BOOM!

Dust shot up into the air as a giant beast fell in the darkness.

Long Chen slung Evilmoon over his back and tossed the beast’s body into the primal chaos space.

This was the seventeenth mutated creature Long Chen had killed. Dragon Praise City had eighteen allied cities, and thirteen of them had been attacked. Now, all those threats were gone.

What surprised Long Chen was that even as disaster struck, none of the city’s experts tried to run. They all fought back, some until their last breath. Even as they faced death, they stood their ground.

The fact that their spines remained straight even in the face of death and despair was truly unexpected to Long Chen.

He looked over the city’s experts and saw that neither Lord Brahma nor the outsider devils had touched these cities.

Are they so weak that no one even cares about them?

Long Chen was speechless. It seemed Lord Brahma and the outsider devils saw these weaklings as beneath their notice.

Perhaps that was why they had not been infiltrated. They managed to keep the human race's spine straight.

This reminded Long Chen of the Four Cardinal Alliance. They were also struggling to survive at the bottom rungs of the world, but they still kept their inner hearts pure.

When Long Chen came back to the city, everyone—young and old, men and women—knelt before him. Many were sobbing. After all, several experts had already died fighting the mutated creatures.

“Thank you, Senior Long Chen!”

No one had expected help to arrive. When the city’s defenses were about to fall, the top experts sacrificed themselves to hold off the enemy.

Thanks to their sacrifice, the city held on long enough for Long Chen to arrive.

“Senior Long Chen, there are no words capable of expressing our gratitude...” Dragon Praise City’s city lord said, also kneeling on the ground.

He didn’t know what to say because this debt was just too great. After all, Long Chen was so powerful, and there was no way they could ever repay him.

Long Chen glanced around and noticed a woman with fresh blood on her armor. She showed no sign of fear.

Her eyes were strong and bright, reminding him of Su Yu.

“What is your name?” asked Long Chen.

“Junior is Yu Ying. Greetings, Senior Long Chen!”

She was the top young expert in the city. Despite her strength, she stayed humble. Everyone respected her, and she was the leading candidate to become the next city lord.

“Are you willing to accept a cultivation technique from me?” asked Long Chen.

Hearing this, Yu Ying trembled with excitement, unable to speak.

Long Chen, known as the top expert of the nine heavens, had stirred up a storm as soon as he entered the Heavenly Magnificence Divine Prefecture. Even the divine capital couldn’t ignore him.

He had just killed that terrifying mutated beast with a simple move. To Yu Ying, he seemed almost god-like. She wondered if she was dreaming when he offered to teach her a cultivation technique.

Seeing her reaction, Long Chen held out a finger. Tiny points of starlight flickered at its tip.

“You are the most talented person in this city, with the best comprehension skills. But your current cultivation technique holds you back. With it, no matter how hard you try, you can’t match the top geniuses of the ten thousand races. I’ll teach you the Starry River of the Sky Art, but whether you can change your fate is up to you,” Long Chen said.

Long Chen touched his finger to Yu Ying’s forehead, and the entire Starry River of the Sky Art was instantly imprinted in her mind.

Yu Ying made Long Chen think of Su Yu from the Four Cardinal Alliance. He had once taught her the Starry River of the Sky Art too. Now, he wondered how she was doing.

“I-I don’t know how to repay this favor, but I will train in it as hard as I can to not fail Senior Long Chen’s expectations!” Yu Ying promised, kowtowing three times.

Yu Ying was quite smart. She didn’t call Long Chen “master” because she knew she wasn’t qualified to.

The Starry River of the Sky Art was deep and vast, far beyond her old cultivation technique.

Long Chen said, “Train hard and focus on understanding it. Your strength will grow tenfold after you master it. If you want, you can record and share this technique with others. But with the upcoming era, you must keep your foundation steady. That will decide whether you survive these dark times or not.”

When they heard Long Chen didn’t mind sharing the technique, everyone grew excited. Yu Ying bowed again, but Long Chen had already disappeared into the night.

“Senior Long Chen...”

Yu Ying clenched her fists and stared after him. She knew this cultivation technique was her chance to change her fate. It was her hope for survival.

After all, Long Chen couldn’t stay to protect them forever. Once he left, more mutated beasts would come. If they wanted to survive, they had to rely on themselves.

Yu Ying didn’t waste any time. She quickly wrote down the basics and first chapter of the Starry River of the Sky Art and gave it to the city lord.

The city lord acted quickly too, ordering people to make copies so the technique could be sent to all the allied cities.

Normally, switching cultivation techniques halfway was a big taboo. It was like sailing a boat down a river and then trying to rebuild it in the middle of the water.

Long Chen clearly knew this rule. If he still gave them the Starry River of the Sky Art, there had to be a deeper reason.

Everyone had seen how strong Long Chen was. Someone like him could kill them with a flick of his finger. If he wanted to harm them, he wouldn’t need to scheme against them with a cultivation technique.

Soon, the other cities received copies. This technique would determine whether they could survive or not. As a result, no one thought about keeping it secret—anyone who wanted to learn it could.

If this technique could really make them ten times stronger, they had to try it, no matter the risk. Even if it made things worse, they had no choice but to give it a shot.

Long Chen had solved the crisis temporarily. Now, he stood on a mountain peak, looking into the distance. It was still dark, but with his strength, he could make out the shapes of mountains and plains. The world seemed a little brighter.

“Only people with upright hearts can train in the Starry River of the Sky Art. In all my years, I haven’t found an exception... So why have so many fiends appeared in the nine star line?” Long Chen wondered.

The Starry River of the Sky Art was created by the Starry River Saint based on the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art. It was like a branch of the original. However, while this cultivation art could see into people’s hearts, the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art didn’t care about good or evil.

After pondering for a bit, Long Chen remembered the old stories about the Star Master.

Long Chen muttered, “There are three possibilities: it could be tied to the Star Master’s death, to Xiao Yin turning their path into a god legacy, or to some interference from the outside world.”

Any of these three things could have changed the nine star line’s inheritance. But whether it was one, or all of them, no one knew.

At that moment, Evilmoon trembled on Long Chen’s back, and a blood-red divine light shot up into the sky.