Book 5 Chapter 33 – Stargaze’s Choice

Li Yiming walked toward Stargaze with a smirk on his face, the electricity on his lightning daggers cracking.

Slaughtering those who were as insignificant as ants no longer satiated his urges. Instead, Li Yiming had found himself a new, much more interesting target.

Stargaze sighed when she saw Li Yiming leap at her with a demonic air. Just as Li Yiming was about to reach her, an orb of light lit up Stargaze’s palm, and its size grew until both she and Li Yiming were enveloped by a curtain of light.

“A boundary... another sage?" The guardians, who all paid close attention to Li Yiming, stopped to look back. They were relieved that Li Yiming did not chase after them, but after seeing another sage, most of them finally began to understand the dangers hidden in this seemingly innocuous domain.

When the guardians accepted the mission, upon seeing the swollen ranks of hundreds of their comrades, and even a sage, some thought of the mission as being a walk in the park. With all of them cooperating together, the dangers were minimal.

However, not only did they bump into Li Yiming’s team, who fought against the will of Heaven’s Laws, sages continued to appear one after another, with two of them being on the enemy’s side. By now, most of the guardians realized that the mission was not going to be as easy as they thought.

"Let’s finish the mission!" Someone suddenly said, realizing that the battle between the sages was their best opportunity to accomplish their mission.

The guardians scattered and charged toward the helpless residents of Lianyun City.

"They... " From her resting spot on Bai Ze’s back, Liu Meng noticed the movements of the guardians and immediately understood their intentions.

"We can’t stop them..." Big Beard sighed. They were already at their limits, after fighting against so many guardians for such an extended period of time.

Bai Ze stayed silent, looking down at the ground while focusing on trying to awaken Li Yiming from his entranced state.

The Qing sisters grouped up with Eyeglasses and began asking him about everything that had happened before they arrived. After hearing his explanations, they sat silently for a long while, evidently shocked to hear about Li Yiming’s intentions to defy the Heavens.

Although Liu Meng no longer had the energy to prevent the guardians from killing the citizens of Lianyun City, Sai Gao was still persistent in stopping them. He flapped his black-feathered wings and took down as many guardians with him as he could. He traded blow for blow and life for life. His left wing had been clipped, his right arm severed, and his torso full of wounds, but he continued to fight, forcing the guardians to pause briefly in their task of killing the residents of Lianyun City.

The citizens of Lianyun finally witnessed the power of the mythical beast that guarded their home. When danger befell, it stood at the front line, fighting against anyone who posed a threat.

For the first time in their lives, the residents of Lianyun City picked up their weapons and fought to protect their homes. However, it was a desperate struggle, and their efforts were comparable to moths flying into a fire pit.

Suddenly, a loud explosion was heard in the south. Liu Meng almost fell off Bai Ze’s back from the shockwave.

Self-destruction..." Big Beard said with a serious countenance.

Teng She had finally fallen. Just like the eagle, it was unable to resist the tornado which was threatened to destroy the city. When it realized that it could hold no longer, it chose to destroy itself along with the tornado. After the explosion, the violent gusts of wind finally dispersed, but there was nothing left of Teng She. A single ray of golden light flew toward the city, and disappeared into Sai Gao’s forehead.

This was Teng She’s final gift: its soul.

Inside her boundary, Stargaze looked at Li Yiming with a frown. After a few exchanged blows, she realized that something was wrong. ’He... he’s far too weak. This is... level five?’

Li Yiming did not give her much time for thought, however. Twenty lightning daggers appeared in front of Stargaze, each aiming to take her life. Stargaze raised her hand, and a ribbon of light appeared around her fingers. She parried each of Li Yiming’s attacks with ease.

After blocking off all of Li Yiming’s attack, Stargaze took the offensive. She extended her arm and gave a tap to Li Yiming’s chest, shooting his body back like a cannonball.

However, Stargaze suddenly took a step back, realizing that her attack had not been as fruitful as it seemed. A bolt of lightning fell from the sky, landing at where she stood seconds ago. Stargaze extended her right hand to the side, and a deafening noise was produced as she parried a small ball of black thunder that Li Yiming pushed toward her.

Li Yiming was sent flying once more, but Stargaze took three steps back after deflecting Li Yiming’s technique.

‘Thunder punishment? He braved through that too?’ Stargaze looked at her own palm, which had gone a little black from Li Yiming’s attack. ’Fire, thunder, and inner demon... He’s been through three punishments? Is that how he became a sage at level five?’

Li Yiming halted his assault. He blinked into the sky, floating in the air.

"Hehehe... Hehehe..." Li Yiming laughed maniacally once again. He raised his hand slowly as a thunderstorm gathered around him. The purple light above his head became thicker and thicker, while his white hair started to turn black.

Stargaze looked at Li Yiming and slowly raised her right hand. As she performed a seal, the stars above her shone even brighter, concentrating their light into a small waterfall that fell upon her head. "Three Heavenly punishment and a sage at level five. Let’s see if you’re the one I’ve been looking for..." Stargaze mumbled to herself firmly.

"Invoke the chaos before the Heavens and the Earth was formed..." Stargaze’s irises lost their usual color and were illuminated by the same light that shone above her. The ribbon of light around her finger expanded until it became a bright cloud of light which seemed like a miniature replica of the constellations that shone above her head.

"Thunderous skies!" Li Yiming roared and the clouds that billowed around him suddenly transformed into millions of arcs of lightning that gathered into a sphere in front of him. Li Yiming hurdled the projectile toward Stargaze with a long howl.

"Consume the stars, go!’ Stargaze pushed her own attack toward Li Yiming, putting the cloud of light against Li Yiming’s thunder.

"Devour!" Stargaze performed another seal, and the cloud she produced spun violently before sucking Li Yiming’s ball of thunder into itself. Stargaze spat out a mouthful of blood, to Li Yiming’s complete disbelief.

"Breaking stars... seal..." Stargaze changed her seal once more, despite the consequences of forcing such a change, and chanted once again.

Stargaze’s cloud suddenly exploded into millions of orbs of light, and formed an even bigger cloud, trapping Li Yiming.

"You...!" The black patterns on Li Yiming’s face changed as he tried to escape Stargaze’s cloud, but he was pulled back in against his will.

"Get out!" Stargazed shouted, and the cloud of light flew back toward her, spinning violently as it did.

Li Yiming howled in pain as a thick, black smoke came out of his eyes, nostrils, ears, and mouth, and the black markings on his skin faded away. While continuously sucking in the black smoke, the cloud that Stargaze had produced compressed itself before returning to its original size, and a black shadow that was the size of Stargaze’s palm emerged.

"Impossible! How can you perform such a seal?!" The black shadow shrieked in terror.

"Have you forgotten where we are?" Stargaze said coldly and compressed the luminous cloud with her hands.

"Dawn of chaos?"

"I am known as Stargaze..."

"So what?! I am Heaven’s Punishment. You cannot kill me. The black shadow quickly recovered its composure.

Stargaze did not reply and looked at Li Yiming, who broke his fall with one knee.

Li Yiming slowly raised his head and opened his eyes. Instead of the tenebrous eyes he possessed earlier, his irises were illuminated by golden light this time. Li Yiming suddenly leaped toward Stargaze and reached out for her heart with his hand-colored by a golden light.