Best Young Master

After resting for two days, Ye Fan and the Bai Yan wolf used the Xuanyu Platform to traverse the void, leaving that desolate planet and entering the boundless Star Domain.

In the darkness and cold of the universe, stars dotted the void like countless crystalline diamonds inlaid upon a black curtain.

Even though Ye Fan and the Bai Yan wolf were flying with all their might, in the vast Star Domain it still felt as if they had not moved at all; the starry sky was too boundless.

"Buzz!"

A beam of Killing Light appeared and cleaved toward Ye Fan and the Bai Yan wolf, as vast as a mountain, piercing through the starry sky. The terrifying aura made Ye Fan’s hair stand on end.

"Swoosh!"

At that hairbreadth instant, Ye Fan pushed Chasing Star Step to the limit, taking the Bai Yan wolf with him to dodge the assault of the Killing Light, cold sweat breaking out all over his body.

It seemed that this apparently peaceful starry sky also concealed all kinds of dangers; the slightest carelessness could mean falling to one’s death and becoming a corpse drifting in the stars.

A faint layer of Golden Light covered Ye Fan’s body; only with this could he fly and speak. Otherwise, an ordinary person would have died long ago.

The Bai Yan wolf’s body also radiated a silvery glow as it drifted aimlessly through the starry sky together with Ye Fan.

Wanting to find the Linxian Ancient Star among the countless celestial bodies was almost impossible; even finding an Ancient Star of life was extremely difficult.

In the vast Star Domain, the most common were those dead, silent planets, with no signs of life, no water, no forests or grasslands. There were only some ring-shaped craters, clearly formed by impacts from gigantic meteorites.

Shortly after entering the starry sky, Ye Fan felt a powerful force of Law. It was a unique force field formed between various planets, enough to tear a person apart; even Ye Fan’s Treasure Body could barely withstand it.

The Bai Yan wolf’s physique was almost on par with Ye Fan’s, incomparably tough as well. After withstanding the force of the Laws a few times, it too was finding it hard to endure.

Just then, several thousand strands of Law Power struck toward them at once; in the blink of an eye they would be reduced to dust, not even their corpses remaining.

At that critical moment, Ye Fan grabbed a handful of the Bai Yan wolf’s fur, then took one step and entered the Nine Heavens Mysterious Crown’s Virtual Space.

"Buzz!"

In the starry sky, a golden Mystic Crown suddenly appeared, radiating a faint glow. It completely blocked the power of the Laws outside; the mighty Law Power could not harm the Nine Heavens Mysterious Crown in the slightest.

"That was close!"

The Bai Yan wolf shrank its neck, somewhat shaken. If Ye Fan hadn’t brought it into the Virtual Space in time, it would definitely be dead; that terrifying Law Power could have blasted it into ashes in an instant.

Within the Virtual Space, Ye Fan could sense the situation outside, but he was unable to activate the Nine Heavens Mysterious Crown to travel through the boundless Star Domain. He could only sit there, waiting for the power of the Laws to dissipate.

Fortunately, although the environment in the Virtual Space was not beautiful, it was still far better than the deathly Star Domain outside, and there was also some Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi that they could use to recover a bit of Divine Power.

Inside the Virtual Space, Ye Fan had collected many Spiritual Medicines, Treasure Medicines, and Divine Medicines, as well as some Spirit Stones—enough to support them drifting in the boundless Star Domain for over a dozen years without problem.

The universe was boundless, the Star Domain endless, yet in most places there were no stars at all—only deathly stillness and gloom. In the vast cosmos, there was not the slightest sound.

A terrifying cold silence, a chill that could freeze broken bones, an immense and limitless darkness—that was everything; that was the universe, nothing more.

Not to mention Humans— even a single Star was as insignificant as a speck of dust. In this boundless, majestic universe, everything was negligible.

Time seemed to have frozen. Within the Virtual Space, the flow of time was different from normal, more than ten times slower.

In the endless Star Domain, they had even more thoroughly lost any concept of time.

Ye Fan did not dare to wildly absorb the Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi in the Virtual Space, because that was his fundamental source of recovery. He could only sit there in meditation, closely observing the boundless outer starry sky while slowly restoring his Divine Power.

The Bai Yan wolf also understood that they might drift in this boundless universe for a very, very long time, and that every wisp of Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi was precious. It did not Cultivate either, but instead found a spot and went to sleep with a loud snore.

In its sleep, its Divine Power slowly recovered until it reached Peak condition.

During this period, the Bai Yan wolf woke up several times to ask Ye Fan about the situation outside, but the answer was always that the power of the Laws was still raging and there was no way to get out.

"Why don’t you try seeing if you can activate the Golden Crown and we’ll ride it through the void? Otherwise, if we stay trapped like this, who knows when it’ll end?" the Bai Yan wolf suggested.

"I’ve already tried; it’s no use. Elder Xuan is still in deep sleep. Relying on myself alone, it’s very difficult to drive it to fly," Ye Fan shook his head, feeling quite helpless as well.

"Maybe your method is wrong? I’ve got a Secret Technique for activating Ancient Artifacts here. I’ll pass it to you now—think of it as an experiment, treating a dead horse like a living one. Otherwise, if this goes on, I’ll go crazy even if I don’t die."

As the Bai Yan wolf spoke, its brow split open and a ray of Divine Light shot into Ye Fan’s sea of consciousness.

It was a Secret Technique of Controlling Artifact, pioneering a unique path unlike any other method of controlling artifacts. It was very similar to Ye Fan’s Soldier Control Technique, yet also not complete, merely a fragmentary secret technique.

Ye Fan fully devoted himself to comprehending it and, inspired by the Soldier Control Technique, deduced part of the lost secret technique, then merged it together with the Soldier Control Technique.

Very quickly, Ye Fan fully comprehended this secret technique, and even derived some of his own insights and extensions from it.

"Buzz!"

Ye Fan exerted the Secret Technique of Controlling Artifact with all his strength; his Consciousness and the Nine Heavens Mysterious Crown established a faint connection, allowing him to sense every part of the Nine Heavens Mysterious Crown.

"Swoosh!"

Under Ye Fan’s full urging, the Nine Heavens Mysterious Crown finally moved, breaking through the encirclement of the Law Power, shooting off into the distance like a streak of Flowing Light.

"It worked!"

Ye Fan was secretly overjoyed. He hadn’t held much hope to begin with, yet he hadn’t expected this attempt to actually succeed.

The Nine Heavens Mysterious Crown flew as if tearing through space itself, yet within the boundless cosmos it still seemed as slow as a snail crawling across the Vast and Boundless Earth.

Because the Law Power outside was too terrifying, Ye Fan didn’t dare rashly try to go out again. He only controlled the Nine Heavens Mysterious Crown flying within the Virtual Space.

Suddenly, he noticed the Nine Heavens Mysterious Crown’s speed sometimes fast, sometimes slow. When slow, it was as if frozen, with the distance between it and any celestial body not changing at all.

But when it was fast, it was like lightning and flint, traversing the Chang He of time and space.

Time became chaotic—at one moment crawling, the next racing; an instant and eternity, as if he had experienced a long century.

"Too terrifying. Power like this is enough to kill a Supreme Holy Master; even a Quasi-Emperor First Layer Heaven cultivator would find it hard to survive in such an environment."

In the end, Ye Fan felt as if he had endured thousands of years, as though he himself were about to turn into a fossil. Facing the endless, infinite darkness and silence outside, he nearly went mad.

If not for the Bai Yan wolf chatting with him to relieve the boredom, Ye Fan felt it would be hard for him to hold on until he found the path back; he would have died out here in this icy, pitch-black universe.

"Boom!"

The Nine Heavens Mysterious Crown descended onto a dead, silent planet and came to a halt.

Ye Fan and the Bai Yan wolf stepped out of the Virtual Space and explored the planet, only to gain nothing. Deep in the Earth Core there might be some Spirit Stones, but not only were they poor in quality, their quantity was extremely small as well. The Divine Power it would cost to excavate a passage down to the Earth Core was far too great, not worth the loss.

But this discovery did give Ye Fan a bit of hope. Even on planets that looked completely dead, there might still be some strange minerals, or perhaps Spirit Stones.

He very much wanted to find some materials for refining Soul Gathering Pills out here in this vast Star Domain. Though he knew it was practically impossible and the chances were slim, he still refused to give up.

After searching this planet once over, Ye Fan and the Bai Yan wolf set out again, riding the Nine Heavens Mysterious Crown through the starry sky.

Calling it "travel" sounded nice; in truth, they were just wandering the Star Domain, drifting about without aim, hoping to find the Linxian Ancient Star.

Ye Fan had no idea what the Linxian Ancient Star actually looked like in this boundless Star Domain, but without a doubt it was an Ancient Star of Life, with an intense aura of life. As long as one drew near, it would definitely be sensed.

The Bai Yan wolf repeatedly assured Ye Fan that as long as it could see the Linxian Ancient Star, it would recognize it, because in the Thunder Venerable master’s twilight years, he had once brought it to wage a starry-sky battle there against an inconceivable existence.

The Thunder Venerable master’s fall was also greatly related to that battle, so it had some understanding of the Linxian Ancient Star’s coordinates in the universe.

Afterward, they descended onto one dead planet after another. On some of them, they did indeed dig up a few fairly decent Spirit Stones, which barely covered their daily needs.

The Xuan Beasts stored in the Virtual Space had long since been eaten clean, not even the bones spared—those had all been chewed to bits by the Bai Yan wolf.

Under the protection of the Nine Heavens Mysterious Crown, they did not encounter any more dangers, but they also met nothing living at all—not even fragments of broken weapons.

In the vast Star Domain, only cold and darkness remained the eternal main colors.

Later on, even the Bai Yan wolf grew irritable. To drift about the starry sky like this, without any goal—when would it ever end?

"Huh! That planet ahead seems to have a life aura. Could it be that our prayers actually worked, that we’ve really come to a life-bearing Ancient Star?"

On this day, Ye Fan was, as usual, drifting aimlessly with the Nine Heavens Mysterious Crown when the Bai Yan wolf pointed at a planet ahead and cried out in surprise, incomparably excited.

"That’s right, it really is an Ancient Star of Life! Looks like there truly are other living beings in this vast Star Domain!" Ye Fan was equally stirred.

After wandering the boundless Star Domain for so long, they had finally encountered something living. How could they not be excited?

"Change course, descend onto that planet at once. Maybe we can find hope of returning from there!" The Bai Yan wolf was jumping and shouting in excitement.

He didn’t need to say it; Ye Fan was already doing it. He corrected the Nine Heavens Mysterious Crown’s course, heading straight for that Ancient Star that radiated a life aura.

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