Chapter 74: The Heaven-Earth Net

“Heaven-Earth Net.” This term was one Shen Zhaoqing had only ever encountered in television dramas during her previous life. She never imagined she would experience its chilling reality firsthand today.

Above her, a colossal net woven from countless starlight threads stretched boundlessly, encompassing all the wind and snow within a ten-mile radius. Each starlight filament flowed slowly like a living entity, intricately etched with runes that, while incomprehensible to her, sent shivers down her spine just by looking at them.

An undeniable power of suppression descended from the heavens, as if a lid had been clamped over this entire world. The air grew thick, like expired syrup.

Forget soaring on her sword; Shen Zhaoqing felt as though she couldn’t even lift a leg. ‘Is this the true power of the Heavenly Derivation Pavilion?’ she wondered.

“Senior Sister, don’t waste your energy.”

Luoxinghe remained standing, her smile gentle and affable. “Once my Star Track Plate is deployed, every trajectory within its domain is meticulously calculated. Your every breath, every circulation of True Essence, and even every heartbeat is as clear to me as a firefly in the dark of night.”

She raised a slender finger and pointed lightly.

“For instance, right now, Senior Sister Gu, you intend to forcefully freeze my star tracks using ‘Snow Domain Sealing Mountain.’ However, you only have thirty percent of your True Essence remaining. Forcibly activating it would only cause the sword wound on your left shoulder to completely rupture, wouldn’t it?”

Gu Chang’an’s face instantly turned ashen. The veins on her hand, clutching the Frostbright Sword, bulged, yet she ultimately did not unleash that strike.

Luoxinghe’s words were precise, without a single error.

Luoxinghe’s gaze then shifted to Demonic Venerable Ling Shuangjue, her smile sweetening further.

“And Demonic Venerable Ling, you have only just stabilized your Dao Heart, making this a time when you appear strong on the outside but are fragile within. If you were to unleash this ‘Severing Thoughts Slash,’ it might indeed shake a corner of my star tracks, but your demonic heart would be utterly shattered into dust, wouldn’t it?”

Ling Shuangjue’s blood-red eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. The formidable energy around her almost solidified into crimson ice crystals.

Yet, that tyrannical aura was forcibly suppressed within her, unable to erupt forth. She, too, had been ensnared.

As for Tuoba Yanxue, Luoxinghe merely glanced at her before regretfully shaking her head. ‘As for this General… to achieve this much with a mortal body is already a miracle. Alas, before the laws of the Heavenly Dao, even the most tenacious ant is, in the end, still just an ant.’

“You!” Deputy General Zhang Meng’s eyes turned crimson with rage, and he raised his blade, ready to charge. However, Tuoba Yanxue seized his arm with her remaining right hand, holding him back.

Tuoba Yanxue stared intently at Luoxinghe, squeezing out a few words through gritted teeth. “You! What do you intend to do?”

“I don’t intend to do anything,” Luoxinghe said, spreading her hands with an innocent expression. “My target, from beginning to end, has always been just her.”

Everyone’s gaze converged on Shen Zhaoqing, who was shielded behind Gu Chang’an.

Shen Zhaoqing thought, ‘Oh, thank you for thinking so highly of me!’

“The Dao Source Body is a supreme treasure left behind when the Heavenly Dao collapsed, and it is the only key to repairing this epoch.” Luoxinghe’s voice carried a zealous, almost obsessive fervor. “Senior Sister Yan is far too gentle, always thinking of guiding, observing, foolishly hoping for the key to learn how to open the door itself. It’s an utter joke.”

She looked at Shen Zhaoqing as if gazing upon a perfect work of art.

“A key should be held in the hands of the locksmith. Refining you into a ‘Sky-Stabilizing Instrument’ and embedding you into the core of my Heavenly Derivation Pavilion’s ‘Heavenly Mechanism Plate’ will allow us to wield the Heavenly Dao and reshape the cosmos. This is your… no, this is this world’s best destiny.”

“Bullshit!”

A crisp curse shattered the suffocating atmosphere.

Everyone froze, their gazes uniformly turning to the source of the voice.

Shen Zhaoqing stepped out from behind Gu Chang’an, her delicate face stripped of its usual laziness and indolence, now bearing only an icy coldness and mockery.

“One moment it’s ‘Heavenly Dao,’ the next it’s ‘destiny.’ Are all of you from the Heavenly Derivation Pavilion insane? Did you forget to take your medicine before leaving?”

She pointed at Luoxinghe, unleashing a torrent of abuse. “A ‘Sky-Stabilizing Instrument’? I think you’re just trying to ascend to the heavens! If you’re so mighty, why don’t you conduct human experiments on yourself? Why sacrifice for the Heavenly Derivation Pavilion? What kind of ability is it to capture a small piece of trash like me, only in the Qi Induction Realm?”

For the first time, the smile on Luoxinghe’s face stiffened.

“Sharp-tongued,” Luoxinghe said, her eyes chilling. The gentle mask was torn away, revealing the extreme pragmatism and indifference beneath. “Since you refuse to be dignified, I can only help you to be so.”

She waved her fair hand.

“Reel in the net.”

Boom—!

The colossal starlight net overhead instantly tightened.

Millions of starlight filaments transformed into millions of incomparably sharp blades of law, descending with a terrifying aura that threatened to cleave all things, piercing towards the crowd below.

This was not an arrest; this was an indiscriminate purge. Aside from Shen Zhaoqing, the “core target,” who would be preserved intact, all other obstructors would be utterly annihilated into dust by this starlight.

“Zhaoqing, fall back!”

Gu Chang’an roared, disregarding her injuries. The Frostbright Sword erupted with a heaven-piercing sword light, transforming into a massive ice-frost barrier, blocking the front.

Ling Shuangjue scoffed, and the Abyssal Slaughter Sword blazed with a brilliant crimson light. A crimson streak, condensed to its utmost, surged upward, directly confronting the starlight.

“Azure Wolf Iron Cavalry! Form up!”

Tuoba Yanxue propped her broken body with her battle blade. The remaining dozens of Azure Wolf Iron Cavalry did not hesitate, instantly forming a formation around her.

Their blood and Qi converged, transforming into a small, towering formation as a phantom blood-red wolf soul howled towards the sky!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Three of the era’s most formidable powers collided fiercely and simultaneously with the tightening star net.

However, the outcome was utterly despairing.

The starlight merely rippled slightly before crushing down with an even more ferocious intensity.

Crack!

Gu Chang’an grunted, spitting out a mouthful of fresh blood, her face as pale as paper.

Immediately after, Ling Shuangjue’s crimson streak was pierced and torn apart by countless starlight filaments. The violent power of the law rebounded, causing her already fragile demonic heart to tremble violently, a trickle of black blood escaping the corner of her lips.

The most tragic fate befell Tuoba Yanxue and her Azure Wolf Iron Cavalry.

The wolf soul, condensed from the military soul’s murderous aura, let out a mournful wail the moment it touched the star net, melting away inch by inch like ice and snow under a scorching sun.

Pfft!

The dozens of battle-hardened warriors didn’t even have time to scream before they were annihilated into a mist of blood under the starlight’s crushing force.

Tuoba Yanxue herself was struck as if by lightning. The Azure Fang Battle Blade in her hand shattered inch by inch, and she was slammed into the ground by an immense force, her fate unknown.

They were utterly vulnerable.

Before the absolute, overwhelming power of the law, all resistance appeared so pale and weak.

Luoxinghe didn’t even move. She merely watched, her eyes indifferent, as if enjoying a performance whose outcome had long been predetermined.