Evan Chu never could have imagined that this high-grade Star Core was far more complicated than it appeared on the surface. In truth, its evolution had already reached the realm of the Seven-Facet Star Core!
Previously, Evan had learned quite a bit about the secrets of Star Cores and the Starry Abyss from the elders of the Mansfield Family. He knew that once a Star Core reached seven facets, it would give birth to a Star Core Spirit.
The seventh ridge had clearly been hidden by this Star Core Spirit, so from the outside, the core looked like it only had six facets. Though it was just a difference of one facet, the gap between them was truly worlds apart.
Evan had some confidence in handling a six-facet Star Core, but a Seven-Facet Star Core was something that could open a Sacred-grade Trial World. Could he really control it? After all, he hadn’t even reached the Holy Emperor Realm yet!
“Heh heh, I’ve waited a long time. Finally, the sixth one has barged in. If I absorb your power, I might just be able to qualify for the eighth facet!”
The Star Core Spirit stared at Evan, its ghostly eyes flickering with boundless greed.
"Not good!"
Evan’s heart instantly filled with alarm. He realized he hadn’t stumbled in here by accident—this Star Core Spirit’s intelligence had clearly reached an extremely advanced stage. Its soul fluctuations were terrifying, far surpassing those of the Elemental Spirit Pearl, Chaos Spirit, and other lifeforms.
And from the Star Core Spirit’s very first words, Evan could tell he wasn’t the first divine sense to break in here—he was the sixth.
In fact, the five who came before him hadn’t just failed to open the Trial World—they’d been devoured by the Star Core Spirit, their divine senses converted into its power so it could keep breaking through.
"Alright, stop daydreaming. From the moment you stepped in, there was no chance of leaving—or surviving. What, you still don’t believe me?"
The Star Core Spirit twitched slightly, and a wave of power spread out. Instantly, Evan’s divine sense was rapidly consumed, cracks appearing all over his soul phantom, and his Stellar Power was forcibly reversed and sucked into the Star Core.
“Hahaha! Such pure power! Your aura is a lot weaker than the trash before you, but this energy is exactly what I need. If I absorb all your power, I’ll gain far more stellar energy than ever before!”
The Star Core Spirit seemed delighted, but Evan’s frown only deepened. He suddenly realized he might be trapped in a deathtrap.
No matter how strong he was, his divine sense was powerless here. No matter how he struggled, inside the Star Core Spirit’s world, he was nothing but meat on the chopping block.
"You want to kill me?" Evan said coldly, anger flaring in his heart. He had never imagined he’d die at the hands of something like this.
"Maybe. To you humans, you’d call it killing. But to beings like us, it’s more like eating."
That’s right, exactly! Before reaching Seven-Facet Star Core, we could only rely on the stray star-energy in the Abyss, absorbing it slowly over countless ages to gain power.
But I was lucky—the first guy who tried to open my space was too weak, and I absorbed him instead. That’s when I discovered that devouring the star-energy inside you people is tens of thousands of times more effective than absorbing stray Abyssal energy! So even after breaking through to Seven-Facet Star Core, I kept up the disguise.
I disguised myself as a six-facet Star Core to lure greedy fools like you here. Haha, looks like it worked great—one idiot after another, all feeding my power!
So, hearing all this, are you starting to regret it?"
The Star Core Spirit’s intelligence was freakishly high, and its voice sent a chill through Evan.
“Heh heh... Actually, you should feel lucky. Your power and potential are incredible—the star-energy stored in your body makes me envious. I have no idea how you did it. Once I fully absorb you, I’ll have a real shot at reaching the eighth level, what you call the Eight-Facet Star Core! So, do you feel honored? I rarely praise anyone; the five before you, I despised them all.”
The Star Core Spirit laughed wildly, but Evan remained silent.
Right now, he was desperately trying to reach Lynton Chu, hoping to get answers from the Chaos Spirit, Elemental Spirit Pearl, Sea-Eye Spirit Spring, and Geocore Soul Mother about how to escape this predicament.
“What?! Seven-Facet Star Core? Uh... but we really don’t know what a Seven-Facet Star Core actually means!”
Both the Chaos Spirit and Elemental Spirit Pearl were stumped, but they did know one thing: Evan was facing a lifeform hundreds of ranks above them, one they couldn’t possibly defeat.
“Enough with the useless talk! Does anyone here actually know how to deal with this monster?”
Lynton Chu looked to the Geocore Soul Mother, hoping it had an answer.
The Geocore Soul Mother sighed, "To be honest, this lifeform really is hundreds of times stronger than us. There’s probably nothing we can do. Once intelligence reaches this level, it’s almost beyond the control of Heaven’s laws."
They’ve always gone against the will of Heaven. Unless Evan could control the Starry Abyss itself and lay down his own laws—making all things in the Abyss bow to him—there’s no way to truly resolve this.
Lynton Chu relayed this word for word to Evan, who exploded with rage. Wasn’t this just nonsense? The Starry Abyss and Star River Sacred Domain were worlds born in the ancient era—how could he possibly control them or rewrite their laws? He couldn’t even control the Star Core space, which was leagues above his own Chaos World!
"This path is a dead end. I need another way!"
Meanwhile, the Star Core Spirit could barely contain its impatience.
"Pathetic human, prepare for the baptism of star-energy. Offering your star-energy to me is the highest value your existence can serve."
"Dream on!"
Boom! Evan summoned the full power of the Starry Seal, searching for any way to resist—but it was useless.
The power released by his true body couldn’t harm the Star Core or its spirit, because the spirit was after his soul essence—it was targeting his soul phantom!
Outside, Wuxin Mansfield and the others had no idea what was happening between Evan and the Star Core. They couldn’t interfere in the direct struggle, and could only watch helplessly.
He only felt the Starry Seal’s power growing stronger and stronger, but the six ridges of the Star Core were becoming clearer than ever.
"What on earth is happening? Could something be wrong with the Star Core?"
"Patriarch, could Evan be secretly up to something?"
"Impossible. This is his first time entering the Starry Abyss. Compared to us, he barely knows anything about this place."
"So what do we do now?"
"We wait."
Just as Wuxin Mansfield finished speaking, Evan’s soul phantom inside the Star Core space erupted with a surge of mysterious power.
"Heh! So this ‘star-energy’ you want is this kind of power? You really need it, huh? Fine, then I’ll give it to you!"
Boom! A powerful shockwave burst from Evan’s soul, and in that instant, he finally found a way to deal with the Star Core Spirit.