The Blood-Woven Ring emitted a sound like an eggshell shattering. Before Ming Hao could react, a crimson ray shot out, disappearing in an instant along with the ring itself!
The Ring Spirit had broken its seal!
Ming Hao, exerting his full power to suppress the giant worm, looked utterly grim. Stunned, his spirit flickered violently, his spectral form momentarily blurring as if struck internally.
The shock to his spirit, battered by the worm’s desperate thrashing, felt like a soul wound. He quickly regained composure and shouted toward Shi Yan, "Track its movements!"
Shi Yan’s thoughts spun rapidly. Strands of divine sense flickered out, coursing through the space like billions of swift fish, attempting to locate the direction where the Blood-Woven Ring and the Ring Spirit had vanished.
Unfortunately, the Ring Spirit and the ring had left behind not even a trace of aura. The faint connection Shi Yan once shared with the Blood-Woven Ring was now utterly severed.
"It has escaped this chaotic void domain. As for where it is now, I cannot capture it; I’ve lost all contact," Shi Yan replied gravely after a pause, his eyes growing intensely serious.
He knew the Ring Spirit was also a foreign entity whose origins remained profoundly mysterious. But for the giant worm, situated here in the heart of the chaotic void, to influence the Ring Spirit and help it break the seal left Shi Yan deeply puzzled and perplexed.
Could the Ring Spirit and the giant worm be communicating? Was there some secret accord between them? Otherwise, why would the giant worm help the Ring Spirit break free from its confinement?
A host of mysteries filled his mind, obscuring any clear vision, as if shrouded in a dense fog.
"Bad! Its power is slowly increasing—what is happening?!"
Xuan He had already assumed the form of an immortal body, his entire being covered in grotesque spikes. His scarlet eyes burned like blood, and rivers embodying the fluctuations of life and death—the ultimate manifestation of terror between existence and nothingness—crashed down upon the giant worm like bloody tidal waves. Yet, he showed no sign of relief; instead, he couldn't help but cry out in alarm.
Dicalo, Leidi, and Fielit expressed similar findings almost simultaneously: the giant worm’s power was skyrocketing without end.
Ming Hao’s deep, dark eyes radiated a mysterious, turbulent light as he connected with countless split souls. After a moment, his spectral body shook violently, and he gasped in horror, "The Star River is undergoing a massive change!"
Dicalo glanced at him, and his divine sense swept out, causing him to reel in shock. "Heavens!"
Xuan He, Leidi, and Fielit snapped their attention to the two, their expressions anxious as they demanded to know what had occurred.
"Senior Brother, you suppress it with all your might. I will show them what has happened," Ming Hao commanded sharply.
He pulled his hands apart in the void, seemingly condensing a mirror capable of illuminating the endless firmament. Within this mirror, scenes of star rivers appeared, representing high-level star domains across different regions. Now, within each of these star domains, numerous giant worms identical to the one they were currently sealing were emerging.
These giant worms roamed the sea of stars, nesting on numerous life-bearing stars, extending sticky tentacles to engulf martial artists into their maws...
There were eleven giant worms in total, each entering one of the eleven high-level star domains. These eleven domains were precisely the territories where the Bloodthirsty lineage and the God Clan were waging war.
The volume of each giant worm dwarfed that of a life star, unleashing endless, terrifying power. Upon appearance, they instantly subdued the supreme experts of the entire high-level star domains, consuming the life stars like an apocalypse, swallowing the martial artists within. Countless tentacles sprouted from the worms’ bodies, their surface revealing dense, gaping maws that writhed and devoured the martial artists one by one.
The void mirror displayed by Ming Hao was exceptionally clear. Here, they could even see the despair etched on the faces of those being swallowed, hearing their piercing screams of utter helplessness!
Eleven giant worms invaded eleven high-level star domains, consuming the life stars within them.
Across the vast sea of stars, amidst the myriad domains, it was a cataclysmic arrival. No one knew how the worms appeared, but panic gripped everyone’s hearts.
The aura emanating from these giant worms crushed any thought of resistance.
It was a terror beyond their imagination!
The entire star sea boiled with fear due to the giant worms. The powerful figures of the God Clan and the Bloodthirsty lineage, who had been locked in battle, halted their conflict and sent urgent updates to their respective supreme leaders.
"How are there eleven of them!" Xuan He cried out, his body scarlet, as if drenched in blood.
Leidi, Ming Hao, and Fielit all turned to Dicalo.
"I should have realized it," Dicalo said bitterly. "In this chaotic void domain, I saw many cloud clusters similar to this place, but I never imagined those clouds could merge to form these bizarre Primal Beings!"
"It’s not eleven! They are fundamentally one entity! Just like my various split souls and external avatars, akin to the four ancient continents split from the Wilderness. Their auras and soul fluctuations are identical—it is the same being! The consumption of high-level martial artists by those eleven directly enhances the power we are sealing here. This is a direct energy conversion between integrated parts!"
Ming Hao delivered his grave assessment.
Shi Yan nodded silently.
He too perceived that the twelve giant worms were originally one entity, previously scattered across different corners of the chaotic void, drawing in martial artists who mistakenly entered the void currents from various directions to restore their strength.
It was just like how his main soul and split souls could interchange energy; this creature they called the Primal Being operated the same way, perhaps even more exquisitely. The twelve entities were perfectly alike, sharing the same aura and fluctuations.
"Our universe has a barrier with the chaotic void, and the star domains have barriers. How could it enter so easily? We know firsthand how strong those barriers are; infiltration is impossible without a method. Something must be deeply amiss here! If that creature could enter, it should have done so much earlier! Why wait until now?" Dicalo questioned, bewildered.
"The domain seas of those eleven star domains have all been ordered to be destroyed. The void passages have been instantly torn open and vastly expanded; those domain seas have been utterly obliterated!" Ming Hao narrowed his eyes, his expression sinister. "In the current star sea, there is only one person with this capability!"
"Tian Xie!" Dicalo’s face shifted dramatically.
He was once an honorary elder of the Giant Wave Merchant Guild and was highly valued and respected by Tian Xie. He understood the power of that guild well. Only the Giant Wave Merchant Guild possessed the means in the vast star sea to tamper with the domain seas of those eleven star domains simultaneously; even the God Clan and the Bloodthirsty lineage could not achieve this!
This was because those star domains were deliberately wary of both the God Clan and the Bloodthirsty lineage. Only the Giant Wave Merchant Guild, traveling through their domain seas under the guise of trade, had earned their trust, allowing them to instantly surge into the domain seas and destroy them sequentially while the domain defenders were unprepared.
The domain sea serves as the window to a star domain. By destroying the domain seas using specialized methods, the interconnected void tunnels were enlarged tremendously, allowing the giant worms to pass through.
Dicalo’s exclamation caused the faces of the others to grow increasingly grim and terrifying. Tian Xie, as the head of the Giant Wave Merchant Guild, commanded terrifying influence across the star sea. His motives for opening the domain seas to allow the giant worms entry were unknown. However, his cooperation ensured the giant worms would have unimpeded passage!
Now, the Ring Spirit had broken its seal and disappeared; eleven more giant worms had suddenly appeared, consuming star domains separately; and the one here remained difficult for them to seal even with their combined efforts.
With every passing second, the giant worm's power grew. It might not take long before it broke the seal and retaliated.
"The apocalypse has arrived," Dicalo murmured grimly, as if all his tricks were exhausted. "Perhaps we cannot stop it. We should not have provoked this Primal Being; otherwise, it might have remained asleep."
He was filled with regret, but it was too late; the situation had escalated to a point where nothing seemed recoverable.
"This creature must be the main brain. If we destroy it, we should solve the problem!" Ming Hao suddenly calmed down again.
"Sealing a Primal Being is already extremely difficult; total annihilation is virtually impossible. I believe you understand this," Dicalo said with a wry smile.
"Then let's severely wound it!" Ming Hao declared suddenly.
"Do you have a method?" Dicalo shook his head.
Ming Hao pondered for a moment, seemingly steeling himself. "There is indeed a way, but I don't know what consequences it might bring. However, the situation is urgent, so we can only try."
Xuan He, Shi Yan, and the others brightened, turning their expectant gazes toward him.
They all knew Ming Hao never spoke without substance. If he claimed to have a method, he absolutely had one. But the giant worm was so savage and terrifying that their combined efforts couldn't even seal it; what method could he possibly have to inflict grievous damage?
Everyone was intensely curious.
"I have brought someone here for you," Ming Hao said, his eyes flickering strangely. He unleashed spatial profound meaning, no less impressive than Dicalo's, condensing a glowing portal. A thread of his divine sense pierced through, landing directly inside the portal.
A figure suddenly emerged from within the glowing gate.
Shi Yan yelped in fright, "Vedson!"
The newcomer was none other than Vedson, the man who nearly destroyed the Fire Rain Star Domain—a special individual possessing terrifying internal fluctuations, a half-blood of the Barbarian and God races whose aura carried the essence of the Quador lineage!
"Why did you summon me here? You saved my mother and our Barbarian Star, but I only agreed to help you fight the God Clan. There are no God Clan members here," Vedson appeared, his face filled with impatience, killing intent surging around him.
He had traveled thousands of miles back to his ancestral land to rescue his mother and kin from the slaughter orchestrated by the Brecker family. When he arrived, he found the Brecker family had already ordered the massacre of his people and family. But Ming Hao, observing his every move from the shadows, had acted preemptively, rescuing his mother and true relatives.
Naturally, this was done to win him over. Vedson was grateful and pledged allegiance to Ming Hao, promising to turn against the God Clan.
The matters Shi Yan worried about, Ming Hao had resolved perfectly, successfully luring Vedson to the Bloodthirsty lineage. Because many of the Barbarians on Vedson's ancestral star had been slain, his hatred for the God Clan erupted completely.
"He is Vedson. In his childhood, possessing God Clan blood made him look different from normal Barbarian clansmen, so the elders abandoned him in a swamp on the Barbarian Star to fend for himself. He absorbed all the corrosive liquids in that swamp, which contained Quador blood and... the skeletal power of our Master."
Ming Hao looked at Shi Yan. "Bring forth the Master's remains. Vedson is currently the only person in the star sea capable of absorbing and fusing the power of the Master's remains. After he absorbs that power, releasing his corrosive force to its extreme, even if he cannot dissolve this giant worm entirely, he can certainly cripple it!"