Stellar Transformations

Of the four sentinels, a tall thin man was the first to break the silence: “Leader Shuo Yan, for such a star’s temperature to change so rapidly, it should be drawing near to its death.”

The four sentinels turn to look towards the distant horizon in the northern direction.

“I remember when our master started closed-door training, the volume of the star wasn’t too high, but now it is many times larger than before. So it should be entering its destruction phase.” Shuo Yan nodded.

Stars thrive for almost limitless amount of time, but it was only ‘almost infinite’. As it continues to burn, eventually one day it will be destroyed. Now those bursts of heat energy that was thousands of times stronger than the incandescent flares in the past, was a sign of its destruction is near.

Those radiated heat waves have also affected the surface temperature of the Yellowstone Star.

But for the mysterious purple planet, none of its inhabitants could feel a thing because of the protective ionic storms in the upper atmosphere.

“However it hasn’t reached the final explosive stage, but once it reaches its explosive death stage, the heat waves of the exploding star will be millions of times higher than the heat wave presently. At that time, the surrounding space would be trembling at the destruction of that star. Leader Shuo Yan, should we alert the master? If the master continues to train in quietude, the spatial shockwaves could very well affect master’s mental state.” A female sentinel in green asked her superior Shuo Yan.

Shuo Yan pondered for a moment then shook her head, “That is not required for the time being. That star is quite far from this Yellowstone star, the spatial shockwaves that travel here will be feeble in strength. In addition, we have the maze formation around us. The formation itself also affects the space in its range, thus the master will be subject to harm. If we wake the master now, it could very well waste all his efforts and insights he is currently trying to unveil.”

“Listen up. From now we must exercise caution and spread our awareness. That star may be far away, but for it to release so much heat that it could be felt here, it clearly is an extremely large star. It may possibly collapse into a ‘region’ that will swallow all the surrounding space and affect a wider range of space. We must exercise vigilance against it.” Shuo Yan ordered.

“Yes, Leader.”

The other three sentinels saluted having receive that order.

Turning to their silent guardianship, the four sentinels stood wordlessly as the far away star continues to radiate more heat, and the temperature of Yellowstone continues to rise. And yet, Qin Yu continues to practice quietly and unmoving.

Lost in the training trance, the meteoric tear continues to nurture Qin Yu’s body and soul, while the surrounding holy elemental spirit are absorbed by him. Over the century’s time, Qin Yu’s soul has become much stronger and has reached a new stage.

Even after his soul’s improvement, the fiery star in his dantian is still a star...

All he needs now was an epiphany or a spark of insight.

None of Qin Yu’s features show that he wasn’t, at all, anxious, because the feeling to merge with the world was quite a comfortable feeling. It was the same as a mother’s embrace.

...

An innumerable number of years passed...

“Be careful. That distant star is in its final phase before imminent collapse.” Shuo Yan alerted and the other three nodded their consent. All their attention was focused on the huge star that was about to collapse.

...

That distant star was already very large, with arcing heavenly fires whipping about its surface, continued to heat up. Suddenly, the size of the star instantly increased in leaps and bounds and the heat it radiate increased by at least a thousand times. That heat wave collided with Yellowstone, and given Yellowstone’s lack of an atmospheric protection barrier, the surface temperature skyrocketed to alarming heights.

‘Chi chi~~’

The distant star continued to expand rapidly with no sign of stopping...

Suddenly, as abruptly as it ballooned up, the star contracted at terrifying speed.

With the star rapidly expanding and contracting caused the surrounding space to shake, but because Yellowstone was quite far from the star, the spatial shockwaves was very feeble, and Qin Yu did not feel them at all. That would be the case if Qin Yu wasn’t in a trance-like state. During the enlightened state of merging with the world, Qin Yu is very sensitive to the surroundings and, naturally, sensitive to the shockwaves.

The statue at the centre of the four sentinels shook slightly, countless specks of mineral dust fell from that very real statue. As the dust particles piled high around a cross-legged Qin Yu forming small mounds in three-hundred and sixty degrees. And, after over a century, Qin Yu had finally opened his eyes.

With his piercing eyes, like pools of endless wisdom, turn to gaze at the intense brightness in the sky.

That moment when Qin Yu looked towards the sky was the moment when the star had just started to contract. From a balloon-like state, the star contract down to its original size than further...... until it was no longer visible.

The point with the star had disappeared was dark and ominous, with it as the epicentre, space distorted and converged there like a bottomless pit sucking all life around it. Even on the distant Yellowstone, the attractive force was minuscule but still present.

While the suction force continues to distort the surrounding space, another change occur around that space. Unbeknownst to the residents on Yellowstone, in everywhere else in the universe many changes are occurring –––––– this is the Evolution of the Universe!

“That star is really large, I think the final form of that star should be that ‘devouring region’ rather than a ‘Dark Star’.” Shuo Yan smiled, naturally if Qin Yu heard this, he would understand as well. This so-called ‘devouring region’ would be known as a Black Hole, while the ‘Dark Star’ would be similar to a horrifying gravity well produced by a White Dwarf.

“Why is it so hot?” the four sentinels felt puzzled, since the surrounding temperature was even more terrifying than before when the star collapsed.

“Your honor. Look master, he’s.......” Three of the four sentinels looked at the last, a green robed woman, with surprise. A split-second later, all four turn to look at their master with shock.

Around their master – Qin Yu, flames had erupted from his skin forming a halo-like flaming aura around him. Right now, Qin Yu looked like a War God doused in endless flames.

His lips mouthed silently, “Star, Collapse, and Black Hole......there after...”

Suddenly ––––––

With a triumphing cry, Qin Yu whooped, “Ha ha, I see!!!” The flames that were previously sticking to his skin leaped outwards, expanding and consuming everything in all directions. It wasn’t normal flames, it was purple flames. As soon as Shuo Yan and the other guardians saw it was heavenly flames, they started to protect themselves and resist it.

For ordinary level 1 demons, heavenly fire would be devastating, but for elites like level 9 demons such as Shuo Yan and the others, if they’re careful, heavenly fire is not a big deal.

“Your highness, what is the matter?” the four sentinels could not help but inquire given the abrupt change in their master’s state.

Over the century’s worth of training, Qin Yu’s hair was extremely long, he looked like a mass of hair levitating about a metre from the ground. Purple heavenly fire surround him in a radius of 100 metres. With that mass of unkempt hair billowing about Qin Yu, he resembled a God of Fire in the eyes of his followers.

But his face did not show that cliché arrogance, instead his brows furrowed. “It seems my energy is not enough.” With a casual flip, a Yuanying appeared in his hand. This was a yuanying of a level 9 Loose Devil that Qin Yu acquired. It was acquired during the time he posed as Reverend Heavenly Fire who decimated Devils and Immortals of Ying Yue Mountain.

The yuanying floated in front of Qin Yu, and streams of powerful energy surrounded it, changing its state to liquid.

Qin Yu opened his mouth wide and with a ‘Sou~!’ swallowed the level 9 loose devil’s yuanying directly into his body. Silence presumed for a short while...

‘Boom!’ that field of purple flames exploded outwards from the original hundred metres to tens of thousands metres in an instant. Its current range was frighteningly large.

Just as abruptly as the field expanded, its range shrunk...

Then shrunk again...

Until, all of that devouring purple heavenly fire had vanished within Qin Yu’s body. At closer observation, the land in tens of thousands metres had sunk a whole ten metre layer, while the stone huts were reduced to rubble.

If it weren’t for the personal power of each of the four sentinels being quite formidable, they too would have perished with a layer of Yellowstone’s crust.

The four sentinels continued to stare at Qin Yu, while he levitated silently.

“What is the matter with the master?” The woman in green asked to no one in particular.

The others shook their heads, they too pondered what the matter with their master was. Previously, when that explosive energy erupted from Qin Yu, it had startled the four, but now with the overbearing silence, they grew more unsettled.

“Break them down then rebuild it. Stars collapse to form black holes, that is the final path, but to force a star to collapse, it required immense energy – far too much energy.” Qin Yu knew about the situation within his dantian and could not help but sigh in his heart.

With that, he turned back to looked at that distant star, only to see the moment it was going to collapse. Right then, a spark of insight struck his head. After over a century of meditation, only now does he become enlightened.

Within the space of his dantian and at the epicentre, was a red bead. This dark red bead was a million times smaller than the solar star that was in his dantian previously. This dark red bead may be a million times smaller but its energy was a million times purer.

“From star collapse to black hole takes far too much energy. The current Dark Star within my dantian is already powerful and even with a level 9 loose devil’s yuanying energy, I couldn’t collapse it into a Black Hole. It seems the formation of a Black Hole will take much more time.” Qin Yu pondered. “Even so, my solar star had been compressed into this Dark Star, required at least 50% of my energy, but my combative power has increased by a hundred times.”

When the star contracted, the too much energy was released, but the remaining 50% has been condensed and was more concentrated by hundreds of thousand times. The energy contained within was extremely pure and the offensive power was very astonishing.

After a moment contemplating, Qin Yu finally relaxed his shoulders.

Because he had finally created the seventh stage of his Stellar Transformations path – Dark Star.

During the sixth stage, the stellar energy erupted and flared with chaotic wrath. Whereas in the seventh stage, Dark Star, the star had been compressed thousands of times smaller. In comparison, if the energy of the Star stage was scrap metal, than the dark energy of the Dark Star stage would be the refined metal. Metal that had all its impurities removed then compressed a million times to form a fine and pure needle. The pinnacle of purity.

“If my estimations are correct, then the next stage from ‘Dark Star’ would be to collapse it to form ‘Black Hole’. Alas, the energy required for that transformation is horrifyingly large. Even if I had the energy, my soul force would not be enough to control it.” Qin Yu deduced.

He knew that his soul had improved greatly since entering Ni Yang’s Realm to now. Back then, his soul was at the level of a level 1 immortal, and after a hundred years of training, his soul was now at a level 7 immortal. Despite having a higher level soul, with regards to the previous release and compression of energy, he nearly could not control it.

“For the Black Hole stage, I think it would be best to wait under my soul is beyond the golden immortal stage.” He clearly understood the depth of his own power.

For a star to collapse may sound simple, but it actuality it was very complicated. Only when Qin Yu witnessed the collapse of that distant star, did he have an epiphany. This was completely unrelated to his hundred year meditation.

He opened to eyes to see four very worried sentinels. He already knew why they were acting like so.

“Ha ha, I did not expect that I – Qin Yu, whilst on the mysterious purple planet fought through a century worth of battles to reach the Star stage, and yet to reach the next stage, I would take a hundred and fifty years. Amusing, truly amusing.” Qin Yu said nonchalantly

In these hundred and fifty years, his soul had reached a level 7 immortals only because of two reason; first, due to that trance-like ‘merging with the world’ state, secondly and most importantly because of the nurturing streams of energy from the Meteoric Tear.

“Congratulations master.” The four sentinels intoned.

“Please rise, for me to breakthrough this time was also thanks to you all helping me.” Qin Yu wasn’t shy to dish out some praise for his followers. After breaking through, he was feeling elated and very pleasant.

For his Stellar Transformations path and from the Dark Star stage, each sequential stage would need to be created by Qin Yu himself.

“Milord, previously your energy could be faintly detected on your body, but now how can there not be a hint of energy?” Shuo Yan gasped, she was, after all, a level 9 demon. How could she fail to sense any energy from Qin Yu?

“Ah, this is due to my technique.” Qin Yu replied lightly.

The reason was due to achieving the dark star stage.

The dark star was not just condensing energy into a tiny size – dark red sphere, but also producing the ‘devouring region’ effect. This dark star was similar to white dwarfs and neutron stars in the universe, they all have that same alarmingly strong attractive effect – strong gravitation wells.

With a thought, the world and space around him converge like a whirlpool with Qin Yu’s body as the ‘eye’. The surrounding elemental energy was directly drawn into the tiny dark sphere in his dantian. The amount of energy was immense and yet the red sphere had not changes at all, because the purity of the energy of this sphere was simply too incredible.

And just in this instance, his soul trembled slightly.

A stream of information floated within his mind –––––

Within three months, he would ascend to the Immortal Plane.

“Ascension?” Qin Yu smiled broadly. All these years of training was just so that he could ascend to the immortal plane, so that he could reunite with his brothers – Hei Yu and Hou Fei. And of course, Li’er.

In this same instant, the meteoric tear started to vibrate within his body. Quickly, Qin Yu sent his mind’s eye inwardly to observe any changes to the meteoric tear.

The meteoric tear started to transform ––––––

The tear flew from his heart to his mind and to the place where his soul resides. Wherein, his soul had already condensed into a concentrated essence liquid. That liquid merged with the tear, following their fusion, the surrounding soul force like rivers flowed into the oceanic depth of the fused essences. When everything was fused, the essence core contracted and shrunk in size, so that even if a high master probes Qin Yu, he would not detect the slightest breath from Qin Yu.

Qin Yu’s body and his surroundings shook, and from that...

Qin Yu was reborn anew.

...

From the four sentinels’ perspective, Qin Yu stand to float, his hair billowed with an unnatural rhythm, but there wasn’t a hint of breath from his body nor soul.

...

Suddenly ––––––

Qin Yu’s eyes shot open, eyes twinkled with life and in that instant his entire person was rebirthed, revitalized, renewed.

“It seems that after condensing the soul essence, one still needs to go through the 3-in-9 Immortal Souls Refinement.” Qin Yu murmured to himself. On his face, he wore a smile of untainted satisfaction.

~End of Chapter 66~

Note - This chapter was originally translated by thunder at !