The Shining Star Above The Heaven-Chapter 1014: Depart

The portal appeared in the teleportation gate with a distortion of space.

Aldrian took a deep breath.

’I hope that the moment I step into this portal, I can instantly step to the other side. But if not...’ Aldrian touched something beneath his sleeve. He looked at it for a moment before turning to Sect Master Han and smiling.

"See you next time, Sect Master," he said.

"Have a safe journey, Your Majesty. May you succeed in your matters there." Sect Master Han replied with a slight bow.

Aldrian nodded, looked at the portal again, then took another deep breath.

’The moment of truth.’

He then stepped into the portal, and his body disappeared from Sect Master Han’s sight.

The moment Aldrian entered the portal, he suddenly felt a spatial disturbance, causing his eyes to widen. He knew that despite never having used the teleportation gate before, this kind of disturbance should not exist.

The only reasonable explanation for this disturbance was that what he feared the most had happened.

’Shit!’ In a rare moment, Aldrian cursed in his mind as he grasped a talisman beneath his sleeve and crushed it. A split second later, a protective spatial barrier appeared around him, and he also activated his own spatial barrier as a second layer of protection.

All of this happened in under two seconds when Aldrian suddenly felt his body being sucked into the void, and turbulent spatial storms swept over him. He completely fell into darkness, and the spatial storm was truly powerful.

The spatial barrier that could even protect him from the attacks of immortals started to crack. This was a protective talisman he had taken from the treasures Xuanji left for him. The protective talisman that could even defend against an immortal saint stage cultivator actually cracked!

Aldrian bit his lips as he was trapped in the void filled with violent spatial storms. The power of the spatial storm was enough to make even the strongest immortals flee with all their might, a power that could shred them to pieces.

Not even two seconds later, the barrier from the talisman shattered!

Before the barrier shattered, Aldrian quickly crushed another identical talisman, protecting himself once again. If he did not have the talismans left by Xuanji, he would have died.

Aldrian then took out another talisman and looked at it solemnly. This was another talisman from Xuanji, an escape talisman. He truly did not want to use this method, as his chance of getting out alive from this chaotic space was only fifty-fifty.

But he knew that if he did nothing, he would die here.

He gritted his teeth before crushing the talisman. Suddenly, his body disappeared, and Aldrian felt himself moving at an incredible speed for a few seconds. During those moments, he could not move his body at all due to the overwhelming force pressing against him.

The barrier from the talisman collapsed once more, and at that moment, he felt sudden pain surge through his body. It was as if countless blades were slashing him, forcing him to grit his teeth.

His own barrier, which he struggled to maintain, could not hold for even a second before collapsing, leaving his body exposed to the external spatial disturbances.

In that split second, he felt his body being shredded and his soul shaken. Blood dripped from his mouth, and the pain intensified.

"AAARRGGHHHH!" he roared as he felt the extreme pain. But he continued creating barriers from his golden energy, protecting his body as much as possible. Each time the barrier shattered, he created it again and again, continuously without stopping.

He continued to struggle, refusing to die in this place! He still had many things to do, and his family was still waiting for him!

But then he felt his consciousness start to fade.

’I need to stay awake, I need to stay awake, I need to—’ His vision grew blurrier as darkness slowly encroached upon his sight.

’No, no, I need to stay—’ But his sight finally fell into darkness, and his body slowly disappeared from the void. It was unclear whether his body had already been shredded to pieces or had simply vanished from the void.

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In an unknown place.

A forest stretched all the way to the horizon, with a clear river splitting it, creating a refreshing sight to behold. Mountains in the near distance further added to the beauty of the scenery.

The beautiful sounds of many kinds of birds could be heard, but they were not the only ones. The cries of wild beasts and spiritual beasts could sometimes also be heard.

This forest was home to many beings.

Among those beings, there was a village built in one part of the forest near the river. The atmosphere looked peaceful and traditional. Tens of simple wooden houses were spread across an area of more than two square kilometers.

At this moment, the villagers were busy with their own activities. Some were farmers tending the rice fields and other plantation fields near the village, which were far more extensive than the village itself. Some were taking care of their livestock, such as cows and sheep.

Inside one of the wooden houses, an old man with short white beard was treating a middle age man’s arm as he wrapped bandages around it.

"I think you should look for a new job. This is the third time you have come to me in the past two months," the old man said, then sighed. "Picking herbs in that dangerous mountain, you might die at this rate."

"Ahahaha, if I stop, how could I feed my family? The demand for spiritual herbs keeps increasing, and as long as I hold on and can feed my family, that is enough," the man replied with a smile.

"But those nobles are becoming more outrageous as the days go by," the old man said with a clear tone of anger. "They are the ones who control the market, selling pills and elixirs at expensive prices, yet they keep pushing people like you to work for cheap payments that are not even enough to meet your own needs."

"They keep telling us it is for the greater good and for the cost of war against the devils, as if I would believe that lie!"

"Aish, and then there are the bandits, making our lives even more difficult. They keep extorting us. What are those nobles doing if they cannot even deal with these bandits?" the old man added as he finished the bandage.

"Well, what can we do? We are truly weak compared to them. It is already a good thing for us to stay alive and have something to eat," the man answered in a tone full of resignation, causing the old man to sigh.

In another place, one of the villagers was a little girl around seven years old. She had short black hair and wore plain brown clothes. In her hand was an empty bucket, swinging with every step as she walked toward the river.

After she reached the river, she placed the bucket into the clear, flowing water.

As she filled it, she hummed happily, but then suddenly she saw the flow of water in front of her turn red.

She froze for a moment, then her eyes widened in shock as she noticed a body floating past her, dragged along by the slow current.

"Ah!" she shrieked as she stumbled backward, causing the bucket in her hands to slip and fall.

She kept looking at the body as it continued to drift away for a moment before she ran back toward the village.

After she reached the village, she ran toward one of the houses.

Crieck!

"Grandpa, Grandpa!" she shouted after opening the wooden door, startling those inside. The ones inside were the old man and the man he was treating.

The old man frowned, noticing how panicked the little girl sounded, and from her panting, it was clear that she had been running.

"What happened, Ella?" he asked.

"A corpse, Grandpa. I found a corpse in the river."

Both the old man and the man were stunned. The old man frowned again. "A corpse?"

The little girl nodded repeatedly. The old man thought for a moment before looking at the man beside him and nodding. The man also nodded, seeming to share the same thought.

"Lead Grandpa to the corpse," the old man said to the little girl.

The little girl nodded and led the old man and the man outside. She guided them to the river, and once they arrived, she followed the river’s flow for a short while before they saw a body floating, dragged along by the current.

Luckily, the flow of the river was slow, so the body had not drifted too far from the spot where the little girl first saw it.

The old man narrowed his eyes and raised his eyebrows.

"That body isn’t a corpse yet. It’s still breathing," he said. Without hesitation, he jumped into the water and tried to reach the body.

After he reached the body, he dragged it onto the riverbank. The moment he placed the body on land, they could finally see the figure more clearly.

A handsome face greeted them, one that made the two men and the little girl think this was the most handsome man they had ever seen. They even thought that this man might be a noble.

With long, fiery red hair, he truly stood out. From his clothing alone, they could not identify his identity, as his clothes were simple and unlike what nobles usually wore, and they were torn in many places.

However, his condition was truly severe. He had lost his entire right arm and left leg, and his body was covered in deep slashing wounds. It was truly a miracle that he was still alive.

"Is it really okay to save him? Won’t this bring us trouble later? From the looks of it, this man seems like a strong cultivator, and he must have just fought someone," the man asked the old man.

The old man frowned. After thinking for a moment, he made his decision.

"I will heal him. I cannot ignore this man after knowing he is still alive. Letting him die does not sit well with me."

The man sighed and nodded. They then brought the unconscious man back to their village.