Devouring Stars, Frontline Rebirth of the Celestial Saint

"Brother Chen, I'm here to protect you!"

A shout rang out from Emperor Capital as he rushed over anxiously, ignoring the surrounding sword lights and imperial auras to ask Chen Xia worriedly.

"Brother Chen, Little Emperor came late. Are you alright?"

"You could have come even later - by then I would have been back at the city walls anyway," Chen Xia replied calmly.

"Well, good thing I made it in time then." Emperor Capital grinned somewhat proudly, then turned to look at the several Great Emperors. His brow furrowed with concern as he said:

"I'm Brother Chen's second brain and second loyal dog. Even if you arrived before me, you'll have to step aside."

Emperor Tianhe remained silent while Tian Sen the Great Emperor waved his hand and said helplessly:

"Give it a rest. No one's fighting you for the position of brain or loyal dog - you can have both roles all to yourself."

"Good, good, good." Emperor Capital nodded repeatedly.

After the Great Emperors inquired about some matters with Chen Xia and got most of their questions answered, they departed one after another.

Emperor Tianhe remained behind. He reached out to grab something in the void, rubbing between his thumb and forefinger, then blew on it and said:

"Star realm dust - it's rare to see it pulverized to this degree. Your battle with that Emperor must have been intense."

"Indeed it was," Chen Xia nodded. "He kept running away at first. I had to strike several sword blows before subduing him, then one final strike to behead him and finish him off completely, destroying this broken star realm in the process."

"That's good then." Emperor Tianhe gave a final nod before continuing:

"When the Way of Heaven descends and initiates the great reckoning, we say we want to resist it, but in truth we're just trading cultivators' deaths for its mercy. Any cultivator who bears the Way of Heaven's power cannot and dares not defy it."

"This is predetermined fate. Some cultivators who practice methods that defy heaven meet extremely tragic ends in their later stages. There are historical records of this that I'd rather not detail - just don't touch anything related to the Way of Heaven, nothing good comes of it."

After speaking, Emperor Tianhe turned to look at the void, gazing up at the heavenly reckoning that could descend at any moment. He suddenly sighed and continued:

"I too am now homeless, with my star realm shattered. Truth be told, if there was a way to take revenge against the Way of Heaven, I should be the first to do so. But alas, the Way of Heaven is above and cultivators below - this has been the eternal order. We dare not transgress or harbor resentment, we can only bury it in the deepest parts of our hearts."

Emperor Tianhe fell silent again, letting out another deep sigh before looking at Chen Xia and saying softly:

"I don't know what you've been through, but I advise you not to go against heaven. Some experiences are better kept in your heart. I hope you can come to terms with it."

Emperor Tianhe patted Chen Xia's shoulder one more time before turning to leave.

Chen Xia was left standing there alone, bewildered, scratching his head and unable to make sense of it.

Experiences?

What experiences could he have had?

He had already absorbed two planes and a broken star realm, becoming his own Way of Heaven - he had come to terms with plenty.

Chen Xia shook his head, then looked at Emperor Capital and waved: "You head back first, I have something to do."

"Do you need my help, Brother Chen?" Emperor Capital quickly asked.

"You going back would be the biggest help," Chen Xia waved again.

Emperor Capital could only reluctantly depart.

Once no one was around, Chen Xia activated his time-manipulation technique and appeared in a relatively intact but dead star realm. He first used his divine sense to probe for any remaining cultivators.

After confirming there was no one there, he chuckled and muttered to himself:

"I reckon no one wants this star realm anyway?"

"It's mine now."

He reached out his hand, palm facing upward like a rising dragon's head, and said:

"Rise."

There was no dragon's roar.

Just a shadow that instantly covered the entire star realm, and an enormous dragon head emerged, opening its jaws to swallow the entire star realm whole.

This was no ordinary celestial dragon species anymore - after all, regular celestial dragons were never known to swallow star realms.

According to ancient texts, even the ancestor dragons among celestial dragons had never swallowed a star realm - at most they had only swallowed entire star rivers.

A dragon that could swallow star realms should be more than just a celestial dragon. Chen Xia felt it must have evolved into a star realm dragon, though his true dragon form showed no signs of evolution yet - it had only grown increasingly massive.

How massive?

Roughly speaking, it was about the size of two or three star realms combined, but his realm level hadn't improved much, remaining at the Great Saint level.

Perhaps he hadn't eaten enough?

Thinking this, Chen Xia turned toward the next star realm, planning to continue devouring them. However, after consuming the second star realm, an anomaly occurred.

He could no longer summon his true dragon form, only feeling a faint response. Chen Xia quickly looked into his heart lake with divine sense.

He discovered an enormous cocoon had formed in his heart lake, with his true dragon form presumably inside.

Another transformation?

Chen Xia pondered, feeling it was about time, given that he had devoured two star realms. Even dead star realms contained terrifyingly immense energy.

However, this cocooning of the dragon likely wasn't for a breakthrough, just a transformation.

So Chen Xia didn't linger, flashing back to the city walls where he saw Emperor Capital playing chess with a Saint. He casually pointed and said:

"Knight."

"Alright." When Chen Xia gave an order, Emperor Capital moved the knight without hesitation.

The Saint was delighted and captured his knight, looking up with a smile only to meet two gloomy faces.

He suddenly remembered - this wasn't just any knight, it belonged to a Four-Way Great Saint.

He hurriedly picked the knight back up and said with a fawning smile:

"My mistake, my mistake. I take that move back."

Chen Xia nodded, thinking this must be the so-called Way of Chess - essentially winning through sheer force.

The frontlines had returned to peace, with no Saints causing trouble and no Great Emperors in sight. The city walls were the liveliest place, more like a chess club or teahouse, with every Saint coming to join in.

Seasons changed from spring to winter, cultivation was unpredictable, and three hundred years passed.

Today, two women arrived together at the border, speaking to the guard Saint:

"Li Yang and Li Yue from the Blue Sky Sword Sea, Great Saints, here to see Chen Xia!"

After shouting this, Li Yue became somewhat worried and transmitted to Li Yang:

"Auntie, if we announce ourselves like this and Chen Xia doesn't come out from the frontlines, won't we lose face?"

"It's fine, at least we really are Great Saints."

The guard Saint kept examining them with furrowed brows, "You're looking for Saint Chen?"

"It's Chen Xia, who is also the sect leader of our Blue Sky Sword Sea," Li Yue corrected.

"I know, Chen Xia is our frontline's Saint Chen, that Four-Way Great Saint, right? You're fellow sect members with Saint Chen?" the guard's tone improved as he asked with a smile.

"He's the sect leader of our Blue Sky Sword Sea, previously said to be on your left battle line," Li Yang nodded.

"Right, right, please wait a moment." The guard Saint quickly nodded and hurried toward the frontline city walls, calling out:

"Saint Chen, Saint Chen, disciples from your sect are here?"

Chen Xia was standing with arms crossed directing Emperor Capital's chess moves when he looked up with furrowed brows and asked:

"Who's here?"

"They say they're Li Yang and Li Yue from the Blue Sky Sword Sea," the guard quickly replied.

"Why are they here again?" Chen Xia muttered softly.

Emperor Capital felt a vague sense of crisis rising in his heart.

"Alright, thank you for your trouble." Chen Xia flicked his finger, tossing a great medicine pill as a reward, then turned to direct Emperor Capital:

"We're short on time, move your king directly over to capture his general."

"Okay." Emperor Capital nodded and truly moved his king past layers of danger to checkmate.

"Hey, wait... isn't this... problematic?" The Saint playing against Emperor Capital was very confused.

"A Four-Way Great Saint's king displaying some divine abilities - nothing wrong with that, don't you think?" Chen Xia asked rhetorically while reaching into his sleeve to toss another great medicine pill in front of the Saint.

The Saint picked up the pill while grinning:

"I bow to Saint Chen's chess mastery!"

Now that's what you call having perspective.

If you're tired, just go to sleep - don't stay up late. You can read this tomorrow morning.