On this day, Li Jiao had just finished dealing with a group of martial artists who had arrived here attempting to flee back to the Great Desolation Star Domain, and was making his way back to the meteorite with a carefree air.
Lü Sanniang greeted him with a bright smile.
Years of living together had dissolved all the barriers that once stood between them. Li Jiao had even come to treat Lü Yuqin as his own daughter, which moved Lü Sanniang to no end—she had even harbored the thought of spending the rest of her life here with Li Jiao, keeping each other company until the end of their days.
But she knew it was only a pipe dream. Li Jiao and Yang Kai would inevitably return to the Star Realm, and when that time came, she would bring her daughter along with Li Jiao to the Dragon Vein Palace.
It was precisely because of this that she cherished every moment of happiness before her all the more.
"You must be tired," Lü Sanniang asked softly.
Li Jiao replied proudly, "A bunch of clownish nobodies, nothing more." Though he had sealed his cultivation, he still possessed the foundation of a Third-Order Emperor Realm powerhouse. Slaughtering a pack of ants who had not even reached the Void King Realm was simply overkill.
He figured the main reason Yang Kai had stationed him here was to give him and Lü Sanniang time and opportunity to be together.
He reached out, wrapped an arm around Lü Sanniang's soft waist, and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead.
Lü Sanniang blushed furiously and chided, "Yuqin is right here!"
Before the words had even left her mouth, Lü Yuqin suddenly burst out from the stone cottage, hands clapped over her eyes. She transformed into a streak of light and shot off into the distance, her voice drifting back: "I'm going out for a walk. It's so stuffy staying here!"
"That girl!" Lü Sanniang knew full well what her daughter was thinking.
Li Jiao said, "Now she's gone." Even as he spoke, he bent down, scooped Lü Sanniang up in his arms, and strode toward the stone cottage in wide steps. Lü Sanniang's heart fluttered as she nestled against his broad chest, her entire body going soft.
But his long strides suddenly halted. The smile on Li Jiao's face froze, and he snapped his head up to stare toward the Void Passage a thousand li away.
In that instant, he had felt a surge of danger. Instinctively, the sensation seemed almost absurd—after all, his cultivation was what it was. In a lower-plane star domain like this, what could possibly pose a threat to him? To put it bluntly, in this entire star field, apart from Yang Kai, no one could be his match.
Well, Liu Yan had to be excluded as well.
The Void Passage appeared unchanged, yet at the same time seemed to have grown deeper. Darkness suddenly expanded across Li Jiao's field of vision, spreading outward at a terrifying speed. Vast swathes of the starry sky were swallowed by that darkness, vanishing without a trace. In that instant, the Void Passage had expanded outward.
"This is bad!" Li Jiao's face drained of color, and he whipped his head around to look in the direction Lü Yuqin had gone.
Not far away, Lü Yuqin seemed to have been struck dumb with fright, standing rooted in place, staring blankly at the darkness surging toward her.
There was no time to think. Li Jiao clutched Lü Sanniang in one arm and shot toward Lü Yuqin in a flicker, arriving before her in the blink of an eye. He seized her hand and barked, "Move!"
His figure streaked away like thunder and lightning, fleeing at extraordinary speed. He had no idea what had happened here, but this was far beyond something he could handle—he had to inform Yang Kai immediately.
Suddenly, every hair on Li Jiao's body stood on end. Deep in his senses, he felt as though someone was watching him—invisible eyes observing his every move.
A faint sound of surprise murmured by his ear, barely audible, as though it were nothing more than an illusion.
But the next moment, an immense force of constraint enveloped him, bringing his fleeing form to a jarring halt.
"Don't leave my side no matter what!" In that moment of mortal peril, Li Jiao roared at Lü Sanniang and her daughter. He surged his Emperor Yuan, wrapping both women within its protective embrace.
The darkness surged in. The light before his eyes vanished!
…
Day after day, year after year.
Yang Kai traversed the star field, losing all sense of time's passage. Every thought was consumed by the process of refinement.
Within his spiritual sea, the Star Map had been illuminated to more than ninety percent, with only the tiniest fraction remaining. Over these years, his footprints had covered nearly the entire star field, leaving not even the most remote, most isolated corner untouched.
With the Star Map as his guide, he never lost his way. He knew clearly which places he had visited and which he had not. Everything proceeded in orderly fashion.
Drawing the origin essence of ten thousand stars into himself and dispersing his own aura across the entirety of the star field—this was a project of staggering magnitude. Yet Yang Kai did not find it the least bit tedious.
With each successive refinement, he gained ever greater clarity.
Originally, after his experiences upon returning to the star field, he had already possessed tremendous confidence in advancing to the Second-Order Emperor Realm. Now, he was nearly one hundred percent certain that the moment he returned to the Star Realm, he would be able to break through immediately.
Still not enough! A tiny fraction remained unrefined.
Truthfully, he was more curious about how Wu Kuang had managed to refine a Star Field Origin. It certainly had not been achieved through the same painstaking, grinding effort he was employing. Perhaps Wu Kuang had accomplished the same feat in the shortest possible time, with the greatest possible efficiency.
But the man had lived for so many countless years after all. It was only natural that he would possess some extraordinary techniques and secret arts.
Time flowed on, and how much passed he could not say.
When the final section of the Star Map in his spiritual sea was illuminated, Yang Kai heard a deafening boom, as though muffled thunder had detonated inside his skull. The explosion left him dizzy and disoriented, golden sparks dancing before his eyes.
Once he recovered, elation spread across his face.
It was finally done!