The spatial shift wasn't dizzying or tearing, but rather a wondrous, smooth transition, like flowing water. Su Nian felt starlight swirling before her eyes, her body held firmly in Xie Chen's arms, shielding her from any potential discomfort. Within a few breaths, the feeling of solid ground returned, and the distorted light and shadows around her stabilized.
She peeked out from his embrace and then involuntarily held her breath.
They stood atop a solitary peak suspended in an endless sea of stars. Beneath their feet lay black rock, smooth as jade yet shimmering with the veins of stars. The summit was flat and expansive, its edges shrouded in mist. Below the sea of clouds, distant galaxies slowly rotated, like a diamond sandbox. Above them, there was no sun or moon, only a vast band of light stretching across the sky, composed of countless indescribable and magnificent colors, a miracle casually painted by the brush of a god.
The air was so fresh and pure, each breath felt like a cleansing of the soul, containing an energy richer and purer than in the previous room. All was silent, save for the grand and harmonious background rhythm of the stars moving about.
This is... what Xie Chen meant by "the place that truly belongs to us"?
"This is a fragment of the 'Starfall God Realm,' one of my past divine kingdoms," Xie Chen's voice rang out above her head, calmly explaining to her. "Although most of it has collapsed over time, this core remains intact. The rules are defined by me, and the tentacles of the main god cannot extend here for the time being."
He released his embrace from hers, but remained standing beside her, gazing together at the magnificent yet lonely starry sky. His profile, bathed in the shifting cosmic light, appeared even more profound and extraordinary.
Looking at this scene that surpassed the limits of imagination, Su Nian was filled with shock. She was just an ordinary novelist who occasionally wrote about astronomy. How could she have imagined that she would be in such a mythical scene? And the man beside her, who not long ago was a "patient" who would be at a loss and clumsy in learning because of her tears, was now an ancient being who ruled a divine realm and could kill gods with a word.
This dramatic shift in identity left her momentarily disoriented.
"Do you like it?" Xie Chen turned to look at her, his gaze focused. He seemed to still be using the "getting positive feedback" pattern he had learned before, only his tone was no longer clumsy, but carried a divine, natural doting. It was as if, if she just nodded, he could scoop up the brilliance of the entire galaxy for her.
Su Nian opened her mouth, the word "like" swirling on her tongue, but it turned into a more practical question: "Are we... going to live here forever?" It was beautiful, but too empty and desolate, as if the two of them were the only ones left in the universe.
Xie Chen seemed to see through her thoughts, and the corners of his lips curled up slightly: "This is just a temporary haven and base." He raised his hand and pointed to the slowly rotating star system in the distance, "The Starfall God Realm was once one of the intersections of countless worlds. Even though it was shattered, it still retains many 'paths' to other worlds. Once I completely remove the 'marks' left by the main god on you and me, we can go wherever you want."
Anywhere she wanted to go? Su Nian's heart stirred slightly. The temptation was too great.
Just then, an extremely faint gray stream of light, almost blending into the cosmic background radiation, like an invisible venomous snake, silently pierced through the seemingly invisible barrier surrounding the divine realm and shot towards Su Nian's back! Its speed and the strangeness of the power of rules it contained far exceeded Su Nian's comprehension!
She was completely unaware of it.
But Xie Chen made a move.
He didn't even turn around; he simply extended two fingers and, as if plucking a flower, gently pinched the trail of gray light behind him.
Time and space seemed to freeze at his fingertips.
That gray stream of light, capable of instantly annihilating a small world, was easily grasped between his fingers, like a moth drawn to a flame. The light struggled and twisted at his fingertips, emitting a sizzling, teeth-grinding sound, but it couldn't budge him an inch.
Su Nian then belatedly turned around and was startled to see the imprisoned, ominous gray figure.
"This is……?"
"A little trick from the Main God Space." Xie Chen said indifferently, his fingertips applying slight pressure.
"puff--"
With a soft sound, the gray streak of light vanished instantly, like a spark extinguished, without even a ripple of energy. It was as if the deadly sneak attack had been nothing more than a trivial illusion.
However, Xie Chen's expression did not relax. He raised his hand and looked at his fingertips, where a barely perceptible gray mark remained, attempting to erode upwards along his energy channels.
“Location marker…” He narrowed his eyes, a cold, knowing glint in them. “Sure enough, its primary target has always been you.”
He had sensed it before; the Supreme God's attention to Su Nian was unusually high, and it wasn't just because of her connection to him. Now it seemed the Supreme God had already left some deeper mark on Su Nian, a mark even 088 hadn't detected. The sneak attack just now wasn't intended to kill, but to fully activate this mark for precise, cross-dimensional hunting!
A tiny golden light emanated from Xie Chen's fingertip, and like a blazing branding iron, it instantly burned away the gray mark, producing a soft crackling sound.
“It has locked onto you.” Xie Chen looked at Su Nian, his eyes becoming slightly serious. “Through you, it can find me and find this fragment of the divine realm.”
Su Nian's heart sank. She hadn't expected to become a burden and a weak point. "What should we do?" she asked anxiously, instinctively grabbing Xie Chen's sleeve.
Seeing the genuine worry and dependence in her eyes, Xie Chen's coldness melted instantly, replaced by an almost pleasurable sense of satisfaction. He took her hand in his, enveloping her slightly cool fingers in his warm palm.
“It’s alright.” His tone carried a reassuring, absolute confidence. “It saves me the trouble of looking for it.”
He led Su Nian toward the center of the peak. With his will, the star veins beneath their feet lit up, and a pavilion, intricately structured and beautiful, made of pure energy, slowly rose from the ground. Starlight entwined the pillars, and moonlight flowed across the tiles, enveloping the two of them.
“Stay here, don’t leave this area.” Xie Chen led her to the center of the hall, where there was a lotus platform as clear as crystal. “I need some time to construct a temporary ‘barrier’ for you, to isolate it from detection. At the same time…”
He raised his eyes, his gaze seemingly piercing through the dome of the temple and looking into the boundless depths of the universe, his eyes once again becoming as cold as ancient ice.
"...It's time to prepare a 'return gift' for that uninvited 'guest'."
Su Nian sat down on the crystal lotus platform as instructed, and immediately felt a warm and vast power envelop her, isolating her from everything outside and soothing the slight unease in her heart. She watched Xie Chen walk outside the hall and stand on the edge of the solitary peak.
He spread his arms, and his body began to radiate an indescribable light. It was no longer the dark or fragmented energy of before, but a pure, divine power containing the essence of creation and destruction, as dazzling as a newborn star.
The entire fragment of the Starfall God Realm began to resonate with it! The ground beneath his feet trembled slightly, the speed of the surrounding star sea seemed to increase slightly, and the magnificent band of light above his head poured down billions of rays of light, converging around him.
He seemed to be drawing upon long-dormant power from this ruined divine realm, awakening ancient authority.
Su Nian stared blankly at his retreating figure. In that blinding divine radiance, she seemed to see the birth and death of countless worlds, the flow of the river of time. Was this the complete him? Was this… the essence of the soul she had fallen in love with (or perhaps had already fallen in love without realizing it)?
[Host...] 088's voice, choked with sobs and extreme fear, finally managed to squeeze out a signal through layers of shielding, [Thank you, thank you, big boss! He... he's extracting the essence of the divine realm! He's going to... he's going to go head-to-head with the main god! Will we... will we be turned into quantum dust by the aftershocks? Waaaaah...]
Su Nian ignored 088's wails. Her gaze followed the figure intently, her heart filled with indescribable emotions: shock, worry, but above all, a strange sense of pride and honor.
Her beasts, her gods, are brandishing their blades against an even more powerful "god" for her sake.
At that very moment, in the deep space of the universe outside the temple, without any warning, a huge eye, composed entirely of cold data streams and chains of rules, split open!
That eye was indifferent and ruthless, like the highest terminal of a program, instantly locking onto the fragments of the Starfall God Realm, onto Xie Chen at the peak, and... Su Nian on the lotus platform!
The Supreme God's hunt has officially begun!
(End of Chapter 167)
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