Chapter 609: Empress in Quiet Cultivation
“Director Sir?”
“Speak, what has happened.”
“We’ve observed—” Zhao Qongkong stabilized his mind and said in a deep voice, “The Astral Realm is flickering!”
Beneath the lake, a treasure fish took the bait, and the fishing line sank deeper. The old man remained seated.
The Astral Realm flickering?
It was indeed not a major event. These youngsters loved to get worked up over nothing, lacking composure.
He guessed it was some Eighth-tier deity clinging to life, resurrected through special means. He remembered when the Myriad Flower Star Domain flickered last time, it was that cowardly Peach Blossom Star God who reincarnated through divine tribulation.
“Swish—”
The fishing line that had sunk into the lake suddenly went slack and shot up, splashing water. Beneath the surface, two black-gold fish could be vaguely seen separating rapidly, disappearing without a trace in an instant.
“To think they were a Yin Yang fish pair. It seems my luck is truly bad.”
The old man clapped his hands, stood up, and sighed. “Fine, I’ll go back and see what these brats are fussing about now.”
As the thought occurred, a gray-white afterimage remained in his place. The Director of the Astronomical Bureau crossed ten thousand miles in a few seconds, quickly returning to the central courtyard.
Stepping out, the old man appeared out of thin air behind Zhao Qongkong, calmly looking up.
He was immediately stunned.
“Hmm?”
“Huh?!!”
The star map matrix was flickering erratically, as if possessed. At first glance, he almost thought the matrix was broken.
But when he looked at the lower left position, where the Sirius Star Domain used to be, he saw 22 terrifying stars radiating light like they were about to explode, as if ready to drag the entire boundless Astral Realm into hell as an offering, returning it to its origin.
Astronomical Bureau Director: “?!!!!!!”
However, to his relief, he soon found that the 22 terrifying stars were not stars, but 22 Sirius stars.
Yes.
Sirius stars.
Sirius? The old man looked expressionlessly at the star chart, feeling his eyes were dazzled by the scorching starlight, making him dizzy.
He had lived so many years, with one foot already in the grave. It was normal to have occasional hallucinations.
Suppressing the shock in his heart, he closed his eyes, regulated his breathing, and stabilized his mental state.
Beside him, Zhao Qongkong, seeing the Director had finally returned, calmed his mind and asked, “Director Sir, you are wise and experienced. What should we do now?”
The old man opened his eyes and glanced again at the Sirius Star Domain. The light was still dazzling. This time, it wasn’t just his eyes that hurt; his head ached too.
Alright, he had lived so long, and he had truly never seen such a situation before!
He had to admit that the older one got, the more strange and bizarre things one encountered, each more peculiar than the last.
But the degree of peculiarity today was truly exceeding common sense by a bit.
Having two World-ending disaster stars appear at the same time was already outrageous. Twenty-two… it was impossible to even think about.
Of course, for the sake of rigor, the Astronomical Bureau would not outright deny this possibility.
But the most likely scenario now was that the remaining living Sirius Star Number One possessed some heaven-deceiving method, faking the star chart, thus repeatedly evading the Astronomical Bureau’s monitoring.
However, it might be that this time, due to Ascending to Venerable, it could no longer hide its stellar reaction. Instead of concealing it, it chose to increase the number of its stellar manifestations.
The Director of the Astronomical Bureau pondered and deduced.
However, the Director of the Astronomical Bureau did not know that the Sirius Star Number One killed by the Empire’s encirclement last time was Sirius Star Number One, Xia Feng. He also did not know that Xia Feng had not intentionally hidden his stellar manifestations.
The reason Sirius Star Number One only appeared once in the Astral Realm before Becoming Venerable was because that was the day Xia Feng bound himself to Mu Shen.
After binding himself to Mu Shen, Xia Feng’s corresponding star became Sirius. However, it would not react to any upgrade. But now that he had Become Venerable, the sublimation of his Spirit Base and Spirit Substance brought about by Becoming Venerable caused his main body star and the replicated Sirius star to fuse into one.
At this moment, Xia Feng had truly become the second Sirius star.
It was also for this reason that when he Became Venerable, his and Mu Qingtong’s corresponding stars and star projections illuminated the Astral Realm simultaneously.
The Director of the Astronomical Bureau did not know the truth, but he had guessed half of it correctly. He sighed, “Can we track these Sirius stars?”
“Director Sir, there are as many as 22 Sirius stars. This quantity… we really don’t know where to start.”
Zhao Qongkong shook his head bitterly. “So, I had them estimate the approximate area in the Real World corresponding to each Sirius star.”
“But thankfully, the energy level reactions of the 22 Sirius stars all indicate Becoming Venerable. That means we have at least a week to precisely locate the targets. Finding the target shouldn’t be difficult—”
Zhao Qongkong’s voice abruptly stopped. He looked up at the star chart in astonishment.
The Astral Realm, which had been flickering wildly, instantly fell silent. The Sirius Star Domain also instantly darkened. Fog-like stellar mist re-gathered, obscuring the Sirius Star Domain within seconds.
The boundless Astral Realm once again returned to tranquility and dead silence.
!
It was as if none of it had happened.
Zhao Qongkong’s expression turned grim. He glanced at his watch: “Two minutes and eight seconds? It only took this guy two minutes to Become Venerable?!”
A normal person’s ritual for Becoming Venerable would take a month or even years to prepare. After drinking the promotion liquid, they would still need to go into quiet cultivation for another month.
“We’ve been dealing with Sirius for over a year now, stop being so jumpy,” the old man patted the middle-aged man’s shoulder. “She is a genius even greater than Huang Ye Pillar State. Becoming Venerable in two minutes and eight seconds is normal.”
Normal? Zhao Qongkong’s eye twitched. Normal my foot!
The old man beckoned, and the spirit particles of the star map matrix flickered, quickly condensing into a starlight cluster that floated into the old man’s palm.
Within the cluster, it seemed there were countless stars. Among them, the approximate areas in the Real World corresponding to the 22 Sirius stars were outlined, spanning the entire Empire.
“Heh, looks like some people are going to be busy.”
To search the entire Empire for so many locations, the Wolf Hunting Squad and Heaven’s Revelation Knights alone would not be enough.
Perhaps they would need to deploy the Angel Legion and Yama Legion from the Third Pillar.
Total Wolf Hunt!
“Director Sir, should this matter be reported to the Council and the Four Pillars?”
“Just inform the old things in the Council. As for the Pillar States, there’s no need. They’ll see such a major anomaly in the Astral Realm themselves.”
“Yes.”
***
Heavenly Revelation Divine Palace.
Magnificent and vast, it stretched across the brilliant starry sky.
Numerous illusory light-gold long stairs ascended layer by layer towards the divine palace. Two figures were suspended on the steps of ascension.
A majestic man in a black-gold robe stood with his hands behind his back, his crimson-gold vertical pupils gazing towards the far side of the starry sky with a calm and indifferent expression.
Not far away, a kind-faced old man in a bright yellow monk’s robe, descending the stairs, also looked into the distance, a golden Sacred Mark flickering between his eyebrows.
“Even Divine Thought cannot pierce the true form of the star chart. This technique is quite interesting,” the old man’s light, suspicious voice seemed to come from the distant, dim, and vast ancient wilderness.
The man in the black-gold robe did not speak, but slowly withdrew his gaze and looked back towards the divine palace above.
At the entrance of the divine palace, a towering knight in silver armor stood with his sword planted, indifferently looking down:
“Shang Jue Pillar State, the Empress has only just awakened and still needs some time for quiet cultivation. If you wish to seek an audience, Pillar State, you may return in three months.”
“Oh?” Shang Jue’s crimson-gold vertical pupils narrowed slightly. She still needed quiet cultivation…
