“The power of the stars…” For some reason, hearing Protector Chu Han say this, she was inexplicably reminded of the character “Aurelion Sol” from a game she played in her past life. For some reason, the moment Chu Han mentioned attacking with the stars, an image of stars circling around one’s body, ready to be thrown by the thousands with a wave of the hand, surfaced in Wen Yuncheng’s mind.

[…It’s not that exaggerated!] the high-dimensional System 1947 couldn’t help but shout. [That kind of power couldn’t possibly appear in a plane of the Starry Sky Continent’s level. When your Protector talks about using the power of the stars, he means ‘using’ them, as opposed to ‘borrowing’ from them.]

Wen Yuncheng mulled it over and more or less understood. It was probably… that the star that belonged to you… your connection to it was no longer about borrowing or drawing power from it, but about becoming the star’s master?

[That’s… more or less it.] 1947 pondered for a moment and said no more.

Wen Yuncheng herself couldn’t possibly have a star, nor could she form a connection. But Lin Jinyu could, and these insights might be very useful to her. Wen Yuncheng told the Little Ice Mountain what she had just realized. Protector Chu Han listened from the side without raising any objections, so he likely thought Wen Yuncheng was correct.

“Does the Huanling Continent have Phantom Saints? If a Phantom Saint came to the Starry Sky Continent through the planar passage… we wouldn’t be able to resist, would we?” Wen Yuncheng grew worried.

“Even if the Huanling Continent has Phantom Saints, it’s impossible for them to come to the Starry Sky Continent through the planar passage for the time being.” Chu Han chuckled upon hearing this. The Empire had shared this concern before. But after collecting and studying data on that planar passage, they had made a new discovery. Although their research on things like locating and shielding the passage hadn’t made much progress, they now understood the passage from the Huanling side.

“The Huanling passage was opened using special spatial energy stones combined with spatial energy. They must have a powerhouse skilled in spatial arts over there, likely at the peak Phantom Emperor level,” Chu Han explained. “A passage like that cannot withstand a Phantom Saint passing through. Moreover, the Grand Scholars speculate that opening a planar passage seems to require paying some other price. The Huanling side should also be subject to planar suppression.”

Wen Yuncheng nodded. She was relieved to know that a Phantom Saint couldn’t come over so easily. As for the price of opening the passage? Suppression? It existed, but it surely wasn’t much. After all, the Starry Sky Continent had no Child of the Plane to protect it, and a continent without a guardian… its suppressive force couldn’t be very strong.

Wait a minute… the only Star Saint disappeared when the Huanling Continent attacked? And there was no Child of the Plane… Wen Yuncheng didn’t think the Star Saint had fled or anything. After all, given the Starry Sky Continent’s level of spatial development, they lacked the ability to shatter the void and travel between planes. She thought, could the Star Saint have been… drawn away by the Plane Consciousness?

[…] 1947 fell silent. It checked detailed cases of low-level planes being invaded and did find one such situation. [Although he doesn’t meet the requirements to be a Child of the Plane, he is the strongest living being on the continent. The Plane Consciousness will proactively attract this being… to help resist the weakening and influence that the planar invasion has on the Plane Consciousness itself.]

Wen Yuncheng scratched her head. In that case… the Star Saint might not be ignoring the Empire’s call, but rather… he might have been forcibly dragged away by the Plane Consciousness to be a tool man?

A tool man, a temporary substitute, a consumable… something like that. In short, if the Plane Consciousness managed to cultivate its own Child of the Plane during this time, then that Star Saint could probably be released.

[In the relationship between a Child of the Plane and the Plane Consciousness, the Plane Consciousness initially plays a guiding and supporting role, while the Child of the Plane takes the lead. But if that Star Saint was really taken away by the Plane Consciousness, then he is being endlessly exploited by it, completely subservient to its will.] 1947 sensed Wen Yuncheng’s thoughts and couldn’t help but agree. [How tragic.]

The human and system sighed in their thoughts, unaware that in a special space, a small, translucent, pale white figure suddenly grew puzzled: Why did it feel like someone was thinking about it? Strange.

And it wasn’t that bad guy who wanted to eat it.

The small figure looked confused, but it didn’t dwell on it. Outside this special space, a faint gray fog could be seen with the naked eye, constantly circling, attempting to envelop and devour the space here, but to no avail. The small figure looked at the black fog outside and couldn’t resist making the tool man it had captured work hard to rebound the suppression. Then, it looked down upon the living beings of the Starry Sky Continent and sighed—

How did the Child of the Plane it had initially chosen suddenly disappear?

A boundless desert. Even when flying, it seemed to have no end.

Wen Yuncheng’s group entered the tents of the Empire’s stronghold with a low profile and met the five Star Emperors stationed there.

The Protector guarding this place was Di Feng, followed by the former headmasters of Breeze Academy, Xuancheng Academy, and Yaoxing Academy. These three former headmasters were also Star Emperors. The final Star Emperor, who came from a sect, was from the Blood Fiend Sect.

Upon seeing Wen Yuncheng, this Star Emperor from the Blood Fiend Sect revealed a helpless expression. “Little friend Wen, I will do my best to protect you on this battlefield. In the future, please don’t deliberately cause trouble for that young master of my sect.”

Wen Yuncheng looked innocent. “This junior doesn’t know what Senior is talking about. The young master of the Blood Fiend Sect and I are comrades-in-arms and competitors, not enemies. I will absolutely not deliberately cause him trouble in the future.”

Wen Yuncheng didn’t know if this senior from the Blood Fiend Sect believed her words. In any case, the senior just smiled and said no more, so it seemed there was no problem.

“General against general, soldier against soldier. That is Huanling’s plan, and although Wen Yuncheng is only at the Star King level, she possesses the power to destroy a fortress. The Empire has considered it. While we also need time, being constantly led by the nose by Huanling is extremely disadvantageous. Wen Yuncheng’s actions can disrupt their rhythm very well, allowing us to get a glimpse of Huanling’s schemes.” Chu Han directly stated the decision reached after the Empire’s discussion. “The five of us will protect Wen Yuncheng in secret and will not intervene directly. You all only need to do your best to tie up those two generals. Don’t hold anything back.”

“After all, Wen Yuncheng has already destroyed one fortress. Huanling will definitely have countermeasures.”

“We understand the stakes, you can rest assured,” the Star Emperor from Xuancheng Academy said with a smile. “I excel at defense. Although my offense is much weaker, I might not even be able to break through those two generals’ defenses. But in a one-on-one fight, they could only inflict minor injuries on me as well.”

“Yes, we’re all old bones. We can still tell what’s important,” the other Star Emperors chimed in.

The Star Emperor from the Blood Fiend Sect couldn’t help but laugh. “As for the disputes of the younger generation, an old man like me won’t get muddled on matters of Imperial importance just to vent for a junior.”

With all the Star Emperors here having stated their positions, Wen Yuncheng began to discuss her intentions and plans with everyone, and she demonstrated her abilities.

Since the main goal this time was to destroy the fortress, Wen Yuncheng would naturally have to forgo the experience from killing Huanling soldiers. However, she wouldn’t be so stingy this time. If she used energy cores to cause the explosion directly, she wouldn’t feel the same heartache as when she blew up the Air Wing or other such items. To be safe, she planned to start by blowing up a 900-point energy core. That way, she might be able to directly kill many soldiers near the fortress, reaping another wave of experience. With any luck, she could complete the 200-tier mission.

With that, the plan was settled.

In order to take out a few more wounded Huanling soldiers when she blew up the fortress, Wen Yuncheng specifically chose to make her move near the end of the battle. Meanwhile, Lin Jinyu would mix in with the combat troops and go out to get some simple practice through battlefield combat.

The Huanling and Fu forces were all fired up and ready to kill Wen Yuncheng. However, when the battle started the next day, they didn’t see her.

“Didn’t they say they saw her enter the tents? She’s not fighting today?” The people on this side were baffled, but the battle had to be fought. The two generals maintained a low-pressure, cold expression as they watched the Empire’s army, but they simply couldn’t find Wen Yuncheng.

They did, however, notice a young girl who was killing with terrifying ferocity, her sword intent chillingly sharp. But the two generals didn’t alert the enemy over this; their main target was still Wen Yuncheng.

As a result, they waited, and even after two rotations of troops in the intense battle zone, they still hadn’t seen Wen Yuncheng. The three Star Emperors from the Fu organization, lying in ambush, were also furious. Lin Jinyu had already made her move, so why hadn’t Wen Yuncheng? Did they take turns fighting?

Seeing that today’s battle was about to end and return to a stalemate, the three Star Emperors had mixed feelings. They could only console themselves: It’s fine, it’s fine. Lin Jinyu went on a killing spree today, so Wen Yuncheng will definitely come tomorrow. After all, perhaps the two youngsters felt they could perform better by taking turns to rest.

However, just as they were relaxing and preparing to leave, the situation changed abruptly.

A figure, for some unknown reason, suddenly appeared in the air above the fortress! At the same time, the five Star Emperors from the stronghold suddenly attacked, directly engaging the two generals. In fact, the two generals only realized what was happening after they were already entangled by the five Star Emperors!

Wen Yuncheng, how did that Wen Yuncheng suddenly appear at their fortress?!

“Attack! Everyone, kill Wen—” Before one of the generals could finish his order, he was tied up by Di Feng, who had directly activated his Blood Demon Transformation. After activating the transformation, no injury could affect Di Feng’s combat ability, and it would continuously increase his strength. In fact, to unleash his power beyond its normal limits right from the start, Di Feng even slapped himself. The large spray of blood transformed into red Star Power that coiled around him, allowing him to fight more effectively.

The five Star Emperors at this stronghold could be said to be the most difficult to deal with. Di Feng was a suicidal, all-out attacker, while the Star Emperor from Xuancheng had maxed-out defense. Coupled with three other Star Emperors with relatively balanced abilities, the two half-step Phantom Saint leaders had never been able to gain much of an advantage while under siege by the five Star Emperors.

The battle between Emperors erupted suddenly. Lin Jinyu, who had anticipated this, immediately began leading the Empire’s troops in an orderly fighting retreat. Her sword intent was fully unleashed, and the small, translucent sword above her head continuously solidified. The Profound-rank spirit treasure maximized the power of her ice sword qi, and Lin Jinyu had completely become a commander-like figure within the army.

The moment she appeared, Wen Yuncheng used two skills: Airstrike Support and Combat Mech: Gale. She had no intention of retrieving Gale, only hoping it could kill a few more people after she teleported back. After using the skills, Wen Yuncheng threw out 30 energy cores and immediately teleported away the instant they left her hand.

Monitors? There was really no time to place them.

Without the cover of the Air Wing or other items, the energy cores would self-destruct as soon as they were seen. Wen Yuncheng couldn’t even control it herself. If she had been a fraction of a second slower, she would have been caught in the blast.

However, while she was using her camouflage enhanced by the Illusion Dream (Modified) to get close to the fortress, she had casually attached Monitors to two grunts and another to someone who looked like a squad leader. The half-step Phantom Saints were too powerful, and Wen Yuncheng didn’t want to be discovered prematurely, so she hadn’t taken the risk.