A vast starry sea unfolded, cloaking the heavens. One after another, astral gates emerged with a pulse of power.

As the gates opened, Long Chen’s aura surged skyward. Heaven and earth trembled beneath the pressure, as though the will of the cosmos itself bowed before him. In that moment, he stood like the battle god of the starry sky—an existence looking down upon all creation.

Lei Yuner and the others had always known Long Chen was strong, but this... this was beyond their imagination. In his presence, even the terrifying three-hundred-flame divine sprouts seemed no greater than ants. They were in completely different dimensions.

The giant devil sneered, “It’s useless. This barrier is my Heaven Devil race’s—”

“Star Ocean—God Slaying Cross!”

Long Chen’s voice boomed like heavenly thunder, cutting the devil’s words in half. As his six astral gates quivered, his palm slammed against the barrier.

Divine light brighter than the blazing sun burst from his strike. The next moment, a solid cross of power descended and crushed the barrier.

The world itself shook. Even after retreating far into the distance, Lei Yuner felt her body and soul being pulled apart by the sheer force of his concentrated might.

“This is... the human race’s number one expert?” a Lightning Falcon clansman stammered, his voice trembling.

He had once been a proud hundred-flame divine sprout. With absolute confidence, he had entered the heaven region’s battlefield. But as he and his comrades were hunted down, his confidence gradually reached rock bottom.

Now, his rock-bottom confidence nearly crumbled to dust. The gap between him and Long Chen was so vast that it left only despair.

But this was nothing unusual—he wasn’t the only one feeling that way. When Long Chen had fought Long Biluo, even five-hundred-flame divine sprouts had felt their futures dim into darkness.

At this moment, the giant barrier shattered beneath Long Chen’s palm. Countless runic fragments exploded outward, scattering into nothingness.

“So what if your will backs this barrier? Before me, your will means nothing!” Long Chen declared.

He stood beyond the ruins of the barrier, his cold gaze locked on the giant devil.

Long Chen’s will was like a boulder. Though he had once been tormented by a heart-devil, his confidence had never wavered. No will had ever managed to shake him. After all, he had endured the relentless grilling of heavenly tribulations. Even if this devil had been a Divine Sovereign, could his will possibly surpass that of the Heavenly Daos?

If the laws of the heavens themselves could not force Long Chen to bow, then certainly this devil could not.

As the barrier fell, the giant who had perished alongside the devil started to tremble. Dust flaked from its body, and faint starry runes started to emerge around it.

“As expected, it’s a nine star heir!” Long Chen exclaimed.

Long Chen’s heart stirred. The aura of astral energy was unmistakable—it was a nine star heir from the primal chaos era, one who had reached the Divine Sovereign realm. Such a being would surely know countless secrets of the nine star lineage.

“Damn you!” roared the giant devil.

Black qi seeped from its body like writhing pythons, coiling tightly around the nine star heir’s body. In response, the starry runes on the giant’s corpse shone brighter, pushing back the encroaching pythons.

“Damn it all! After countless years, I won’t let everything fail at the very end!” the devil howled.

Suddenly, a black chain lashed from its body toward the divine bird beside it. The bird quivered violently as black qi surged from its body, flowing into the devil.

In an instant, Long Chen understood—one of the birds was the devil’s contractual beast. Even in death, its soul essence remained, which allowed the devil to draw upon its power.

The devil shouted, “Someone barely clinging to life shouldn’t be this hard to deal with! I’ll sacrifice my contractual beast if it means devouring you!”

Black qi gushed from the devil like a tsunami, and its aura swelled to a terrifying peak.

Lei Yuner and the others froze in horror as an overwhelming Sovereign might locked their bodies and souls in place.

“How can a discarnate soul have this much power?!” Lei Yuner gritted her teeth, her eyes wide with disbelief.

The black qi wound itself around the nine star heir’s corpse, coiling tighter and tighter until it could no longer move. The darkness compressed, greedily drawing away its power.

“I must stop him!”

Long Chen stepped forward. The next moment, starlight gathered around him, and a cross appeared on his palm once more.

“Scram!” the devil roared, shooting black chains out of his body.

BOOM!

Long Chen’s left hand flashed with power, condensing starlight into a blazing sphere that smashed into the chain, shattering it to pieces.

However, the impact blasted him backward, forcing a grunt from his lips. The God Slaying Cross in his right hand then dissipated.

Even Long Chen felt a jolt of shock. Just what kind of existence was this devil?

More black chains shot toward him, stabbing through the void like pitch-black swords.

Long Chen stepped on the air, splitting into a blur of afterimages as he wove between them, each flash of starlight carrying him forward. However, there were too many chains. Long Chen couldn’t accelerate as he dodged them.

He didn’t dare block them again. After all, one solid hit would shatter his technique. If that happened, the devil would never give him another opening.

Several times, Long Chen nearly reached the devil’s corpse, only to be driven back. Watching it siphon away the nine star heir’s power made his chest tighten with urgency.

His head rapidly worked as he thought of what could be effective against it.

While the devil was long dead, its corpse was its foundation. As long as Long Chen could destroy its corpse, its soul would definitely be heavily damaged.

From how crazily it was attacking Long Chen, its body was indeed its fatal weak point. It would not let him get close.

“Brat, you’re impressive,” the devil sneered. “But once I devour your soul and seize your body, my strength will soar. None of you will leave here alive.”

Just then, there was a sudden turn of events.

The second divine bird suddenly moved. Lightning runes blazed across its body, clustering into a burning sun.

Its flesh shriveled in an instant; its feathers and bones split apart, releasing every last shred of lightning within.

The lightning sphere tore free from the bird’s corpse, streaking toward the distant Lei Yuner. She tried to dodge on instinct, but she couldn’t move. In the end, the lightning sphere swallowed her whole.

A surge of terrifying power exploded outward, and Lei Yuner’s aura transformed.

All of a sudden, she shouted, “Damn Heaven Devil! I will not allow you to blaspheme my master!”

Her voice dripped with bloodlust, and her soul’s aura warped into something feral and unyielding.

In the blink of an eye, she tore through the devil’s layers of chains and appeared before its corpse, a spear of pure lightning forming in her grasp.