Nine Star Hegemon Body Art

Long Zaiye was deep in communion with the Jiuli Divine Stele. A Jiuli rune was slowly branding itself onto his wings, and through a mirroring effect, the rune became two. He smiled in satisfaction. Compared to the other experts of the four divine clans, he had a huge natural advantage when it came to comprehending the Jiuli divine runes.

This advantage stemmed from his wings—a relic from beyond the heavens, which was acquired by a Long clan ancestor during the primal chaos era. However, these wings were no mere object; they seemed to possess a will of their own. For countless years, no one in the Long clan had been able to tame them, until Long Zaiye’s birth. Astonishingly, the wings took the initiative to accept him as their master, becoming his most formidable weapon.

These wings possessed boundless power. Even now, Long Zaiye didn’t know just how strong they were.

Long Zaiye could only draw upon a fraction of their strength. Whether that fraction was one percent or less, he couldn’t say. But one thing was certain: once he fully awakened the wings’ potential, he would ascend to the peak of the nine heavens.

Currently, he was channeling the power of his divine blood to strip runes from the Jiuli Divine Stele and merge them into his wings. With fifty-six runes already fused, he was exceedingly pleased with himself. After all, a Long clan ancestor had only managed to comprehend seventeen runes to ascend to the half-step Sovereign realm, while Long Zaiye had surpassed that milestone.

To Long Zaiye, the heavenly geniuses of the four divine clans, even Jiang Yue’e—monikered the War Goddess—were beneath him. The moniker of war god was a specific Heavenly Dao mark from the primal chaos era, and those possessing this mark had unparalleled blessings from the heavens.

Yet, Long Zaiye dismissed it as irrelevant in this new era. Even if the title held weight, how many runes could she possibly comprehend? Certainly, not more than him.

As Long Zaiye basked in his growing power, the space before him suddenly shattered like a mirror. The face he detested most appeared before him.

Before he could react, Long Chen’s hand slapped him in the face.

Long Zaiye was sent tumbling into the distance. However, the slap failed to injure him. Instead, Long Chen felt a sharp sting in his hand. The moment Long Chen’s hand made contact, the runes on Long Zaiye’s divine wings flashed, forming a protective layer of divine light. Though the slap propelled Long Zaiye, it didn’t injure him at all.

“What powerful wings,” Long Chen muttered, amazed.

With those wings, killing Long Zaiye would be no easy task. At this moment, Long Chen felt a trace of regret. He should have aimed to kill Long Zaiye outright instead of taunting him. The longer he delayed, the stronger his opponent would become.

“Don’t be so greedy,” the Earth Cauldron’s voice rang out in Long Chen’s mind. “Even if you tried to kill him, you would likely not succeed. And even if you did, you’d be too injured to survive.”

After a brief pause, the Earth Cauldron continued, “The Jiuli Divine Stele only rejected you lightly. Did you think that’s because you were strong? It’s because you were the first to enter its inner world. The second one to enter will face double the rejection, and so on and so on. It gets harder the later you come.”

Long Chen hadn’t known this. It seemed his ability to merge with the Jiuli Divine Stele so seamlessly was largely due to his timing.

After slapping Long Zaiye, Long Chen was about to pursue him when the space around him twisted, and a powerful suction force yanked him out of Long Zaiye’s domain.

Long Chen had borrowed the final power of the Jiuli Divine Stele in his space to break through its barriers and reach Long Zaiye’s domain. However, this space belonged to Long Zaiye. As an outsider, Long Chen was immediately rejected when the Jiuli Divine Stele sensed the intrusion.

Long Chen tried to resist, but he couldn’t contend with the Jiuli Divine Stele’s power. Fortunately, he had merged with it, so it only tried to reject him instead of killing him. Though its power was overwhelming, it was not aggressive.

Just as Long Chen was on the verge of being ejected, a sly grin spread across his face. “Since I’ve come here, I can’t just leave empty-handed, right?”

Without hesitation, he waved his hand, and seven-colored blood chains shot out, wrapping themselves tightly around Long Zaiye’s divine stele.

“You bastard, what are you doing?!” shouted Long Zaiye.

Having just scrambled to his feet, Long Zaiye was greeted by this infuriating sight. Roaring in fury, he swung the Dark Demon Spear toward the blood chains with all his might.

Long Chen gritted his teeth and pulled with everything he had. A crackling sound echoed through the space as the blood chains tightened, seizing over a hundred Jiuli divine runes before Long Zaiye’s spear could reach them.

The sight of the runes being stripped away drove Long Zaiye into a frenzy. He charged at Long Chen, his eyes blazing with murderous intent.

“Don’t worry,” Long Chen sneered, mocking him even as he prepared to retreat. “With your speed, you’d never be able to absorb this many runes. Don’t be so wasteful.”

“You fucker!”

Long Zaiye’s furious roar reverberated through the space, and his spear smashed down with earth-shaking force. However, Long Chen had vanished.

The backlash from the attack caused the spatial walls to tremble violently, and the recoil made Long Zaiye cough up blood. As he staggered, he was horrified to see the runes on the Jiuli Divine Stele ignite. His Jiuli Divine Stele had entered the final countdown.

“Long Chen, you rat bastard! I cannot live under the same heavens as you!”

Long Zaiye’s beast-like roar was filled with rage and despair. Not only had Long Chen’s interference stolen over a hundred runes, but it had also drained a significant amount of the Jiuli Divine Stele’s energy, leaving Long Zaiye with little time to continue comprehending the runes.

Meanwhile, the space around Long Chen twisted and contorted, forcibly ejecting him from the realm.

As Long Chen was being expelled, he grabbed his net of stolen runes with both hands and gave it a powerful pull, ripping it into two pieces. Each piece was hurled in opposite directions, tearing through the void as they flew.

After completing that, a powerful force expelled Long Chen. When his vision cleared, he found himself outside the first barrier.

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