Chapter 563: The Worm Emperor's Gaze

In the dead of night on the Western Ox New Continent, Chen Shi led the Celestial True God away from the original site, walking through the void of space.

He looked around, seeing only the boundless emptiness of space, and could not help but marvel at the vastness of the starry sky and the profundity of the cosmos.

However, the void of space was also filled with Demonic Energy.

Chen Shi spotted, in the far distance, a colossal planet of flesh and blood. Its surface was covered in tentacles that stretched toward the heavens—thick, grotesque, and from afar, the planet resembled a flesh-red thistle, covered in spines.

In space, there were also web-like flesh pipelines, crisscrossing in every direction. At key junctions, they formed massive fortress-like structures. Occasionally, arcs of electricity would flow through the pipelines, racing away along them at incredible speed.

They connected planet to planet, like the neural network of a human body.

These flesh pipelines were of astonishing length, beyond anything Chen Shi had ever imagined.

"In the depths of the darkness lurks the primordial insect's true body. Its tentacles stretch out in all directions through space, and under the guidance of herders like the Celestial Venerable, it devours one world after another."

He mused silently to himself, "There must be other herders out in space, carrying the primordial insect's tentacles, bloodily purging the worlds they encounter, demonizing them, and reshaping them into the primordial insect's Dao Fields. Could the Celestial Venerable's master be some great figure from the Earth Immortal Realm? Or does he come from the darkness?"

Suddenly, at a fortress-like node in space, the flesh writhed like a mass of coiled pythons, then split apart in all directions, revealing a massive eye. It rolled once, its gaze landing on the Celestial True God, then lowered its gaze to fix upon Chen Shi.

"Buzz."

In the distant void, another node lit up, like a torch in the dark expanse, and a colossal eye opened.

"Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!"

It was as if tens of thousands of mosquitoes were droning in the night. In the pitch-black void of space, countless nodes quickly illuminated, each opening a massive eye, all staring at Chen Shi and the Celestial True God.

They were enormous, bizarre, and utterly bone-chilling.

Chen Shi's heart pounded violently twice. He forced himself to stay calm and continued walking toward the sun.

If he had been alone, he would have been scared out of his wits and fled long ago, but with the Celestial True God at his side, his courage was considerably bolstered.

In space, countless giant eyes watched them, their pupils tracking their every movement.

The primordial insect's flesh construction was extraordinarily peculiar. When Chen Shi walked to a spot where the eyes could not see him, the flesh around the eyeballs would actually reorganize itself, shifting the eye's position to keep staring at them.

Ahead of Chen Shi, an incomparably bright light suddenly blazed forth. It was a massive fortress node, sitting directly in their path.

The flesh fortress formed a giant eye, looking down at him from on high. The divine light within it shone like the sun itself, dazzling and brilliant, yet also suffused with the most extreme Demonic Energy!

This Demonic Energy was so dense, far surpassing that of the Western Ox New Continent, that even a Great Ascension Realm cultivator would likely fall to demonization within moments of exposure!

Chen Shi walked forward calmly, drawing closer and closer to the giant eye.

The giant eye glared with murderous intent. Within its pupil, layers of concentric rings slowly formed—it was the Celestial Venerable's Fog Moon Eye!

Chen Shi acted as if he saw nothing, walking straight past.

As his foot landed in space, his Yin-Yang Dao Field suddenly erupted, instantly forming a Taiji diagram of yin and yang energies spanning ten thousand li in every direction!

"Buzz!"

The Celestial True God also raised its foot and stepped down, unfurling an even larger Taiji diagram that spanned hundreds of thousands of li, encompassing the fortress eye within its bounds!

The neural-web-like flesh pipelines around the fortress eye were immediately refined of their Demonic Energy. The pipelines melted, turning into clear water, and then the entire giant eye began to distort. A fissure split down the center of the pupil, revealing a mouth full of jagged teeth, emitting a shrill, agonizing scream.

Chen Shi ignored it completely, walking straight through.

The giant eye dissolved with a sizzling sound, turning into masses of clear water. By the time Chen Shi and the Celestial True God passed by, this fortress eye had completely vanished.

Also gone were all the flesh pipelines and fortress eyes within hundreds of thousands of li!

In the dark night sky, the countless giant eyes burned with fury. Each one blazed with raging fire, rapidly transforming into Celestial Way Divine Eyes, with brilliant divine light gathering within their pupils.

"The primordial insect's imitation of the Celestial Venerable is utterly remarkable!"

Chen Shi was astonished. The Celestial Venerable's divine abilities, the primordial insect could actually perform most of them!

It could even unleash the Celestial Way Divine Eye!

Space suddenly became blindingly bright as countless fiery beams of divine light shot toward Chen Shi. He stamped his foot, lightning erupting, and broke into a desperate sprint. The Celestial True God followed right behind him, and the two of them flashed away across space.

This was a technique recorded on the Heaven-Measuring Iron Ruler, excelling in speed—treading on thunder, riding lightning, and moving at incredible velocity.

Behind them, countless thick beams of divine light converged together, tearing the starry sky apart as they gave relentless chase.

Chen Shi and the Celestial True God constantly changed direction in space, streaking past the sides of one giant eye after another.

"Shhk!"

The blazing divine light sliced through the giant eye and its flesh pipelines in one clean cut!

The divine light did not stop. It chased after Chen Shi and the Celestial True God, showing no mercy, carving through the giant eyes like chopping vegetables—slicing some open, piercing straight through others. In just a few short moments, the number of giant eyes in space had dwindled dramatically!

Chen Shi led the Celestial True God in a mad dash, weaving left and right, destroying every giant eye they encountered, racing rapidly toward the sun!

Ahead of them, even more giant eyes opened wide, divine light swirling within their pupils!

Chen Shi and the Celestial True God left a trail of zigzagging lightning across space, charging straight for the sun!

"BOOM!"

Countless beams of divine light struck the sun simultaneously, blasting open the flesh on its surface!

This single strike left a gap a million li wide on the surface of the flesh sun, and torrential solar divine light burst forth from the opening, illuminating the night sky.

But for the sun as a whole, this was barely a scratch.

On the surface of that flesh sun, even more colossal giant eyes slowly opened. The sun's power became the source of energy for these divine eyes, blazing divine light gathering within them!

Each eye was as massive as a star, and the power contained within them was nothing short of world-shattering!

Chen Shi even speculated that even if the Celestial True God took a direct hit, it would likely be scattered to the winds and perish on the spot!

The primordial insect's power was simply too immense—so immense it defied comprehension!

Chen Shi dared not face the edge of a stellar-level divine eye head-on. He leaped up and floated at the brow of the Celestial True God, which then carried him in a desperate dash, racing along the surface of this colossal flesh sun.

Behind them, stellar-level divine eyes unleashed world-annihilating beams of light that pierced through space, sweeping across hundreds of millions of li!

The sheer magnificence of this strike left even Chen Shi, who had already achieved Dao Unification, feeling utterly awestruck.

"Who in the world raised a monster like the primordial insect?"

The Celestial True God carried him in a race around the sun, weaving between the intersecting beams of divine light. Around the flesh sun, the pipelines connecting to the stars were even denser, forming a more intricate network. But amid the crisscrossing divine light, these flesh pipelines were being annihilated, vaporized, and severed one after another!

Chen Shi controlled the Celestial True God, doing everything possible to dodge the divine light. The more flesh pipelines the light destroyed, the more unstable the control of those stellar-level divine eyes became—their pupils tilting, their aim growing ever worse.

Suddenly, Chen Shi descended onto the surface of the flesh sun. His Yin-Yang Dao Field spread out, and the Celestial True God's Grand Veiled Heaven also unfurled, enveloping hundreds of thousands of li. Within this domain, all flesh was continuously dissolving!

In the distance, mountains of flesh and blood rapidly rose up, transforming into colossal giants whose features were indistinguishable from the Celestial Venerable's. They sprinted toward them at full speed.

From afar, the giants did not seem particularly massive, but as they drew closer, Chen Shi was horrified to discover that each and every one of them was no smaller than the Celestial True God!

If Chen Shi had not comprehended the principles of yin-yang harmony, generation, and mutual support, then in a one-on-one fight, the Celestial True God might not have been able to defeat even a single one of these giant Venerables. But fortunately, he had gained that understanding.

The moment those giant Venerables stepped into the Grand Veiled Heaven, their extreme Demonic Energy began to dissolve continuously, transforming into the righteous energy of heaven and earth, dispersing across the sun!

They melted as they ran, like snow before a blazing sun—but their melting speed was even faster!

By the time they reached the Celestial True God, they had already shrunk to only a few hundred zhang tall, no longer posing any threat.

Chen Shi led the Celestial True God charging forward, drawing more flesh into the Grand Veiled Heaven.

Piece by piece, the primordial insect's flesh melted within the veiled heaven, evaporating in the sun's true fire!

The people of the Western Ox New Continent endured a long, interminable night. When they awoke, the sky was still dark, and the sun had not risen as it normally did.

At first, no one was particularly alarmed. After all, over the past few years, the sun over the Western Ox New Continent had caused so much trouble, constantly dying and being reborn.

They assumed this time would be no different.

However, to their surprise, the moon in the sky was emitting a faint, murky glow—unclear, hazy, and indistinct.

"Look up at the sky!" someone pointed excitedly.

People raised their heads. In the dark sky, there were tiny points of light. No one knew what they were, but from a distance, they seemed extremely far from the Western Ox New Continent—even farther than the moon.

Those points of light emitted thin beams of light that crisscrossed the dark night sky in all directions, as if chasing after something.

The Directorate of Astronomy also sprang into action, mobilizing one massive bronze mirror after another, combining them together to project toward those beams of light.

They were horrified to see a colossal flesh network and giant eyes in space.

Then another voice called out: "Look over there!"

People strained their eyes and saw a bright light suddenly appear in the night sky.

It was as if a hole had been drilled into the darkness.

Light poured out from the hole.

The glow did not seem large, but when it landed in their eyes, it felt blindingly bright.

They watched as the hole grew steadily larger, methodically expanding.

At first, it was merely a point of light, then it grew to the thickness of a chopstick, gradually expanding to the size of an egg, and then to the size of a basket.

The light emanating from the hole grew brighter and brighter. It was sunlight—pure, untainted righteous energy of heaven and earth—spilling down upon the mortal world.

"Is that the sun?" Hu Feifei murmured.

She had never seen the real sun, and she did not know if this was it or not.

People argued endlessly about the strange phenomenon in the sky. Someone said: "This sun is different from the previous one. It must be an evil spirit!"

"This sun has no pupil in it. Clearly, it's fake!"

"But I've been cultivating with the sun's qi, and I haven't sensed any Demonic Energy!"

"This sun is the real one! The one before was the fake!"

...

Voices mixed and clashed. Some old Confucian scholars tremblingly declared that this sun was not of orthodox heaven and earth, that the True King must issue a decree forbidding the people from basking in its light. They then prepared to submit a memorial to His Majesty the True King. They rallied dozens of old scholars to sign a joint petition to the court, but Hu Feifei ordered them arrested and sent to Zhuge Jian for torture. She had them charged with colluding with Despair Slope and thrown into the dungeons.

The sun in the sky grew larger and brighter. Its radiance poured down, warm and pleasant. But Hu Feifei still issued orders that no one was to stare directly at the sun.

"You'll go blind." She ordered officials across the land to post public notices.

On the sun itself, Chen Shi was controlling the Celestial True God to cleanse its surface when suddenly, the remaining flesh began to transform. It morphed into a colossal roc bird, spreading its wings and soaring upward, stirring wind and thunder as it fled the sun and entered the vastness of space.

That roc bird's wingspan stretched over a million li. Carrying dense Demonic Energy, it flapped its wings and flew away.

Chen Shi watched the roc bird fly off. He saw it pass by a nearby star, where flesh on that star's surface also transformed into a roc that soared into the sky, joining it in flight.

In the farther distance, on the stars surrounding the Western Ox New Continent, more flesh transformed into birds, soaring upward and departing from those stars, leaving behind barren wastelands devoid of any life.

"The primordial insect is leaving?"

Chen Shi let out a sigh of relief and maneuvered the Celestial True God out of the sun, back into space.

Around the Western Ox New Continent, there were seven stars. Now, all seven of them were fully revealed, reflecting the sunlight with different hues, as beautiful as gems.

Back when Chen Shi had first begun his cultivation, he had noticed that although the sky had no stars, he could clearly sense starlight when cultivating the Three Lights Righteous Energy. Especially from these seven stars, which, being closest to the Western Ox New Continent, emitted the strongest starlight.

"From now on, cultivators of the Western Ox New Continent can also cultivate the starlight of these seven stars."

Chen Shi's eyes sparkled with anticipation. He murmured softly, "There will definitely be many interesting new spells and divine techniques. Perhaps, if people's incense offerings converge, new deities might even form on these stars."

He walked toward the Western Ox New Continent, his steps growing lighter and lighter, his heart growing more and more at ease.

In the distant void, it was still pitch black.

Suddenly, countless stars lit up in the dark expanse of space—tens of thousands of them—their light flooding into Chen Shi's vision.

Chen Shi froze, stopping in his tracks. He had not expected that the pitch-black void of space could hide so many stars!

"So this is the Xun Jiang Star Region... No! This is the Xun Jiang Star Region, but those are not stars."

Realization dawned on him as he gazed deeply into space.

Those lights were the eyes of the primordial insect, opening all across the surface of the stars.

The countless stars were the eyes of the primordial insect, staring at him!

It was like a warning, like hatred. In any case, the primordial insect had set its sights on him!

Chen Shi stood alone in the night sky, feeling as though the Western Ox New Continent were a tiny boat adrift on the Dark Sea, at any moment capable of being capsized by the waves, swallowed by the great beasts lurking in the darkness.