The Abandoned Nest — one of the two most infamous danger zones in the Hengluo Star Domain. Treacherous terrain, wicked people. The only place that could rival its reputation was the equally notorious Spine of Stars.
These two locations harbored well over ninety percent of all pirate gangs in the entire star domain. Exiled martial artists who had made their homes here were without exception vicious, blood-soaked, and utterly ruthless.
For millennia, the three great powers of the star domain had clashed with them repeatedly, even joining forces in attempts to eradicate them. But whether it was the Abandoned Nest or the Spine of Stars, both were natural fortresses that were easy to defend and hard to attack, shielded by enormous natural formations. They could not be conquered by force, and each failed assault had only resulted in heavy losses, until the matter was eventually left alone.
The Abandoned Nest was not truly a nest of any kind, but rather a region of extreme chaos. Erratic force fields, raging meteorite seas, and violent star storms formed its most natural barriers. Without knowledge of the correct passages through, even a Void King realm cultivator of the third stage could perish if lost within.
At the heart of this chaotic region lay numerous colossal, fractured meteorites drifting across the void. Each one was immeasurable in size, and the countless pirate gangs of the Abandoned Nest had sunk their roots into these meteorites, reproducing and growing over endless generations.
Those innumerable pirate gangs, large and small, were the fundamental building blocks of the Abandoned Nest.
Among them, the strongest and largest was known as the Blood Fury Pirate Gang. Its leader, Jiang Xuesong, possessed the astonishing cultivation of a third-stage Void King realm expert. Such strength placed him among the absolute peak of the entire star domain, with few rivals in the world. He was a creature of malice — and naturally, he reigned as king among the wicked.
Jiang Xuesong had cultivated for fifteen hundred years. Rumor had it that his origins were somehow connected to the Sword Alliance, one of the three great powers of the star domain. In his youth, he had been a prodigious talent of the Sword Alliance, highly regarded by its upper echelons and given every possible resource for his development.
But something had gone terribly wrong. He ended up murdering his own master and killing his own brother, betraying the Sword Alliance and fleeing into the Abandoned Nest. Several centuries later, a new pirate gang had emerged from this place — the Blood Fury.
Jiang Xuesong's hair had gone streaked with gray. He had entered the twilight of his years, which was quite uncommon for a third-stage Void King realm expert. Despite his advanced age, his posture was straight as a sword. It seemed the training he had received in his youth at the Sword Alliance still shaped him. Seated there, he resembled an unsheathed blade, its edge held in reserve.
Across the table sat a wizened old man, delicately sipping tea. His entire being radiated a profoundly unsettling aura of blood. Though similarly advanced in years, a closer look revealed that blood energy churned across his body with a vigor that surpassed even that of a man in his prime. And it was no ordinary blood energy — it carried an eerie, sinister quality, deeply unsettling to behold.
"Has the Chief Leader uncovered anything?" The old man set down his teacup and asked the question softly.
Within the Abandoned Nest, Jiang Xuesong was the absolute ruler. No one had ever dared speak to him as an equal, let alone pose questions in such a manner. Though it was phrased as an inquiry, it carried the faint arrogance of a superior addressing a subordinate.
The old man's cultivation was also at the third stage of the Void King realm — no weaker than Jiang Xuesong's in the slightest. The markings on his garments further revealed his origin.
The Great Desolation Star Domain. The Yellow Springs Sect.
This old man was in fact a Vice Sect Master of the Yellow Springs Sect. To this day, Jiang Xuesong still did not know his name. The old man simply called himself Elder Ying.
A swordsman was forged through killing intent, his sword heart unyielding, preferring to break rather than bend — and this was doubly true for a peerless sword master like Jiang Xuesong. Had anyone else dared show him even a hint of disrespect, he would have cut them down with a single stroke to teach them a lesson. But with this Elder Ying, he had no confidence of certain victory. More importantly, though he found the old man's implicit condescension grating, he had no desire to make an enemy of the Yellow Springs Sect. Over the past decade, he had witnessed firsthand how powerful the Yellow Springs Sect truly was. If it came to blows, even the Abandoned Nest could not withstand their assault.
He answered in a low voice: "Nothing useful. The people from your star domain perished too quickly. No useful intelligence came through at all."
Elder Ying said: "Surely there must be some lead?"
Over these past several months, the Great Desolation Star Domain had suffered devastating casualties. More than half of the gains from over a decade of invasion had been wiped out. One star system after another had gone silent — Dichen, the Dark Star, the Water Moon Star, the Cuiwei Star…
He did not particularly care about the fates of martial artists from other powers. What concerned him was the situation of the Yellow Springs Sect's own disciples.
Most chilling of all, he had completely lost contact with the Tongxuan Continent.
There was a Vice Sect Master stationed over there, whose cultivation was on par with his own, backed by four additional third-stage Void King realm experts. With such a lineup, what could the Hengluo Star Domain possibly do to resist, let alone launch an extermination?
Perhaps there had been some minor incident over there that caused the communication to break. That was always possible.
But the moment this conjecture arose, even Elder Ying himself could not convince himself of it. His instincts told him something was deeply wrong, yet he could not pinpoint what. So he had sent Jiang Xuesong to dispatch people and investigate.
And this was the answer he received — one that left him quite displeased.
"There truly are no leads. If Elder Ying does not believe me, you are welcome to send your own people to investigate," Jiang Xuesong replied, his tone neither humble nor arrogant.
Unlike the Spine of Stars, which had submitted to the Great Desolation Star Domain, the path he had chosen was one of cooperation. He would cooperate with the Great Desolation Star Domain to destroy the Sword Alliance and settle the blood debt of old. And in terms of results, the collaboration had gone reasonably well.
The Sword Alliance had indeed been destroyed. The cultivation stars it controlled had fallen into the hands of Great Desolation's martial artists. The Alliance had crumbled apart, with only the Young Alliance Master managing to escape, fleeing to the Tongxuan Continent to take refuge.
But even the Tongxuan Continent was hanging by a thread. Once the Yellow Springs Sect's plan succeeded, the Young Alliance Master would have nowhere to hide — and when that time came, death would be certain.