Counterattack

The year Yaxiu graduated from high school, his older brother happened to be in his fourth year of university and had already landed a job back home. With a month to spare before his brother's start date, the two energetic, unoccupied young men immediately hit it off. Pooling together his brother's scholarship and part-time earnings, they blew it all on a trip to Tibet, as soul-cleansing, artsy travel essays about Tibet were all the rage back then. Originally, his brother was supposed to go with his girlfriend. But his future sister-in-law was hunting for a job and wasn't in great health, too intimidated to brave high altitudes, so the chance fell to Yaxiu. The scenery along the way was undeniably breathtaking, but what left the deepest impression on Yaxiu was none other than the Dark Sky Park beside the Ngari Observatory. That had been the closest Yaxiu ever came to the starry sky. Free from city lights, the night was purely, mysteriously dark, making him feel as though he stood in a kingdom of shadows. Only the constellations glittered upon that grand stage, the starlight across the heavens seeming to graze the tips of his hair, within arm's reach. He had been deeply awed by the magnificent splendor before his eyes, yet simultaneously stricken by a profound loneliness at his own insignificance. Heat and chill, two polar-opposite emotions existing all at once—such was the allure of the starry sky. Years later, he felt that very same awe and loneliness once again. The only difference was that the starry sky was no longer a treasure shared by all living beings. It was the private domain of a Sorcery Supreme! The Hell of Phantasms was blanketed by a boundless starry sky. In an instant, Yaxiu and the others were swept from Hell into the vacuum of outer space. Fortunately, they were battle-hardened demigods who adapted swiftly to zero gravity and the vacuum. With no earth beneath their feet and no sky above their heads, even demigods were eclipsed on this pitch-black stage; only the stars were the true protagonists! Stars brandished the starry sky—it was difficult to describe the spectacle unfolding before their eyes. How could an infinite expanse of cosmos be grasped and swung in the hands of the Supreme of Stars? Yet that was precisely what occurred. As Stars swung her blade, the stars began to whirl. Starlight cascaded downward in reverse, and gamma-ray bursts erupted with the most brilliant radiance in the universe, releasing in a mere millisecond the explosive energy of hundreds of millions of years of accumulated sunlight. The entire starry sky became an extension of Stars's swordsmanship. Star sorcery sought outward for the power of the constellations, while sword arts sought inward for the absolute peak of technique. These two sorcery factions, which should have been worlds apart, revealed a brand-new horizon in the hands of Stars— The confluence of stars and sword! Harnessing the power of the stars and blending it with the craft of the sword, a colossal energy capable of purging all life upon the earth tens of thousands of times over was confined flawlessly within the arc of the blade, without a single wisp of leakage. Never before in this world had there been so exquisite a starburst, nor so dazzling a sword art. A single strike's light chilled the galaxy; a single strike illuminated every soul upon the earth! Beyond "powerful," Yaxiu's meager store of knowledge could find no better word to describe it. This supreme might, standing atop every sorcerer through all of history, unveiled its mysterious countenance for the very first time. Hundreds of thousands of Forgotten Ones instantly vaporized beneath the cascading starlight sword-waterfall. Forget fighting back; they didn't even have time to react. The legion of Forgotten Ones that the demigods of Hell had strained every nerve to hold off for just a single month was wiped clean by a single sword strike from Stars—as effortlessly as dabbing correction fluid across unwanted paint. Yet the cosmos held not only paint, but sculptures. Like a lifeless sculpture, the eight-winged creature suddenly opened all its eyes. Consisting of nothing but eyes, it could never form so complex a multi-organ structure as a "face," yet everyone could see its fury. It seemed to have been slumbering until moments ago, stirred awake only by Stars's disturbance. Unfiltered hatred poured from its colossal eyeballs, treating all creation as its sworn enemy. It possessed no such thing as humanity, yet it was more arrogant than any living creature. It never targeted any individual; only the world itself was prey it deemed worthy. This was the awakening of Ouroboros. Its very first glance upon waking was meant for destruction. Clang! A soundless roar echoed across the universe. The mere high-explosive deluge of blazing light was enough to pierce the barriers of the demigods watching the battle from countless kilometers away. Healing his scorched pupils while straining his eyes open, Yaxiu saw the galaxy sword-waterfall sever two of Ouroboros's wings, each hundreds of kilometers long. Yet the energy of that galaxy sword-waterfall, potent enough to obliterate tens of millions of stars, was also swiftly ground away. The eight-winged creature Ouroboros had actually had two of its wings severed by a single strike from Stars! Yet no one felt elated, for everyone saw that at the stumps of Ouroboros's severed wings, flesh was regenerating at a speed visible to the naked eye. If they looked closer, they could even discern thousands of regeneration methods at play across those stumps: flesh regrowth, time reset, fate grafting, necromantic weaving, water birthing all things... It gazed coldly upon those minuscule lives, showing not the slightest terror of being wounded. It did not even bother attacking Stars, who had proven capable of harming it. To it, everyone was the same. All of them were garbage. Its eyes widened to their absolute limits, as if the whites were about to roll outward. In an uncanny manner, Yaxiu heard breathing and heartbeats; he could distinctly hear the entire world expanding with Ouroboros's breath, shuddering with Ouroboros's heartbeat, and fracturing under Ouroboros's contempt. Gaze of the Eight-Winged Serpent. The gaze cast from tens of millions of eyes suddenly took physical shape, turning into blazing flames and frigid frost, into blades, swords, spears, and halberds, into space-time and fate. An intangible, boundless torrent of sorcery flooded every corner of the cosmos in an instant along its line of sight. This was the true attack of the World-Swallowing Serpent. Its earlier destruction of the Slaughter Secret Realm had merely been a sleepy yawn. No one could survive this; Ouroboros needed only to cast a negligible glance to reduce all things in existence to ash. The defensive miracles of Hell's demigods shattered in a thousandth of a second. Just as the Forgotten Ones were nothing more than cosmic dust before Stars, they were no more than transient dew in Ouroboros's eyes... Yet they did not vaporize. For standing before them were the five strongest sorcerers in history. Through the rift between Hell and Heaven shone four beams of the holiest, purest celestial light. Descending upon the center of the battlefield, they transformed into four illusory Kingdoms of Heaven of distinct styles. Like reefs amidst a raging torrent, they stood unyielding against Ouroboros's destructive gaze, shielding the demigods of Hell behind them! The Divine Lords stood atop their Kingdoms of Heaven, as if holding up the entire world. "Weaver, didn't you claim your Cobweb Rampart was an impregnable defense? Now is your chance to show it," the Supreme Lord of the Blood Moon said coldly. He was bare-chested with a beast-fang necklace around his neck, wearing only a fur war-skirt on his lower body, standing barefoot in the void. Crimson hair cascaded to his waist, and a sleek, silvery-white wolf tail swayed in the wind. Arms crossed over his chest, his every gesture exuded untamed ferocity, as though the entire world were his hunting ground and he the ruler reigning atop the food chain! "I don't mind the Cobweb Rampart taking on more defensive duties. But aside from possessing the sturdiest defense, I am also the finest prophecy sorcerer. Why don't you hand your Kingdoms of Heaven over to my unified command? I guarantee greater results at a smaller cost," Weaver replied with a slight smile. Her pink-purple hair was styled into an exquisite coiffure, and she wore a high-slit form-fitting gown, holding a paper umbrella fashioned from black cloth and cobwebs. Graceful, elegant, and reserved, she seemed not to have arrived at an unprecedented war, but rather at an outing to listen to the rain and admire the flowers. "Stop fooling around! Ouroboros is an enemy unlike any we have ever faced. We have no margin for error to endure your infighting!" the Lord of Joy growled under his breath. He wore silver-rimmed spectacles, his blazing orange hair braided loosely over his shoulder like the sun, though his eyes were moon-white pupils. Anger filled his boyishly handsome face. "Stars, do you intend to use Ouroboros to weaken us?" the Lord of the Endless Abyss asked coldly, staring at Stars's back up ahead. His hair was silver-gray, his weathered face clad in armor; he looked less like a sorcerer and more like a battle-hardened veteran. He questioned her, "We came here for the greater good, not at your command. If you take us for fools who can be bullied—" "Noisy." Stars raised her head slightly and cast a sidelong glance back at them, her azure eyes flashing with aloof contempt. "Do you think you are worthy of speaking my name?" The Lord of the Endless Abyss was momentarily cowed by her aura. The other Divine Lords also fell silent, joining forces to link the four illusory Kingdoms of Heaven even tighter, forging an airtight curtain that completely blocked Ouroboros's destructive gaze! By this point, Yaxiu could also see that the Divine Lords were projecting parts of their Kingdoms of Heaven from Heaven into Hell. Relying on the celestial defense lines they had nurtured for thousands of years, they were barely managing to endure Ouroboros's eight-winged onslaught! Yet all four Divine Lords had summoned their illusory Kingdoms of Heaven—what about Stars's Kingdom of Heaven? Stars raised her right hand and caught a beam of white light plunging from the rift. Then her left hand gripped downward, drawing a strand of starlight from the cosmos. Using her Kingdom of Heaven as a sword; using the starry sky as a sword. Indeed, how could she ever settle for being a mere reef amidst the torrent? She was the most brilliant star born in the sorcerer world, and her pride was destined to pierce the darkness across countless light-years like starlight! The Kingdom of Heaven in her right hand; the starry sky in her left! Stars stepped across the void, her twin swords tracing arcane trajectories. In an instant, she slashed through every single eye of Ouroboros, foul, boiling blood staining the cosmos crimson. Though Ouroboros immediately regenerated its eyeballs, this fleeting window was enough to sound the horn for the sorcerers' counterattack! At that very moment, the Divine Lords' illusory Kingdoms of Heaven shifted from phantom to reality. To combat Ouroboros, they had actually moved their Kingdoms of Heaven from Heaven down into Hell! In doing so, even while standing in Hell, they could fully exert their authority as masters of their Kingdoms of Heaven! Simultaneously, Yaxiu saw countless sorcerers materialize within the Kingdoms of Heaven, hearing tens of thousands of devout prayers echoing through Hell— "The Blood Moon retainers join the battle." "The Omniscient scholars join the battle." "The Imaginary authors join the battle." "The Boundless warriors join the battle." When the four Kingdoms of Heaven transitioned from defensive bulwarks into offensive chariots, the demigods of Hell witnessed for the first time the Divine Lords in their true prime.