Stellar Transformations

*TN:

I have used Immortal Lords to represent 仙帝, instead of Immortal Emperor so as to not confuse with Emperor Yu 禹皇. (仙 translates as immortal/deity, 帝 can mean king/lord/emperor but 皇 definitely refers to an emperor. In fact, the term 禹皇 Yu Huang could be a wordplay on the Jade Emperor 玉皇 Yù Huáng)

“Oh No!”

Wu Bo, the 8th level Golden Immortal, quickly took out his transmitter pearl, “Master, we have trouble! Qin Yu has discovered our trap! We need you to get to the Amber Moon System quickly. Any delay and he will surely get away.”

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Meanwhile, in the Red Leaf System...

Upon receiving the message, Yu Qing Zi’s disappointment made him feel as if he had just been punched in the temple. “They had so many opportunities, but they give me just a ton of failures!” he grumbled. But he had no time right now to punish his errant disciples, he had to get some people to the Amber Moon System immediately!

“Everyone take note of the following orders! I will be leaving first along with brother Qian Qi and Xia Hua. We will then be followed by the Level 9 Golden Immortals. After that, Level 8 Golden Immortals will take up the rear. Everyone is to proceed as quickly as they can towards the Amber Moon System.”

Yu Qing Zi’s spiritual sense swept out to envelope the entire Red Leaf System. His call to arms could be clearly heard by all involved.

“Yu Qing Zi! What happened?” The Immortal Lord, Qian Qi, silently enquired.

Yu Qing Zi had a belly full of fire. This task had been carefully entrusted to him by the Emperor Yu. If they screwed it up, there would be hell to pay.

“I have no damn idea what those disciples at the Amber Moon System were doing, but they actually leaked our intentions to Qin Yu and he now knows that we are after him. Brother Qian Qi, Xia Hua, let’s move quickly. We can’t let him get away no matter what!”

“Indeed. Who would dare defy the orders of emperor Yu?!” Xia Hua agreed.

The three Immortal Lords immediately rushed towards the teleportation array leading to the Amber Moon System, and, in a few moments, close to seventy Level 9 Golden Immortals as well as nearly two hundred Level 8 Golden Immortals gathered nearby.

However, the teleportation array could only take ten people at any one time and there was no direct connection to the Amber Moon system, so everyone had to pass through several arrays to get to their destination.

“Let’s go!”

Yu Qing Zi, Qian Qi and Xia Hua immediately got into the teleportation array. In a flash of light, they were transported away just as ten Level 9 Golden Immortals quickly moved up to a similar teleportation array.

There were two routes leading from the Red Leaf System to the Amber Moon System and the three Immortal Lords naturally chose the shorter route.

A long line of Golden Immortals snaked their way down towards the two teleportation arrays. Their destination was the innocuous Amber Moon System, but, today, the quiet Amber Moon System would soon usher in the most glorious night in its entire history.

This night, the Amber Moon System would be flooded by such a huge number of experts as it had never been before in its entire recorded history.

The three Immortal Lords, seventy Level 9 and two hundred Level 8 Golden Immortals. The strength of such a team was absolutely unimaginable. Every single one of them was an expert in his own right. Even Level 7 Golden Immortals were not qualified to be a part of this team.

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Kong Lan, Tu Gan and Dan Meng were quietly waiting on Qin Yu, while Qin Yu himself was silently looking up upon the majesty of an amber moon. The moon within the Amber Moon System was truly amber in colour, its uniqueness was the system’s defining characteristic.

They were to leave early the next morning, and Qin Yu found that he did not want to spend the night sleeping.

All of a sudden, Qin Yu’s expression changed. With a flip of his palm, several jade slips appeared in his hand. As he looked upon the jade slips, Qin Yu’s eyes widened and his face turned ugly.

“Han Shu! Han Shu is in danger!” In the blink of an eye, Qin Yu’s spiritual sense spread out to cover the whole Amber Moon System.

Ever since his soul had fused with the meteoric tear, Qin Yu’s spiritual sense had advanced to a truly frightful degree. The basic restrictions set up by a Level 8 Golden Immortal simply could not hold him.

His spiritual sense very quickly focused in on the presence of Wu Bo and Liu Ming Han, and beside them, the fallen Liu Han Shu. In a flash, Qin Yu vanished, leaving behind him nothing more than a shock wave in the air. Kong Lan looked up, and after taking a brief moment to lock on to Qin Yu’s position, the three Level 9 Demon Kings swiftly followed.

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In the great hall of Liu Ming Weng’s mansion, Liu Han Shu had only just fallen and Wu Bo just sent his message, yet in a split second, Qin Yu appeared and rushed to Han Shu’s side.

“Han Shu! Han Shu!” Han Shu’s soul had already left his body. There was no one to reply to Qin Yu’s cries.

“Liu. Ming. Weng.” Qin Yu turned his eyes towards Liu Ming Weng, his body shaking from uncontrollable grief and anger.

“Liu Ming Weng. As an Elder of the Liu family, you actually conspired with the enemy to kill my disciple?! My only disciple!”

“No! No!” Liu Ming Weng protested, “It was the Jade Sword School. Nothing to do with me!”

Yet how could Qin Yu believe him at this point?

Shua!

In a flash, Qin Yu appeared before Liu Ming Weng, his speed was simply outrageous and even the Level 8 Golden Immortal Wu Bo felt that he would not be Qin Yu’s match. This was Qin Yu’s first display of speed since he had encountered the Dark Star.

With a wave of his arm, Qin Yu’s hand pierced right through Liu Ming Weng’s stomach and grabbed his YuanYing. Liu Ming Han could only stand there, shaking uncontrollably. He had absolutely no means of defence against Qin Yu’s amazing speed.

With his hand on Liu Ming Weng’s YuanYing, Qin Yu performed the secret magic art, Soul Search! With the help of his newly fused meteoric tear, it took but a moment for Qin Yu to find out exactly what had happened.

Whether it was the secret plans of the Jade Sword School, or the entire proceedings within the great hall that night, all was revealed to Qin Yu, whatever Liu Ming Weng had seen were now replayed in Qin Yu’s mind.

“Family? You dare talk to me about family? Do I have a family? The Liu family has given me nothing but insults, nothing but humiliation. Family? I’m worse than an orphan!”

As Qin Yu saw how his only disciple was pushed to the point of despair, he could not help but feel an even closer connection to this disciple of his. Desperation? Hopelessness? Didn’t he go through those feelings as well in his younger days?

“Are you surprised? Surprised by how red my face is? Let me tell you, I’ve just ingested poison! This poison can only be found in the Amber Moon System. Unfortunately, this is a poison that you immortals would surely know nothing about, but I know...”

As Qin Yu watched Han Shu put his own life on the line to save him, he could not help but be consumed by hatred.

“Foolish child... So what if my enemies came looking for me? Did you think they were even capable of killing your master? If only I had told you earlier of the true extent of my power, about my Jade Immortal Mansion, about my Beast Atlas. What have I to fear? Yet you sacrificed yourself for me, just so your death could be a warning to me, and I might not fall into their trap. Foolish child...”

“Master, these ten years that you have been with me have been years when I have finally been able to walk around with some measure of self-respect. These ten years have been far more worthwhile than a hundred, no, even a thousand years of living in shame and mediocrity. If, by my sacrifice, I am able to warn you of this coming danger, then it would have been a worthwhile sacrifice...”

Qin Yu looked on in silence as his disciple was dying, blood flowing from every pore of his skin. It brought back memories of how his own father had met with danger and how Qin Yu had sought to perish together with their enemies. The determination to do what needed to be done at any price, he now saw it in his disciple.

“My only regret... is her.” With his dying breath, Han Shu could still only think about her, his eyes misting over as if in a dream as he held on to this final thought, one which he was unwilling to let go of.

In his mind’s eye, Qin Yu looked on as the ramrod straight Han Shu slowly fell onto the ground with a loud “thud!” Qin Yu himself felt as if he had been physically hit by the sound of the body hitting the floor. He awoke with a start, his body trembling with equal parts sorrow and anger.

“Ahhhhh!” Qin Yu’s whole body was trembling. His hands were trembling, the muscles in his entire body were now so taut you could see the veins straining against his skin, and his eyes resembled a crazy predator’s as they fixed onto Wu Bo.

“Jade Sword School. This is a blood debt you must repay!”

“Only a Level 2 or 3 Golden Immortal.” Wu Bo sniffed. He could easily sense Qin Yu’s strength and looked on in disdain. After all, he was an eighth ranked Golden Immortal, and a Sword Immortal at that. He had nothing to fear from a mere third ranked Golden Immortal.

Wu Bo unsheathed his sword and attacked with a bang! With less than ten meters between them, when a Level 8 Golden Immortal faced off against a last stage Dark Star expert, there was simply no room to dodge!

Qin Yu was wearing a top grade immortal armour, and he also had an artifact armour hidden within his skin that could surface at a moment’s notice. Wu Bo’s sword landed squarely on Qin Yu’s armour and did not make so much as a scratch.

However, strangely enough, the energy behind that strike could be keenly felt by Qin Yu as if it had passed directly through his armour without being stopped by it at all. Wu Bo grinned evilly. If one’s YuanYing was weak, a Level 3 Golden Immortal would be completely obliterated by this single strike.

Unfortunately for him, Wu Bo had severely underestimated Qin Yu.

It was true that Qin Yu was only a late stage Dark Star expert, and without the use of any special weapons, his offensive strength would only be equivalent to a Level 3 Golden Immortal. However, Qin Yu’s body could be said to be even stronger than a Level 9 Golden Immortal’s! After all, it was extremely rare for an immortal to have trained their body to the extent that Qin Yu had, and, more importantly, Qin Yu was filled with a profound and limitless life force. Even when he was injured, his life force would replenish almost instantaneously.

Furthermore, Qin Yu’s body did not hide an ordinary, weak YuanYing, but held the extremely condensed strength of the Dark Star!

The strike that would be so devastating on someone else was easily brushed off by Qin Yu. The only question was, would Qin Yu’s offensive strength be sufficient to overcome the defense of a Level 8 Golden Immortal?

Wu Bo was only wearing a mid-grade immortal armour, yet, with his natural strength as a Level 8 Golden Immortal, Qin Yu might not be able to harm him even if he was using a top grade weapon!

In an instant, a short sword appeared in Qin Yu’s hand, and, in one smooth strike, pierced right through Wu Bo’s body and stabbed straight into his YuanYing, passing through Wu Bo’s armour as if it was made of paper.

“This is the first time I’ve used a divine weapon to kill someone,” Qin Yu whispered to Wu Bo as the latter looked on in surprise at the sword sticking through his chest.

“That’s ... Sky Piercer...?!” Wu Bo simply could not believe his eyes. Every single immortal was keenly familiar with Sky Piercer, the divine sword of the top sword immortal, Emperor Ni Yang. Could this short sword actually be that sword of legends, the divine Sky Piercer?

There was indeed a huge gulf between the strength of Qin Yu and Wu Bo. Were it not for Wu Bo’s initial assessment of Qin Yu’s aura that had led him to underestimate Qin Yu, there was no way that Wu Bo could have been killed so easily. In the end, it was still the shock factor of the divine Sky Piercer that made the difference.

The strength of divine weapons was such that it could allow an individual to defeat one who was several tiers of power above him. In addition, Sky Piercer was a mid-grade divine weapon, far more powerful than the low-grade divine weapon that Pan Mang had previously used.

“Foolish disciple, I decided not to use my sword immortal puppet, but to personally kill this man for you.” With a wave of his sleeve, Qin Yu respectfully stored away the body of Han Shu.

“Han Shu, once this is over I will give you a proper burial. As for now, let us make sure that we make your enemies pay for this with their own lives.”

In an instant, the sword immortal puppet had appeared and a beam of light passed from Qin Yu into the puppet. Just like that, Qin Yu’s soul was now within the sword immortal puppet.

With a wave of his hand, Qin Yu stored his body into the Jade Immortal Mansion. Of course, he knew that his own body was far more important than the sword immortal puppet. After all, he relied on his own body to progress in his training, and it was his body that possessed limitless potential for further growth and development.

But as for now, the sword immortal puppet was far stronger and far more suited to Qin Yu’s current purpose, which was slaughter -just plain, all out, mass-murderer-type slaughter.

As Qin Yu pushed open the doors of the great hall, Kong Lan, Tu Gan and Dan Meng were all respectfully waiting outside. They had known all along that Qin Yu was in the great hall, but they did not want to interrupt him in his grief.

“Master.” Kong Lan bowed deeply as he greeted Qin Yu.

Qin Yu raised his head to glance at the dark amber moon and whispered, “Kong Lan, have you noticed that under the light of this dark amber moon, this Amber Moon System simply isn’t red enough...”

Kong Lan’s pupils narrowed, his eyes revealing a hint of bloodlust, “Then perhaps we need to paint it a deeper shade of red... blood red!”

Hearing his reply, Qin Yu slowly nodded his head, “You’re right, we should paint it blood red, with the blood of our enemies.”

Staring at the open sky, Qin Yu’s sensitive spiritual sense had already detected several people approaching them with killing intent.

These three individuals were moving very fast and the aura they were giving off was so strong it made the inhabitants of Liu Feng City quake in their boots. Never before had they felt such fear from just an aura!

Three Immortal Lords!

In the dark of the night, three shadows stood side by side in the air, coldly looking down at three others below them.

“Three Level 9 Demon Kings, and they’re all Divine Beasts as well. Not bad at all.” The Immortal Emperor Qian Qi smiled as he remarked.

Just then, ten more shadows started flying over at breakneck speed; the first group of Level 9 Golden Immortals had arrived.

Turning from the Demon Kings, the Immortal Lord Qian Qi turned to glance at Qin Yu inside of the puppet.

“Are you with Qin Yu’s clan?” He felt that this person was rather mysterious and carried an unreadable air about him.

Qin Yu responded with a cold, cruel laugh.

“My clan disciple was killed by one of your men. He was my only disciple, and he died for me!”

Qin Yu’s obvious anger and frustration were pointedly ignored by the three Immortal Lords. By now, group after group of Level 9 Golden Immortals had arrived one after another, quickly followed by the many groups of Level 8 Golden Immortals.

“Nearly seventy Level 9 Golden Immortals, and almost two hundred Level 8 Golden Immortals.” Qin Yu looked on coldly at the arriving groups of immortals.

Almost three hundred experts formed up into two large circles in the air, looking straight down at Qin Yu and the three Demon Kings. Three hundred! Each one was no weaker than a Level 8 Golden Immortal. The aura they collectively gave out would suffocate a normal person to death.

“Looks like everyone should be here by now... right?” As Qin Yu asked that simple question, the surrounding immortals could not help but feel a sense of surprise.

“My dear disciple,” Qin Yu muttered to himself, “There was one thing that your teacher never had the chance to find out. The strength of this sword immortal puppet, when coupled with the power of the divine Sky Piercer... what sort of devastation do you think that would bring about?”

Qin Yu looked up, his gaze slowly falling on each and every Golden Immortal surrounding him.

“I guess today is the day when we will find out!”