"A star barrier?" Mu Xiaoxiao narrowed her eyes. "Looks like I'm a step too late." She slowly stepped forward, her fingertips lightly touching the transparent barrier, which immediately burned and emitted blue smoke. "Heh... I didn't expect this remnant soul to be so persistent."
Wang Hao gasped for breath, the mark on his forehead burning hot like a branding iron. Countless unfamiliar images flashed through his mind: the battlefield under the starry sky, the array of stars arranged in formation, and the various hand seals formed by that figure who bore a striking resemblance to Han Feng...
Mu Xiaoxiao suddenly took two steps back, her hands clasped together in front of her chest, forming a strange hand seal: "But it doesn't matter, turning the inheritor into a puppet is the same." She parted her red lips slightly, uttering a string of obscure syllables, and blue crystal patterns appeared between her brows.
Wang Hao felt a cold, foreign object forcibly squeezing into his meridians, causing him to curl up in pain. Just as his consciousness was about to collapse, the foreign, eerie blue energy suddenly triggered a switch within his body—the mark on his forehead exploded like a supernova, so intense that Mu Xiaoxiao had to raise her hand to shield herself.
\"What?!\"
Wang Hao stared in astonishment as he found himself standing up uncontrollably, his hands automatically forming hand seals. The movements were so fluid, as if he had practiced them a million times, with starlight gathering at his fingertips to form complex geometric shapes.
"Star Trail - Reverse!"
A clear shout echoed through the cave as Wang Hao pushed his palm forward. The starlight pattern instantly expanded, reflecting Mu Xiaoxiao's azure energy back the way it came! And that wasn't all; his body moved like a ghost to the edge of the barrier, his right hand forming a claw-like grasp:
"A meteor is falling!"
Five beams of starlight crashed down on Mu Xiaoxiao's location like meteorites. Her hastily conjured crystal shield shattered, and she was sent flying backward, crashing into the rock wall. A trace of blue liquid seeped from the corner of her mouth—it was definitely not human blood.
"Cough cough... Isn't this Han Feng's move?" Mu Xiaoxiao wiped the liquid from the corner of her mouth, her eyes showing fear for the first time. "You've only just received the inheritance and you can already use two moves?"
Wang Hao was even more shocked than she was. His body continued to move automatically, the hand seals growing faster and faster, the feeling of stellar power surging through his meridians both strange and familiar. It was as if another soul had temporarily taken over this body, and he was merely an observer.
"No...that's not right!" Mu Xiaoxiao's eyes suddenly widened. "This isn't under your control! It's the remnants of the inherited consciousness!" She abruptly tore open her clothes, revealing the blue crystal core embedded in her heart. "If that's the case..."
The crystal core erupted with a blinding blue light, and Mu Xiaoxiao's figure split into three, lunging at the barrier from different angles. Wang Hao (or rather, the power controlling his body) immediately changed tactics, drawing circles with his hands to construct a starlight barrier. However, one of the "Mu Xiaoxiao" figures suddenly self-destructed, and the resulting shockwave caused tiny cracks to appear in the barrier.
"Found you~" The real Mu Xiaoxiao emerged from the shadows, crystalline spikes extending from her fingertips, aiming straight for Wang Hao's eyes. "You'd better just die!"
At the critical moment, another voice suddenly resounded within Wang Hao—deep and majestic, somewhat similar to Jue Li's: "Starburst."
Driven entirely by instinct, Wang Hao crossed his arms in front of his chest, compressing all the power of the stars into a pinhead-sized point, and then, the instant Mu Xiaoxiao touched the barrier—
\"boom!!!\"
A blinding white light filled the entire cave. Wang Hao was thrown onto the altar by the shockwave, his eardrums ringing. When his vision returned, Mu Xiaoxiao was nowhere to be seen; only a pool of blue liquid and tattered red cloth on the ground proved that she had been there.
"Escape...escaped?" Wang Hao collapsed to the ground, realizing he had regained control of his body. He trembled as he raised his hand, starlight flickering at his fingertips. "What...what did I just use?"
Remembering Mu Xiaoxiao's mention of the "Nine Forms of Starfall," Wang Hao suddenly realized something and hurriedly touched the mark on his forehead. Several fine lines had appeared there, forming a miniature star map. Even stranger, his memory was filled with unfamiliar information—the laws governing stellar motion, energy compression techniques, and even scattered...images of interstellar battlefields?
"Lord Jue Li and Han Feng..." he murmured to himself, then suddenly his eyes widened, "Could it be that Han Feng...?"
A sudden, intense dizziness washed over him. Wang Hao felt all his strength drain away in an instant, and his vision went black as he collapsed forward. In his last moments before losing consciousness, he seemed to hear the majestic voice within him sigh: "Little fellow's strength is too weak... the inheritance is incomplete..."
Outside the cave, Mu Xiaoxiao, severely injured by the starburst, staggered into the dense forest. She clutched her chest wound, from which blue liquid dripped continuously, but her eyes gleamed with a crazed light.
"Interesting...this is so interesting..." She licked her lips. "I didn't expect Wang Hao to actually be the inheritor of the Star Soul Priest's legacy. This makes the game even more fun..."
---This is the dividing line---
The air deep inside the cave smelled of rusty metal, and Han Feng's every step cast a swaying shadow on the rock wall. The flashlight beam finally focused on the scene at the end of the cave—Wang Hao was curled up in the center of a circle of faintly glowing runes, his face as pale as paper, but his chest heaving rhythmically.
"Rat!" Han Feng called out in a low voice, but his steps stopped at the edge of the barrier. The ancient patterns engraved all over the ground were pulsating in sync with the wounds on Wang Hao's body, as if they were healing him.
(The Star Soul Priest's inherited runes?)
Han Feng narrowed his eyes, the power of stars flowing deep within his pupils. The complex patterns gradually decomposed and reassembled in his eyes, bearing a striking resemblance to the "Nine Forms of Starfall" taught by Jue Li. No wonder Dongfang Wantang's divination failed—this place was simply a domain shielded by the same source of energy.
He pulled out his phone, the words "No Signal" on the screen glaringly obvious. His attempt to call Dongfang Wantang immediately failed; all he heard was a harsh static noise from the receiver.
"Magnetic field interference..." Han Feng frowned and looked around. The seemingly random carvings on the rock wall now appeared to be carefully arranged energy arrays. They not only blocked electronic signals, but even the power of stars became unusually active here.
Wang Hao unconsciously rolled over within the barrier, revealing a healing blue wound on his neck. Han Feng's pupils constricted—it was a trace left by the energy of the Nether Crystal Clan! Mu Xiaoxiao had indeed been here.
"Chen Feng." Han Feng retreated to the cave entrance and whispered to the Longyuan team members guarding outside, "Surround this area. Report anyone—I mean anyone—whoever approaches immediately." He paused.
Chen Feng nodded and quickly arranged for manpower. Han Feng took one last look inside the cave; the runes on Wang Hao's body seemed to be shining brighter than before. That energy fluctuation resonated with the stellar power within his body, and the three star mirrors in his dantian felt slightly warm.
(I need to find Wan Tang to take a look...)
Han Feng strode towards the hillside a hundred meters away, where the magnetic field should have already dissipated. The fallen leaves rustled under his feet, startling a few birds roosting there. Just as he was about to dial the phone, a surge of energy suddenly emanated from the direction of the cave behind him—
Wang Hao's fingers twitched almost imperceptibly.
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