The scene of their bodies dissipating into stars was breathtakingly beautiful—their skin became transparent, revealing the galaxy flowing inside, before disintegrating into countless points of light, ultimately leaving only a star mirror carrying memories suspended in place.
(Why did they all fail?)
The question had barely surfaced when an exceptionally bright star answered him. In that instant of merging, Han Feng saw Jue Li's figure, but not at his deathbed; rather, it was a younger version of him studying a star chart.
"All our predecessors followed the same star chart..." The young, ruthless finger traced the projected star trails. "Perhaps the problem lies here? What changes... exactly are needed for this inheritance?"
The scene shifts, and the dying Jue Li throws the Star Mirror into the void:
"The next successor... explore on your own..."
This final memory acted like a key, unlocking the connections between all the fragments. The vortex of stars surrounding Han Feng suddenly accelerated, and countless specks of memory began to recombine in a regular pattern, constructing a galaxy path spanning the past and present before him.
At the end of the road stood seven blurry figures—the First Star Soul Lord and his six companions. They simultaneously raised their hands, and a message transcending language directly entered Han Feng's consciousness:
The celestial orbits are unpredictable; only the heart's desire guides us.
This sentence became the final straw that broke the camel's back. Han Feng suddenly understood why Zero always encouraged him to break with convention, and why Jue Li would say, "The stars are always evolving." The Star Soul Masters of past generations had proven a truth with their lives—clinging to tradition will never allow one to break through to the Supreme Realm!
"Ahhhhhh!"
"Unexpectedly, someone actually managed to activate the true power of the Star Vein Diagram." At this moment, a clear female voice rang out from the void.
The moment that voice rang out, the Star River Path surrounding Han Feng suddenly froze. All the flowing starlight stopped in place, like a cosmic projection that had been paused.
"Who?" Han Feng tensed up, the power of the stars gathering in his meridians, ready to be unleashed. The ability to speak directly from the depths of his consciousness was far beyond imagination.
Ripples spread through the void, and a semi-transparent female figure slowly emerged. She wore a strangely styled star-patterned robe, her silver hair moved without wind, and her eyes seemed to contain an entire galaxy spinning within them. Most strangely, her existence seemed to exist in multiple dimensions simultaneously—Han Feng could see through her body to the galaxy behind her, yet he also genuinely felt a tangible sense of oppression.
"My name is Kong," the woman said, her voice carrying a resonance that transcended hearing. "One of the creators of the Star Chart."
"One of them?" Han Feng remained vigilant. "Who else?"
Kong's figure flickered, a hint of nostalgia flickering in her eyes: "Time. We created this technique together." She gently waved her hand, and two intertwined orbs of light appeared in the still starry river. "Time and space are one, and even stars need a vessel."
Han Feng stared at the two orbs of light—the way they orbited each other reminded him of a binary star system, yet it contained a deeper connection. Each of Kong's words was like a key, unlocking unknown doors in his understanding.
"You...are you at the Supreme Realm?" he asked tentatively.
Kong nodded slightly, a simple gesture that caused a subtle distortion in the surrounding space: "Yes, and no."
"Why?" Han Feng keenly grasped the key phrase, "What secrets does the Supreme Realm hold?"
"You are still too weak." Kong's silver hair suddenly danced wildly without wind, and her figure became even more ethereal. "This is a choice. In order to create the third Supreme Realm, we..." She suddenly stopped, as if she had touched upon some taboo.
Han Feng felt a wave of dizziness; the amount of information contained in those words was simply too immense. The realm that every Star Soul Master had dreamed of, the person before him had already reached, and yet had given it up for an even higher goal?
"Why are you here telling me this?" he asked bluntly.
Kong's figure floated closer, his finger lightly touching Han Feng's brow. In an instant, the complete star network diagram within Han Feng's body was displayed between the two of them—those originally fixed trajectories now had many places where they had autonomously adjusted "branches," just like the natural root system of a tree.
"Do you see that?" Kong's voice held an unusual tremor. "Of all the inheritors throughout history, only your lineage chart has come to life."
Han Feng stared at the spontaneously changing trajectories and suddenly realized: "The star network diagram wasn't fixed after all?"
"Finally, someone understands." The empty figure drifted away, gradually fading. "We didn't create a path, but a seed. It should grow and change according to each cultivator's unique qualities, but unfortunately..." She shook her head regretfully, "Most people just follow the rules."
As she spoke, the still galaxy began to flow again, condensing into images of the Star Soul Masters of each generation cultivating—each of them strictly following the exact same trajectory, without any deviation.
"Then what about you and Shi..." Han Feng hurriedly asked, but saw that Kong's figure had already faded to almost transparent.
"Extraterritorial forces, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call them Shi's subordinates," Kong said calmly, her figure drifting like smoke and mist in the starry river. With a light stroke of her fingertips, countless starlight converged into two completely different paths—one gentle as a trickle, the other violent as thunder.
"This is the root of our disagreement," Kong's voice carried the weight of a thousand years. "I advocate letting the stars choose their own masters, while he... believes that power should be wielded by the strongest."
Han Feng stared at the two star paths, the power of the stars within his body resonating and trembling involuntarily. He suddenly understood why Zero always encouraged him to break with convention—it wasn't teaching him to be innovative, but rather guiding him back to the most authentic state of the power of the stars.
"So, the external forces..." Han Feng's throat tightened, "are actually tools created by Shi?"
Kong nodded slightly, the starlight flowing through his silver hair suddenly sharpening: "For testing, and for selection. The fall of each Star Soul Lord is a cruel trial he sets."
As she spoke, images of battles fought by successive Star Soul Lords appeared in the galaxy—the enemies they faced were of different forms, but their attack patterns were identical, all carrying a certain deliberate regularity, like... a meticulously designed experiment.
"Why?" Han Feng clenched his fist. "Since you were both once at the Supreme Realm, why didn't he just..."
"Seize?" Kong chuckled lightly, a laugh that caused the surrounding stars to tremble. "Because the first taboo of the Star Vein Diagram is—it only recognizes the master it chooses." Her figure suddenly solidified for a moment. "This is a rule etched into its very essence from the very beginning of creation, one that even the Supreme Realm cannot violate."
Han Feng recalled Jue Li's last words before he vanished—"Don't be bound by tradition." Now that he thought about it, perhaps the former Star Soul Lord had also vaguely sensed something.
"So he's been using this method all along..." Han Feng suddenly realized, "Forcing the Star Vein Diagram to choose him?"
"More accurately, it's about forcing it to abandon its original master." The empty figure began to dissipate upwards from its feet. "When the inheritor dies, the Star Vein Map will temporarily return to a state of being ownerless. What awaits is that moment of forceful intervention."
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