“This is the real vacuum environment of outer space, not an illusion created by a magic formation!”
Ding Hao became more and more stunned.
Since this environment was a kind of boundary formation, how could one break it?
It was a pity that Ding Hao still could not contact the Saber Master and the Sword Master, those two old freaks. Otherwise, they would certainly have figured it out.
“According to legend, the Starry River Boundary Formation is extremely horrific. No matter how powerful you are, if you can’t control the coordinates of the formation, you’ll be teleported out of the galaxy into outer space, even if you managed to breach it. And you’ll be lost forever in the cold, dark and starry sky, and never find your way back.”
Uncle Tianshu was sighing by the side.
“Then what should we do?” Ding Hao frowned.
He released his Divine Senses, directing them to several kilometers away. However, what he felt was only a vast emptiness. He detected neither the eyes nor coordinates of any formation. He could not find any flaws either.
Uncle Tianshu gazed at Ding Hao, full of expectancy. He said with a grin, “I heard that you’re also a great inscription formation master…”
“Wait, wait. I can tell you’re up to no good again.” Ding Hao looked at the wretched smile on Uncle Tianshu’s face and instantly understood what he meant. He immediately said, “This Starry River Boundary Formation before us has far exceeded the range of a inscription formation. You can’t make me go in and break the formation. I can simply turn around and leave. I don’t really need the Three Great Divine Artifacts.”
Uncle Tianshu’s face immediately fell.
He loitered around the edge of the square, looking eager to try. But in the end, he restrained himself.
Between yearning for the Divine Artifacts and safeguarding his life, he still chose the latter.
“In theory, so many absolute masters of the Human and the Demon Clans have reached this level. Why don’t I see them here?” Ding Hao wondered suddenly. There was only one explanation—they had breached the Starry River Boundary Formation, and had gone beyond the First Celestial Level.
This explanation shocked Ding Hao.
Since those masters could break through the Starry River Boundary Formation, it must mean there was still a way to breach it. There must be some weakness one could exploit, or some special ways to overcome it.
Ding Hao focused his eyes and began to observe carefully.
He tried his best to activate his Divine Senses and extend them toward the distant starry sky.
Quite unconsciously, Ding Hao had already activated his “My Thoughts and I Are One” Divine Sense to the full.
“No, I still can’t find any flaws. Did I guess wrong…?”
Ding Hao frowned.
He activated his Divine Senses with all his power.
All of a sudden, at this very moment, there was a sharp pain on his forehead, like he was being scraped by a scalpel. Something seemed to have erupted out of his forehead, shooting toward the cold, dark and endless void. At almost the same time, Ding Hao found everything before him to have changed.
Before his eyes, the originally lonely, dark and empty galaxy was changing, like a three-dimensional painting. Although it looked real, there were flaws everywhere. There were extremely subtle cracks in the spatial components. Through these fine cracks, Ding Hao could vaguely see what was behind.
“So that’s how it is…”
Ding Hao suddenly felt enlightened.
Uncle Tianshu and Evil Moon were staggered.
These two rapacious fellows, who were willing to risk their lives for the Three Great Divine Artifacts, were originally racking their brains, trying to break down the Starry River Boundary Formation before them. The next moment, a sacred and majestic aura, like that of a Saint, reached their sides. Then, an exalted golden column of light burst out from there and shot into the endless void.
“What’s going on?”
“Meow? What happened?”
The two of them turned back to look, and were stunned immobile like they had been struck by lightning.
Ding Hao stood in the void three meters above the ground, like a deity. His arms were wide open, like he was giving someone a big hug. A golden column of light, like the Primordial Light at the beginning of creation, shot out from his forehead between his eyebrows into the endless void of the galaxy.
Wherever this golden light passed, ripples would appear in the Starry River Boundary Formation, which had formerly been impregnable. Something strange that they could not understand was happening now.
“Immeasurable Lord of Heaven, this guy has indeed found a way!” Uncle Tianshu was overjoyed.
“Meow, what’s going on? Have you opened your Third Eye?” The Demon King, Evil Moon, indicated that it did not quite understand, but this did not stop it from hopping in ecstasy. “If Ding Hao breaches the Starry River Boundary Formation, meow, I can seize the Three Great Divine Artifacts! Meow, who will then dare to provoke a cat with a Divine Artifact like me?”
The Third Eye?
Evil Moon’s unintentional remark made Uncle Tianshu realize something and shiver in his heart.
On closer inspection, the golden column of light had burst out from between Ding Hao’s eyebrows, passing through the exalted and sacred golden flame. He could vaguely see that slit between Ding Hao’s eyebrows—no, to be exact, it was an inverted eye!
The sacred and exalted golden flame had shot out of that eye, emitting an aura resembling a god’s, giving everyone an urge to kneel down and prostrate before him.
The vertical eye!
Was it the legendary Third Eye?!
Uncle Tianshu almost cried out in surprise.
He knew very well how powerful the legendary Third Eye was.
The real Third Eye was a god-given faculty. One could allegedly see through every worldly illusion, as well as comprehend its rules and laws. Everyone with it could memorize a cultivation or magic technique at one glance, and unravel its profundities. It was one of the supreme Eyes of the martial arts world.
How could Ding Hao have such magical power?
“No, no, it’s not quite like the legendary Third Eye. It can’t be the Third Eye…” Uncle Tianshu suddenly remembered something and shook his head. The inverted eye between Ding Hao’s eyebrows was different from the Third Eye he knew from legends.
The real Third Eye could see everything in the world, and destroy all illusions once it emitted a light.
Although the golden light from Ding Hao’s vertical eye was sacred and powerful, it did not shatter the Starry River Boundary Formation before them completely. It was much weaker in power.
“Could it be some kind of unknown eye technique?”
Uncle Tianshu could not quite figure it out.
“It’s getting more and more difficult to see through this guy. He has given me too many surprises.”
He wondered how far Ding Hao would advance in the future.
Would it make those arrogant guys who chose that girl regret?
“If that’s the case, what an old fella like me did in the past can still be useful to this new generation.”
Uncle Tianshu sighed in his heart.
Soon, he realized that since Ding Hao really had such horrific eye power, that scene outside the Towering Buddha Pagoda he saw from the 97th-floor secret chamber must be real. In other words, many thousand Spirits of the Dead must be assembling in the pagoda, together with that terrifying man, their manipulator…
“This world will be in total chaos…”
“I understand now.”
Ding Hao started to feel tired. The moment when everything turned back into that cold, dark and starry sky, he finally understood.
The pain on his forehead had disappeared. When he reached out to touch it, the skin there seemed smooth and scarless. This time, Ding Hao was not as alarmed as before.
He had somewhat realized that this strange change must have been affected by the golden light bead, when it lingered in his sea of consciousness like an uninvited guest. It could be some kind of magical power from the Three-headed Heavenly Hound, although Ding Hao had no way to fully master it.
“It has actually disappeared.” Uncle Tianshu had seen it clearly from the side. When that golden light disappeared, the vertical eye on Ding Hao’s forehead vanished too. The slit had closed, like it had never existed.
“I have discovered the flaw in this Starry River Boundary Formation. Let’s go.”
Ding Hao remained where he was, recovering his Qi and regulating his breathing. After replenishing his exhausted Divine Senses, he slowly stood up and gathered all his strength. The sound of cracking bones, like frying beans, could be heard from his body. Finally, they transformed into tigerish roars. An invisible Qi aura emanated from his body.
“It’s right there!”
A glimmer of light flashed past Ding Hao’s eyes, and he suddenly threw a punch.
A purple dragon roar resounded, as he unleashed his terrible punch, precisely hitting a strange dot about 10 meters away.
“Boom!”
The space was in turmoil.
It was as if glass had shattered. Incredible cracks appeared in this boundless galaxy.
“Now’s the time… Let’s go!”
Ding Hao shouted and streaked toward that crack.
Uncle Tianshu lifted the two tiger cubs and the Demon King, Evil Moon, with his arms. With the black puppy clinging onto his ankle, he urged the big white tigress he was riding to jump through that crack in the galaxy, which was about to close.
He did not doubt Ding Hao’s judgment at all.
The next instant when the company entered through the crack, it flashed and completely disappeared.
As if nothing had happened.
The Starry River Boundary Formation returned to normal—it turned back into that same cold, dark and starry sky again. Endless starlight was twinkling a long way away, distant and alluring, giving off an eternal coldness and loneliness, making everyone yearn for it, yet fearful at the same time.
“Meow, we’re through! Meow, haha…”
On the 101th floor of the Towering Buddha Pagoda, Evil Moon’s excited laughter rang out.
Everything in front of them had returned to normal.
It was a limited space with pale red walls. In the center was the spiral staircase leading to the next floor. The story was quite dark, meaning that Ding Hao and his companions must have returned to the normal space inside the tower. Unlike the preceding levels, they had finally found this floor furnished—albeit rather simply, with a few pale red stone tables and chairs. It resembled a large lecture hall for teaching martial arts.
