It is impossible to say how long had passed—a century, or perhaps just a second—but the acupoint in the sole of Ye Jingyu's right foot became utterly saturated, then began to rotate, mirroring the distant stars in the heavens...
Ye Jingyu swept his divine sense downward and saw the silver-white mist continuously condensing, eventually forming a celestial body, silver-white and planet-like...
Was this the Golden Core, the manifestation of Starlight power?
At this moment, only Ye Jingyu truly understood what had transpired...
That ring, it must have contained an unimaginable source of power, all of it the purest Starlight energy. Perhaps this was the final legacy left to him by his ancestors... Driven by the Starlight power within the ring, the stars in the firmament were ceaselessly drawn in. Such intense suction caused perturbations among thousands of constellations, a testament to the terrifying might of the Bàyuán Jué.
In that fleeting instant, the Starlight energy Ye Jingyu absorbed was equivalent to several centuries of his usual cultivation. Coupled with the massive Starlight reservoir in the ring and the influence of the Fú Tú power, a Golden Core was forged—a Golden Core representing the very essence of the stars...
How powerful was this Golden Core? Likely no less than the explosive force of a small asteroid. And he knew it would continue to absorb energy, growing ever stronger, all of it now his own...
The moment the Golden Core solidified, Ye Jingyu felt his body undergo a profound transformation; not only was it vastly strengthened, but he felt capable of turning into a beam of light...
It was a direct transition between substance and illusion...
And with every gesture, every move, he could now command the Starlight from the heavens...
In other words, he could wield a degree of divine abilities!
It felt as if he was the stars, and the stars were him... He sensed that every single star above was a living entity, and he could vaguely perceive the beat of their collective heart...
Was the star beneath his feet also a living entity?
Ye Jingyu simply floated in the air as the layer of white radiance covering his body slowly faded...
Everyone watched this unfold in silence, gazing at Ye Jingyu suspended in the void, their eyes filled with terror and disbelief...
Why? Why was his body, just moments ago shattered, now perfectly whole? Why was he alive when he should have been dead?
Luo Ling’er actually rubbed her eyes in disbelief, needing to confirm she hadn't misseen...
Only when she realized Ye Jingyu was truly alive did an expression of sheer ecstasy bloom across her face...
At that instant, Ye Jingyu’s tightly shut eyes snapped open, releasing two blinding shafts of light. Against the somewhat dim sky, they were impossibly piercing; his eyes resembled two brilliant, blazing stars—actual suns...
No one could meet the gaze of those eyes; no one could endure it, not even a god...
Sensing the immense power contained within those eyes, the bodies of the Eight Heavenly Dragons instinctively trembled, as if facing an overwhelming crisis. Golden radiance simultaneously flared across all eight figures...
"Eight Divine Hosts, Heavenly Dragons emerge!" As the eight voices resonated, their vital essence and power began to coalesce entirely...
"Do you think I will allow you to have your wish? Starlight Burst..." Jingyu scoffed. He knew if he let these eight completely sacrifice their essence and power, they would certainly summon an entity more terrifying than the Fú Tú, especially since the Fú Tú were down to seven, while the Eight Heavenly Dragons still numbered eight...
The instant the words fell, Ye Jingyu snatched at the empty air with one hand, and a sphere of white light materialized from nothingness. He immediately hurled it toward the Eight Divine Hosts...
Just then, a colossal dragon silhouette began to form in the sky, not yet fully materialized, but it was struck by Jingyu’s sphere of light. It exploded instantly. A massive white radiance flashed, tearing the golden dragon shadow into dust...
The technique of the eight was violently interrupted before its completion, causing all of them to simultaneously cough up a mouthful of blood, their expressions growing weak and dispirited...
"Kill..." Jingyu roared, instantly appearing before Dragon One, his hand lunging toward the crown of Dragon One's head...
Dragon One attempted to evade, but for some unknown reason, it was as if Heaven and Earth itself had been paralyzed by Ye Jingyu, making escape impossible. He could only watch helplessly as the hand closed onto his skull...
"Soul Snatch and Spirit Plunder!" A soft incantation escaped Ye Jingyu's lips. A phantom image sank directly into his palm, and his mind instantly acquired a memory utterly alien to him...
Dragon One’s body then plummeted from the void, while Ye Jingyu merely held a single, golden elixir in his hand...
Furthermore, Liang Xiaoke, Gongsun Lu, Bing Ming, Nangong Shang, Luo Xiaofeng, Luo Ling’er, and even Hu Yanzhi, who had struggled up from the ground, seized the moment when the minds of the Eight Heavenly Dragons were disrupted and thrown into chaos by the interrupted technique, unleashing their strongest attacks...
With the mightiest, Dragon One, slain, the already heavily wounded Eight Heavenly Dragons could not possibly withstand the combined assault. Almost the instant Ye Jingyu absorbed Dragon One's memory, the remaining seven were also cut down. Their concentrated powers were seized by the group...
As for the seven members of the Fú Tú who had sacrificed their essence and blood, they had long since perished...
The very second the Eight Heavenly Dragons met their demise, far away in the temple within Tianyuan City, eight figures dressed in black sat cross-legged. At their center rested a Buddha statue, coiled around by a golden dragon. At the moment this Buddha statue shattered, the golden dragon entwined upon it also fractured into pieces...
Seeing this, the expressions of the eight men shifted to one of profound shock...
"The Eight Divine Fú Tú and the Eight Heavenly Dragons—both annihilated... How? How is this possible?" The speaker was the Second Elder, seated to the right of the chief position...
"The only ones capable of simultaneously killing both the Fú Tú and the Heavenly Dragons are those ancient monsters, but those monsters are under our surveillance and could not have acted. Could such a peerless figure have already emerged in the Southern Cloud Empire?" the Third Elder, seated beside the Second Elder, asked with alarm...
"Great Elder, what should we do now?" another Elder inquired, equally stunned...
"What should we do? What can we do?" the Great Elder murmured, speaking to himself as much as to the others...
It was at this precise moment that a shimmering portal suddenly appeared in the center of the eight, precisely where the Buddha statue and the shattered dragon had been. A faint, ethereal voice drifted from the light gate: "Yuantian, the Patriarch summons you!"
Hearing these words, the bodies of the eight men convulsed. The Great Elder, Yuantian, respectfully rose to his feet and stepped toward the luminous portal...
(Tomorrow brings the explosion! The pivotal moment, brothers, let's charge forward!)