbed Diya's little head, and smiled. "No, you all did great. I was actually prepared to get my hands dirty; I didn't expect you would truly only injure without killing. Once we leave, the Starry Kingdom's healing sorcerers will naturally nurse them back to health... at most, they'll be stuck in bed for a few months." "Sometimes, if you don't hurt others, you simply can't survive," Yaxiu murmured. "It's just that, looking at these legendary and Sanctuary sorcerers collapsed on the ground, I never imagined that after being falsely accused for so long, I would truly become a cult leader who makes an enemy of the entire world one day." "How does it feel?" Weise rested a hand on his shoulder, smiling softly. "I can somewhat empathize with how you felt back then." Yaxiu tilted his head and smiled faintly. "If defying the Starry Kingdom is a sin, then let me be evil through and through." Pausing on every word, he declared, "Since she wants Hell, I will give her Hell!" Felix stole a glance at this man. Though speaking of the Divine Lord of Stars perched at the apex of sorcerers, he treated the supreme existence as his equal with utter naturalness. She had never expected that this trash can who only knew how to steal food could actually possess such a dignified, commanding side. The seven made their way to the center of Star Bridge Hall. The working sorcerers had naturally fled long ago; none were foolish enough to throw their lives away when even the legends and Sanctuaries had fallen. At the center of the hall was a hexagram arrangement, with permanent spatial gates installed at five of its corners. Four of the spatial gates were already finished, with only the final one remaining incomplete. "Why are there five?" Sonia asked suddenly. "Shouldn't there only be four?" Yaxiu paused, quickly realizing that out of the six kingdoms, only five currently existed, so the Starry Kingdom's outward spatial gates should indeed number only four. Yet here stood five spatial gates... "Does one lead to Doomsday Senluo?" Weise scrutinized the five spatial gates. "It might also lead to another city in the Starry Kingdom," Daidalos suggested. "To facilitate cargo transit." "We'll find out once we light up all the spatial gates." Diya used the Empty Gate sorcery spirit to complete the final spatial gate. They had known all along that all five gates had to be fully ready before activation, and completing a spatial gate was child's play for Diya, who possessed the Gospel God. When all five spatial gates were completed, the surroundings began to tremble. Though it looked like an earthquake, it was actually a spatial tremor. Nearly ten seconds later, space finally stabilized, and the five spatial gates glowed with multicolored light. April 9, 1669, 16:42. This was a historic moment worthy of remembrance: the mutually isolated six kingdoms were finally connected at this very instant! Yet, as if on cue, the evil sorcerers turned their heads together toward the hexagram's sole corner where no spatial gate stood. That corner, completely empty until just a moment ago, now draped down a luminous curtain like a galaxy, within which countless stars flowed and shimmered. *Zzz-skrrr—* As a figure stepped out from behind the light curtain, an intensely shrill, violent tearing sound resonated through spacetime, as though the figure were physically ripping open the world itself. In the next second, an exquisitely androgynous, golden-haired figure appeared before their eyes. His eyes shone bright as stars, his robes were so dazzlingly colorful they seemed woven from the aurora, and his figure was tall and slender. He possessed both the aura of a boy and a maiden without the slightest discordance—a captivating creature fashioned by the Creator out of sugar, spice, and everything nice. Upon descending, his gaze did not land on Yaxiu or the others, but instead fixed upon Felix hiding behind them. As if struck by lightning, Felix stared wide-eyed at this uninvited guest, stammering: "An... Ancestor?!"