Divine Emperor of Death

Chapter 5338: Verge Of Corruption

Davis’s brows narrowed as he began.

He sank his life energy soul-force into the needle path he had already built on Lydia and Fairy Qiyra. They were filled with perspiration, quivering like a leaf in the wind. He slowly and gently pulled the surfacing golden mist astral essence that was sparkling and brought it forward down her meridian pathways across the needles.

The golden flaming mist left her soul sea in a thin stream, passed the forehead pin, ran the shoulder and elbow gates, and crossed the joined palms into Fairy Qiyra Darkstar.

The Starlight Devouring Veins reacted at once as they began to shine across Fairy Qiyra like they were electronic circuits hidden underneath, momentarily dazzling Davis’s eyes.

The physique was indeed beautiful.

They were born to swallow starlight, whether it be immortal energy or astral energy. The dark rivers that had been running backward and were just corrected with the Yin-Yang Reversal Needles hit the new current and staggered.

Davis felt the impact through Lydia and moved with it while keeping his senses across her meridian pathways active. The Yin-Yang Reversal needles at the main junctions flipped polarity in sequence, forcing the reverse flow to stall long enough for the graft to succeed. He circulated for Fairy Qiyra himself, a full minor cycle through liver, heart, dantian rim, and spine path, because she could not do it or risk breaking the current flow.

Fairy Qiyra’s body went rigid.

A sound caught in her throat as she nearly sounded like she was going to die as she lost her breath. Her fingers crushed Lydia’s hands hard enough that the little girl’s knuckles whitened, yet even as Lydia made a grimace, she didn’t pull away. She kept the connection at bay, jaw locked, and firmly believed that her father would succeed.

Strength left her body along with the astral essence that was being drained from her.

At this moment, the pull of the Divergent Star came.

Davis felt that pull as though it was a distant mouth closing over the channels he had blocked to suck it out. He could not gaze at the karmic thread, nor cut it off. He didn’t need to since he could sense this kind of theft had a rhythm to it. He worked on breaking that rhythm by splitting the incoming astral essence from Lydia into five anchored pools instead of one, each pool pinned and anchored by a guide needle so the Divergent Star could not absorb it.

"Break."

He broke the rhythm as he made the five anchored pools swirl like whirlpools, causing the devouring force of the Divergent Star to break.

With its rhythm broken, Davis moved to the next cycle. The second minor circulation was cleaner and smoother than the last. The starved veins began to hold a shallow dark-gold mixture that didn’t belong to either of their astral essence, a mix of astral essence from the Grand Divine Phoenix Constellation and Fairy Qiyra’s own physique.

Lydia shivered harder. Perception Confluence still laid Fairy Qiyra’s emotions over her own. Davis couldn’t help but share it, since he was actively using Heart Intent to maintain Perception Confluence, which also meant unraveling the emotions of those around him. Her fear, belief, weakness, pain, and Fairy Qiyra’s helplessness, pain, weakness, and pride were so sharp it felt like frost penetrated her.

She felt as though she wasn’t herself anymore.

Who was she? Lydia Davis? Alicia Starshroud? Qiyra Darkstar?

Davis noticed Lydia’s quivering and thinned the Heart Intent mist around the girl and took the rest onto himself.

By this time, he had already completed nine minor cycles and grafted astral essence into the veins, but three major cycles into the dantian were still left.

"Last three cycles," he said softly, "Then all will be good."

The two of them barely managed to nod, but indicated that they still had their sanity.

The devouring came again, but the rhythm was the same, allowing him to break it.

The first cycle.

The second cycle.

He ran the third and last cycle, finally replenishing the astral essence inside the dantian to a safe level, and by linkage, the entire Starlight Devouring Veins. It cannot be considered much, but it was more than enough for Fairy Qiyra’s veins to burn with a new starlight as they became active, able to fight the devouring of the Divergent Star on their own.

Silence filled the chamber.

Fairy Qiyra opened her eyes. The silver in them was dull, but it was no longer empty. Color had not returned to her face. The listless slack was gone. In its place sat the look of someone who had been dragged back from the edge and hated the hand that did it- a complicated expression.

Davis checked Fairy Qiyra’s body once more with the White Saint Perception Art. The reverse siphoning of the astral essence still existed, but Fairy Qiyra Darkstar was not helpless anymore. Her aura rose, and her physique began restoring astral essence as it absorbed energy from the vast Astral Sea.

Davis dropped Peak-Level Immortal Crystal Vein Cores in the chamber, allowing Fairy Qiyra Darkstar’s Starlight Devouring Veins to absorb more astral essence by burning the cores with her astral energy.

They also seemed to be conduits that attracted astral energy from the Astral Sea. He could sense it.

However, with Lydia still suffering, he hurriedly stopped Perception Confluence, removed the needles from her, sealed the meridians in her palms as he struck the back of her palms and pulled her back from Fairy Qiyra’s vice grip.

"I-"

Fairy Qiyra finally noticed what she had done to Lydia as she held her breath.

"Quick, do not let your astral essence be poached again."

Davis warned Fairy Qiyra while he gazed at his little Lydia, holding her hands. It was bruised black and had many small fractures. Fortunately, Fairy Qiyra’s energy hadn’t back-traced or burst. Otherwise, Lydia wouldn’t have two arms anymore, even if he was confident in saving her in time.

He considered this a normal sacrifice, but it still hurt like hell in his heart to see Lydia make a pained expression while keeping her mouth shut. He could tell her soul was vibrating from pangs of reverberating pain from the removal of astral essence, and her meridians were overwhelmed and nearly burned from passing such a huge caliber of energy.

Tears abruptly flowed from her eyes as she whimpered in pain, the rebound from Perception Confluence, Astral Essence loss, and other factors hitting her all at once.

"Alright, alright. It’s all good. Father is here. My life energy will quickly soothe you."

By the time Davis said it, he was already doing it for a while- the moment he pulled her back from Fairy Qiyra. He embraced her from behind and enveloped her hands in warm, life energy at the Exalt Grade. It quickly cured any damage done to her meridian pathways and acupoints as if it were undone, instantly soothing her body, but her soul was still throbbing.

Davis didn’t force the fast treatment on the soul lest it collapse.

He slowly healed her soul in gentle waves, slowing her gasps until she eventually relaxed in his embrace. She fell unconscious, but it didn’t seem to be bad, as she slept without shallow breathing.

Fairy Qiyra’s heart churned as she saw a little child suffering because of her.

She fought against the advances of the Divergent Star and broke it every time.

The Divergent Star, seemingly knowing that it could no longer absorb astral essence or take advantage of Fairy Qiyra’s weak state, stopped its devouring process.

In other words, Fairy Qiyra had finally broken free of the accursed Divergent Star’s grasp that didn’t let her Starlight Devouring Veins recover.

She rose up into the air, still in the chamber. Her complicated gaze moved from the father and daughter as she gazed up at the skies, full of killing intent. Her gaze wasn’t pointed at the ceiling but somewhere far away- to the Grand Divine Phoenix Constellation.

"Scram!~"

"Ahhh!"

Her cold voice echoed with killing intent and back with her astral energy. It cut like a dagger at the senses that tried to descend on her, eliciting pained echoes everywhere in the vast astral sea.

How could these Astral Cultivators possibly be a match against her when she could practically devour them if she wanted to do so?

Her gaze flickered with a strange light before she gazed down and said calmly.

"It’s good that she let go of her astral essence. The Grand Divine Phoenix Constellation is currently on the verge of corruption."

"..."

Davis’s gaze was still on Lydia as he checked her repeatedly and worriedly.

Only after a few moments did he catch her words and react.

"What?" Davis’s gaze flickered as he turned to look at Fairy Qiyra.

An entire Major Constellation was going to be corrupted? How could that happen!?

’This... is this the reason why they- that unknown Divergent whom I guessed was behind Alicia Starshroud’s death plotted against her, against the Phoenix Priestess who holds primary authority over the Grand Divine Phoenix Constellation?