The Witch Hunter System

Chapter 1200: The Shattered Star Region

Once Vaan and Seraphina acknowledged Empyrean Oceanheart’s suggestion, she immediately wielded her vast magical power to nudge the Azure Wanderer forward along the pulling force.

Afterward, everyone observed the changing scene as the Azure Wanderer continuously drifted through the dark region on its own.

Although they were constantly moving, the speed was not great. Given the vastness of Umbral Edge, it would take countless eons before they could cover any significant distance and arrive anywhere meaningful.

However, the supposed long voyage ended more quickly than everyone had anticipated.

Within three hours of space drift, the Azure Wanderer suddenly entered a dense cloud of dark matter and gaseous substances, obscuring everyone’s field of view on the bridge.

This continued for several minutes before it eventually passed, and what unfolded before everyone’s eyes. Everyone immediately felt shocked and alarmed by the devastated scene before them.

"What in the heavens happened here?" Seraphina cried in horror.

In the distance, unobstructed by any darkness, they found countless fragments of stars and planets drifting through the vast region. It was as if countless thousands or even millions of stars and planets had been crushed into pieces and left to drift aimlessly in this void.

It was a vast asteroid field made up of crushed stars and planets, and could even be called a stellar graveyard. A strong aura of death permeated this entire region, as if countless beings had died here unjustly, leaving behind lingering resentments.

In an instant, Empyrean Oceanheart arbitrarily made the decision to eject everyone from the Azure Wanderer before storing it away, realizing its large size was too conspicuous

"It looks like entire Star Kingdoms have been swallowed by the Umbral Edge, and it wasn’t just limited to living beings. However, the signs of decay seem to suggest that at least several hundreds of years had passed since this happened," Vaan observed.

"Impossible... How could this be?" Seraphina was greatly shocked.

It had only been ten years since she left the Grand Unity Human Clan. She could still vaguely remember passing through the Southern Pass with Empyrean Oceanheart, dropping by the Star River Realm to reach the Myriad Sea God Palace.

If such significant events had happened around the Umbral Edge, the Star River Realm wouldn’t have been so prosperous at that time, even if thousands of years had passed.

After all, no one would want to endanger themselves by coming close to such a stellar devourer.

In fact, Empyrean Oceanheart was even more startled than Seraphina.

Empyrean Oceanheart was much clearer on the situation of ten years ago. If so many stars and planets had disappeared several hundred years ago, she would have heard news about it when she was passing by during that time.

"There’s something strange about this place. These stellar remnants might not have come from regions outside the Umbral Edge," Empyrean Oceanheart unconfidently suspected.

After all, the Umbral Edge also had its spatial tunnels leading to the Ancient Battlefield, where the Lord of Chaos and Outerworlders had fiercely clashed for the past Chaos Cycle. In that place, countless celestial objects were created and destroyed, and spacetime was also constantly stretched, twisted, and expanded.

Virtually, the Ancient Battlefield had become another Chaos more vast than Chaos itself.

While it wasn’t teeming with life and civilization like the original Chaos, it was filled with stellar debris, remnants of countless stars and planets. In fact, it could be said to be the opposite; it was full of destruction and death.

Beyond True Divinities touched upon Origin Creation, allowing the casual births of stars and planets, wielding them as cosmic weapons against their peers. 𝑅á𐌽ỗ𝐁Ёṥ

Through a Chaos Cycle-long war between the Lord of Chaos and the Outerworlders, the Ancient Battlefield would undoubtedly contain numerous fragments of stars and planets, a truly vast and boundless stellar graveyard.

As such, it wasn’t strange for Empyrean Oceanheart to suspect that the current stellar remnants in the Umbral Edge came from the Ancient Battlefield.

"Hm? There seems to be some signs of life over there. It must belong to survivors who have been pulled into Umbral Edge before us."

Vaan assumed upon discovering the subtle life force in the distance.

"Oh?"

Empyrean Oceanheart was pleasantly surprised upon hearing this.

Her attention followed Vaan’s directions and locked onto an unassuming fallen star fragment in the distance. It was considered small among the various fallen star fragments aimlessly drifting in the current region.

Even so, its size was still comparable to half of the Pangean Continent.

"Indeed, there are some subtle life forces on that fallen star fragment. " It seems the survivors are purposefully suppressing their life force," Empyrean Oceanheart quickly realized. "There must be a reason for that. We should do the same."

"Right," Vaan and Seraphina agreed.

Suppressing their vital life force was a common survival tactic to hide from enemies. Since they didn’t know what dangers were hidden within the current Umbral Edge, it was naturally their wisest choice to make.

In an instant, the party three suppressed their life force until they could hardly be sensed, making them seem no different from corpses.

"These subtle life forces only belong to a group of Divine Lords. This level of power is considered quite average outside of Holy Lands. Maybe we can learn a bit about the local situation from them."

In a short instant, Empyrean Oceanheart made a quick decision, considering the small survivor group didn’t pose a threat.

Moments later, Empyrean Oceanheart brought Vaan and Seraphina to the fallen star fragment and quickly found the entrance to the underground, visually hidden by a Divine-rank illusion formation, which made it seem like an ordinary surface.

Nevertheless, they did not intrude without permission. They lingered outside, trying to communicate with the survivors in the underground shelter through telepathy.

After all, they did not want to startle the survivor group and risk a physical confrontation. That was counterproductive to their plans to acquire information while avoiding a commotion in the unknown space.

"Ahem. Excuse me..."

Empyrean Oceanheart transmitted her greeting to the weak life forces within the underground shelter.

A brief silence was quickly followed by sudden scrambling noises.