Chapter 801: The Proud Sun of Ten Thousand Realms (VIII)
Tu Zi Lin was inconspicuous among True Immortals, yet his fate caused others to feel a sense of shared misfortune.
The True Immortals who had fallen before him were all but ghosts; their demise after being unsealed was only natural.
But Tu Zi Lin was different; he still had thousands of years of life left, an immortal in his prime. His destruction, therefore, brought an undoubtedly greater shock to the others.
Soon enough, however, they no longer had the luxury of distraction.
For the pressure emanating from the Sun began to multiply exponentially.
Bai Mo was accelerating the pulling of the Sun from another realm, doing so in a manner that was almost equivalent to burning his own essence.
"Is he mad?" The first to feel the brunt of the impact was naturally Daoist Chen, whose Dharma Body enveloped the entire demonized Sun.
As a "human Dyson Sphere," his gray mist Dharma Body, which covered the surface of the demonized Sun, grew increasingly distorted under the escalating, violent impact. Tumor-like masses constantly erupted outwards, and the gray mist layer thinned more and more, resembling a ballooning orb of flesh pushed to its limits, poised to explode at any moment.
As for the True Immortals of the Dao Chen Realm, who were on the front lines confronting the demon Sun, they found even the circulation of their Immortal Yuan energy becoming arduous.
"His time is running out," the Zerg Mother said.
After a series of telepathic exchanges, they finally understood that the being before them dared to casually absorb Dao Toxin for his own use, refining it into a body of myriad poisons.
The reason cultivators in the Dao Chen Realm cultivated slowly was largely due to the immense amount of time they had to spend refining Purple-Green Great Medicine to dispel the pervasive Dao Toxin.
...
"Master, save me!"
A cry for help from not far off interrupted the divine sense communication of the great leaders.
Hu Yan Golden Immortal, a disciple of Yuan Shi Dao Ren, had, through a moment of carelessness, been invaded by an inner demon; his cultivation was rapidly dissipating, and pale green gas continuously seeped from his immortal body, indicating he was on the verge of being reduced to a mortal once more.
"How dare that rascal!"
Yuan Shi waved his right hand, conjuring a golden, gleaming whisk.
The whisk's threads flew, swiftly wrapping Hu Yan Golden Immortal's entire body like a mummy, temporarily halting the further disintegration of his immortal form.
...
Divine Terra Empire, Capital Ship Marinjoia, Celestial God Palace.
"Reporting, Speaker! A Level One Classified matter has arisen!"
Inside the resplendent Celestial God Palace, the Empire was holding its daily morning court.
The Empress, as usual, sat in the center as a mere figurehead, still wearing the malevolent Divine Terra Empire Crown, flanked on either side by representatives of the various high-ranking Electors.
The meeting was still being presided over by Ji Er Ke Fu, who was now in his thirteenth consecutive term.
"Emergency notification from the Gravity Monitoring Department: The collapse rate of the Sun star has suddenly increased drastically. It is estimated it may completely disappear from this realm within three years."
"..."
"What a truly grand gesture, to actually move the entire Sun to another realm."
At this moment, the vanguard of the Empire's fleet had already departed the Solar System, entering the outer reaches of the Proxima Centauri system, while the main fleet had also reached the fringes of both star systems.
At such an immense distance, the Sun's gravitational pull no longer held significant sway over them.
"The Dao Chen Realm has suddenly had so much matter crammed into it; the entire world will be turned upside down."
"But what concern is that of ours?"
"The Sun's normal lifespan still has at least five billion years remaining. If a civilization with an astrophysical understanding comparable to ours were observing the starry sky, it's hard to say what they might discover."
"So what? This universe has long since become a Galactic Deathmatch Arena."
As far back as the Federation era, over a hundred years ago, numerous probes had already been launched into deep space. After more than a century of flight, the furthest among them had now reached the very center of the Proxima Centauri system.
According to the information they transmitted back, the Proxima Centauri system contained a total of four planets. Under the influence of Spirit Qi, one of them had already developed a rudimentary civilization, while the other three also showed signs of life.
"..."
"What's more, when the Sun vanishes, it won't be us who need to fear, but the other races who witness it..."
"To witness the Sun's extinguishment is to have lived a life not in vain."
"..."
"May your lifespan rival that of the Sun, Moon, and stars."
"..."
"Well, if you're so eloquent, by all means, elaborate."
In just two short centuries, the seemingly eternal Sun and Moon had both fallen prey to humanity's "poisoned hand." The Moon was initially transformed into a lunar fortress by the Human Federation, and after Mars was occupied and vast quantities of Void Profound Crystals were acquired, it was further disassembled into multiple Moon God-class dreadnoughts.
The people of the Divine Terra Empire could now be categorized into three types based on their perception of the Moon. The first type consisted of "youngsters" who had never seen the true Moon; their understanding of it limited solely to historical records.
The second type were the "Moon Dwellers," those born on the Moon during the era when the Human Federation had departed Earth to settle there. For them, the Moon was their mother planet, and they held the strongest objections to its dismantling.
The final category comprised the "elders," those truly born in the Earth era. The ordinary people who had left during the Earth era had all since passed away, leaving only a handful of cultivators who originated from Earth.
...
Three years passed in the blink of an eye.
The last wisp of light from the Sun vanished silently into the cosmos.
Of course, the Imperial fleet, located over two light-years away, would only be able to witness the complete "disappearance" of the Sun more than two years later.
Nevertheless, they had long since calculated the exact date through computer simulations.
To commemorate the Sun, which once bestowed life upon all things, the Empire designated this day as a legal holiday—the Sun Festival—to be celebrated annually, echoing the Moon Festival which commemorated the Moon.
...
Compared to the people of the Divine Terra Empire, who were celebrating the Sun Festival and enjoying an extra day off, the cultivators of the Dao Chen Realm were utterly devastated, for they simply could not withstand the might of a fully formed star.
The gray mist that once enveloped the entire demonized Sun now clung to it like a tattered cloth casually draped, barely able to protect a few scattered regions.
Vast areas within the Dao Chen Realm, not under the control of the two great Dao Venerable sects, had already been strategically abandoned.
Over eighty Immortals, after being pushed to the brink of exhaustion, were invaded by inner demons. Most of them fell back into the mortal realm, transforming into ordinary humans. A select few, those with the deepest foundations and under the protection of a Dao Venerable, were temporarily sealed within Dao Venerable Dharma artifacts to sleep, thereby preserving the majority of their cultivation.
At this point, whether it was Yuan Shi Dao Ren, Daoist Chen, or the Zerg Mother, all inevitably appeared somewhat haggard after years of ultra-high-intensity confrontation.
The power emanating from that demonic Sun was simply inexhaustible; for mere cultivators to resist it was akin to Jingwei attempting to fill the sea—a task of overwhelming hopelessness.
Yet they had not given up, for the two great sects still possessed three Space-Fixing Immortal Talismans. As soon as the spatial turbulence subsided just a little more, simultaneously unleashing all three talismans would allow them to temporarily create a stable zone, enabling those who had already prepared to escape to safety.
As for the matter of the Purple-Green Spirit Elixir, they could only choose the lesser of two evils.
Being infected by the demonic Sun meant immediate loss of all cultivation and transformation into a mortal, whereas the reserves of Purple-Green Great Medicine could still sustain them for a considerable period.
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