Chapter 40 - 34: Get Away From Me
Night fell quickly, but it departed... ever so slowly.
A full stick of incense later, the sky finally cleared.
In the Imperial Garden.
A personal eunuch scrambled to help up the Emperor, whose face was ashen and legs were trembling.
SWOOSH!
A figure blurred and appeared before the Emperor.
The newcomer wore a wide black robe embroidered with stars and constellations. It was the Supervisor of the Great Qing’s Astronomical Bureau.
He clasped his hands in a salute to the Emperor. "Your Majesty."
Emperor Jinghe waved his hand, dismissing his attendants. Once the two of them were alone in the garden, he asked with a dark expression:
"What happened?"
The Supervisor took a deep breath. "Ziwei has appeared in the world."
"Ziwei?!"
Emperor Jinghe’s face first showed astonishment, then a flush of excitement. "Are you saying... that person’s Star Position has finally emerged?"
The Old Supervisor nodded lightly. "Yes."
But Emperor Jinghe quickly composed himself.
"No, that’s not right. You once said it would be at least five more years before the Ziwei Star Official could possibly emerge from the ’Desolate Ruins’ and return to the Sea of Stars. Could it be... that Jiang Chaoxi isn’t dead?"
The Supervisor shook his head decisively. "Annihilation by the Celestial Dao leaves no possibility of survival."
"Then why has the Ziwei Star appeared ahead of schedule?"
"This humble servant believes..."
The Old Supervisor chose his words carefully, speaking slowly.
"Someone must have pulled some strings behind the scenes, using some heaven-defying method to forcibly release the Ziwei Star Official’s position from the Desolate Ruins ahead of time."
Emperor Jinghe was lost in thought.
"You mean someone is about to break through to that legendary realm, and so they’ve spared no expense to release the Ziwei Star Official early, intending to seize the opportunity and claim it in one fell swoop?"
The Old Supervisor nodded. "That is the most logical speculation at present."
Emperor Jinghe clasped his hands behind his back and walked to the edge of the shimmering, jade-green lake.
On the lake’s surface, the portrait of the woman he had dropped by mistake had been retrieved and placed on a nearby stone table.
He said coolly:
"Who do you think it is?"
The Old Supervisor fell silent.
The Ziwei Star Official is the Lord of Ten Thousand Stars.
It is the only key to breaking the limits of the Thirteenth Realm and stepping into the legendary Fourteenth Realm.
Therefore, the only ones qualified to contend for the Ziwei Emperor Star are the supreme experts of the Thirteenth Realm who stand at the very pinnacle of cultivation.
And across the entire world, there are currently only nine individuals in the Thirteenth Realm.
This phenomenon must have been caused by one of those nine people.
But each of these nine was a legendary existence, and each was backed by forces capable of shaking the world. None were to be trifled with.
Especially since among the nine was the old ancestor of the Astronomical Bureau, who was in death-seclusion.
Seeing his silence, Emperor Jinghe’s lips curled into a cold smile.
"Does everyone think the fortune of my Great Qing is about to collapse, and they want to take my place as the new master of this world?"
The Old Supervisor, terrified, immediately dropped to his knees, his forehead touching the ground.
"Your Majesty is overthinking things! In the past, even someone as powerful as Jiang Chaoxi, who held Ziwei in his grasp, failed to overthrow our Great Qing. Though the other eight are strong, they each have their own schemes and keep each other in check. They are no cause for alarm.
What’s more, as long as the Old Ancestor is still with us, they wouldn’t dare to act rashly.
Right now, our Great Qing is peaceful and prosperous, its people live and work in contentment, and our nation’s fortune is at its zenith. The appearance of the Ziwei star might just be an auspicious omen for the rise of our Great Qing!"
"An auspicious omen?"
Emperor Jinghe scoffed, his gaze fixed on the sparkling surface of the lake, his tone faint.
"Back then, it wasn’t that Jiang Chaoxi couldn’t overthrow Great Qing, but that he didn’t want to. That madman’s ambition was never for this mortal imperial power."
He sighed.
"He wanted to shatter the rules of cultivation that have existed for millennia. He wanted Cultivators to no longer live at the mercy of the stars, to no longer be puppets of the Celestial Dao. Instead, he wanted them to be like Demon Fiends, directly plundering the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi for their own use."
"It’s just a shame he went down the wrong path, and too hastily at that."
The Supervisor felt a similar sense of lament internally.
The theory that Star Position cultivation was a method for the Celestial Dao to ’shepherd’ all living beings had existed since ancient times.
But Jiang Chaoxi was the only one who dared to act on it.
The one who tried to flip the chessboard.
Everyone else was just trying to survive within the rules, but he alone chose to walk against the current, refusing to be a disposable pawn.
To fight the Celestial Dao, he became so crazed that he tried to devour all the Star Positions in the world, even consuming the world’s Demon Fiends to strengthen himself.
As a result, he incurred the wrath of both humans and fiends, and the fury of Heaven and Earth itself.
You have to understand, he had already successfully claimed the Ziwei Star Official position and was considered the Celestial Dao’s ’favorite son’.
Yet he was the first to betray the ’father’ who had granted him that power.
To have met such an end was to bring it upon himself.
Emperor Jinghe looked up at the stars that had already faded from the void and said coldly,
"Then we shall wait and see."
"I’d like to see just who this reborn Ziwei Emperor Star will ultimately fall to!"
—
—
Jiang Mu opened his eyes and found himself lying on a bed in an inner room of the Government Office.
Beside him, Zhang Daxie was rubbing his knees while looking at him with concern.
Seeing Jiang Mu awake, he let out a sigh of relief.
"Sir, you’re awake? How are you feeling?"
"What happened?"
Jiang Mu rubbed the bridge of his nose, his head buzzing.
’I only remember trying to sense my Star Position... and then what? I don’t remember anything after that.’
Zhang Daxie quickly explained:
"Sir, on your first attempt to sense a Star Position, you happened to encounter the celestial phenomenon caused by the appearance of a high-tier Star Official’s position. The chaotic tide of Star Power battered your spiritual sense.
While this situation is rare, it has been recorded before. It’s nothing serious. You’ll be fine after a short rest."
"A high-tier Star Position?"
"Precisely."
An expression of awe appeared on Zhang Daxie’s face as he recounted the recent phenomenon.
Jiang Mu was dumbfounded as he listened.
"Didn’t you say all the Star Official positions were already divided up? How can a new one just pop up?"
"It’s an extremely rare phenomenon, but not unheard of."
Zhang Daxie explained patiently,
"For example, if a Great Power Cultivator breaks through to a higher realm, the lower-tier Star Position they previously occupied will automatically detach and return to the Sea of Stars.
Or if they pass away naturally when their lifespan runs out, or suffer a heavenly punishment, their Star Position will also become vacant.
But as for a supreme Star Position like the one that just appeared... this subordinate has lived for decades, and this is the first time I’ve witnessed it with my own eyes.
I’d guess that either some old ancestor has fallen, or some peerless expert has broken through again."
As he spoke of this, Zhang Daxie’s heart filled with envy.
A vacancy for such a high-tier Star Position meant a bloodbath was about to sweep through the highest echelons of the cultivation world.
Countless hegemons would swarm like sharks that had smelled blood, beginning a brutal struggle.
Unfortunately, low-level Cultivators like them didn’t even have the right to gaze upon it.
The only way was to climb, step by step.
Only when their realm was high enough would they be qualified to glimpse the scenery at the top.
Jiang Mu was also deeply moved as he listened.
’The waters of the cultivation world really run deep.’
He saw Zhang Daxie continuously rubbing his knees and asked strangely, "What’s wrong with your knee? Did you take an arrow to it?"
Zhang Daxie gave a wry smile.
"Whenever a great star of this level appears, Cultivators like us who hold low-tier Star Positions are instinctively suppressed by the hierarchy of the Star Positions. We must kneel in obeisance."
’It’s that intense?’
Jiang Mu’s eyes burned as a powerful ambition surged within his heart.
’I wonder if I’ll be able to claim such an awesome Star Position when my realm is higher in the future.’
’Come on, Dad’s cheat system, give me a boost!’
—
In the Jiang family’s small courtyard.
Bai Xiang patted the dirt from her skirt, her flawlessly beautiful face, now revealed, was covered in a layer of frost.
She already knew which Star Position it was.
The Ziwei Emperor Star!
If it were any other Star Official, she wouldn’t care.
But this one... this one was unacceptable!
Because the Star Position she herself carried was the Harem Star, also one of the Five Stars of the North Pole, and an Emperor-level Star Position.
Among the Five Stars of the North Pole, Ziwei is the core.
It rules the heavens, representing "Yang" and the "Sovereign."
The Harem Star, on the other hand, governs the "Yin" and "Life" aspects of the starry sky, symbolizing the Empress.
It complements the Emperor Star, a balance of Yin and Yang, mutually reinforcing each other.
To put it simply... someone was trying to become her "husband" in terms of her Star Official’s status.
How could she tolerate that?
Killing intent blazed in Bai Xiang’s eyes as she stared coldly at the star’s position in the sky.
"I’d like to see who dares to claim this position!"
"I’ll kill every single one who comes!"
"And if I can’t kill them... then we’ll all be destroyed together!"
An intense sense of crisis intertwined with an offended rage, leaving her deeply unsettled.
"No, I can’t just wait around."
Bai Xiang’s slender fingers quickly formed a Dharma Seal, and a hazy radiance enveloped her.
She attempted to place the aura of her "Harem Star" beside the Ziwei Emperor Star, laying down a hidden barrier.
That way, if anyone tried to approach the Ziwei Star, she would be the first to sense it and could even interfere.
However, just as her spiritual sense’s imprint neared the Ziwei Star’s vicinity, it was repelled by a tyrannical force.
"?"
Bai Xiang froze for a moment.
’It won’t let me get close?’
’Was my approach too abrupt?’
She furrowed her delicate brows, hesitated for a moment, and tried again.
This time, she cautiously moved toward the Ziwei Star’s halo, even dimming her own starlight as a greeting.
But the moment she got near, another immense force struck and flung her away.
"Am I... being rejected?"
Bai Xiang’s face instantly turned as black as the bottom of a pot.
If even she couldn’t get close, it was needless to say what would happen to others.
In other words, the Ziwei Star was now a juicy piece of meat hanging in the sky that you could only drool over, but never touch.
Wasn’t this just meant to drive people crazy?
But the problem was...
It was one thing for others not to be able to touch it, but on what grounds was even she, the Empress, not allowed to get close?
Unwilling to give up, she tried several more times.
But without exception, she was heartlessly pushed away each time.
It was as if the other party was saying:
"Get lost, don’t touch me!"
The woman, for some reason, found her composure breaking.
She, who was accustomed to being revered by all living things, admired and pursued by countless people both openly and in secret, had never been given such a cold shoulder.
Bai Xiang clenched her delicate fists, her pearly teeth gritting together.
’Disgusting star!’