These one hundred and eight stars hung quietly in the high skies of the Undead Dao Court.
An eerie aura connected the stars, as if they were exchanging information.
At times, they would release ripples of energy to drive away the necrotic aura in the surrounding air.
At other times, they would sink into a deathly silence, as if mistaking the thick necrotic aura for the tentacles of some predator.
But what Chen Xu admired most and found truly exquisite was the hundredfold light they radiated simultaneously after their periodic connection.
The originally minuscule power within each star was amplified over a hundredfold after circulating through the other one hundred and seven stars—and this was true for every single one of them.
If this characteristic were formed into a battle formation, the resulting power would be staggering.
Furthermore, the number one hundred and eight perfectly coincided with the count of the Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Fiends, making them excellent materials.
With a gentle flick of his finger, Chen Xu divided the one hundred and eight stars into two groups.
The left group held the position of honor, numbering thirty-six for the Thirty-Six Heavenly Spirits. The right group represented talent, numbering seventy-two for the Seventy-Two Earthly Fiends.
Then, his Power of Creation erupted, simultaneously tainting the one hundred and eight stars.
The stars had been attempting to play dead in a state of silence just a moment ago, but the second they sensed this Power of Creation—which was even more overbearing than the necrotic aura—they began to struggle frantically.
Pulses of energy were released from the interior of the planets, constantly resisting the Power of Creation.
In an instant, Ancient God energy filled the space around the stars. On the planets' surfaces, flesh mutations like tentacles and horns even began to appear.
“Heh.”
Chen Xu smiled disdainfully. If the Lord of the Ancient Gods were present, it might have been of some use, but now these were merely remnants left behind by the past.
Go ahead, jump and resist. The more they resisted, the more it proved their high vitality and value, and the more excited Chen Xu became.
In the next moment, above the high skies of the Undead Dao Court, besides the one hundred and eight stars, a pair of eyes emerged—Chen Xu’s eyes.
Chen Xu resonated with the core of the Undead Dao Court, controlling the necrotic aura within to easily grind away this bit of Ancient God power.
Under the baptism of the necrotic aura, those mutated fleshly growths quickly shriveled up and fell to the ground like mummified corpses.
Next, Chen Xu molded the Power of Creation into long, slender steel needles. With a thought, the needles simultaneously pierced into the interiors of the one hundred and eight stars, striking their heart cores.
With that single strike, the stars lost all power to resist, forced to let the Power of Creation gradually erode them from the surface to the interior.
The originally yellowish-brown planets, streaked with traces of blood-red, began to show scattered white spots.
The white spots continued to spread, soon covering the entire surfaces of the planets, making the once-vibrant worlds appear aged.
As the Power of Creation continued to penetrate, the Ancient God power within the planets was steadily pushed toward the heart cores.
This Ancient God power was the key to the stars' qualitative transformation. To avoid any accidents, Chen Xu temporarily halted the infiltration of the Power of Creation and began to accumulate strength instead.
Once the Power of Creation had built up to a certain level, Chen Xu released his control. The Power of Creation surged toward the stars' heart cores like a tide, tainting both the Ancient God power and the cores together.
After the main bodies were fully tainted, Chen Xu proceeded to the next step.
He opened the treasure chests on the ground and used the Power of Creation to taint the large quantity of star-related items and equipment inside.
The grand gift from Xiude was nearly exhausted in one go, leaving only some space fragments and soul particles.
Xiude truly lived up to his status as a Titled High Priest; he was incredibly generous.
Previously, Chen Xu’s attention had been entirely on these one hundred and eight Ancient God stars, so he hadn't investigated the equipment in the chests.
Looking at them now, the lowest-tier items in the chests were legendary-tier, and there were even several damaged eternal-tier pieces of equipment.
Such extravagance made Chen Xu remark that Heaven really was a filthy rich fat cat.
The world only knew of Hell’s ferocity, but Heaven, which had been able to contend with Hell for so many years, was clearly no simple player either. One could tell just by looking at these gifts.
After finishing the tainting of the equipment, Chen Xu planned to link these stars to a special region of the Undead Dao Court.
Just as the Radiant Sun was linked to the lakes, and Taiyin to the Giant Valley.
The special region Chen Xu chose for these one hundred and eight stars was none other than his own traveling palace, the symbol of the Lord of the Undead—the magnificent Overlord's City.
The Overlord's City could be projected into the outside world or manifested directly. Its appearance would immediately terraform the surrounding environment, changing it into one suitable for the survival and combat of the undead.
Beyond that, it could provide a significant all-around boost to undead creatures, making it a powerful weapon of war.
In Chen Xu’s vision, if the unique amplification ability of the Ancient God stars could be applied to the Overlord's City, increasing the existing buffs by a hundredfold, it would be a truly divine power.
Chen Xu raised his hands high, channeling one hundred and eight beams of starlight into the Overlord's City, uniting the city with the stars through the light.
“Enlightenment! Manifestation!”
As Chen Xu’s voice fell, the one hundred and eight stars were awakened once more. This time, they no longer belonged to the Ancient Gods, but to the undead.
The moment the stars' sentience was born, beams of starlight descended, generating one hundred and eight statues of various forms within the Overlord's City.
Seventy-two of the statues were based on the undead, but their appearances were extremely eerie, like failed evolutionary products or the whimsical creations of some Lord of the Undead.
In short, they revealed a hint of ferocity amidst their majesty, and a touch of strangeness within that ferocity.
For example, one statue had the lower body of a bone nightmare with a pair of massive bone dragon wings on its back. However, its upper body was not that of a bone nightmare, but the torso of a Necrotic Knight—specifically, a headless knight.
Another statue near it was not as complex, having the normal build of an Undead Bone Dragon, except that it had several extra bone dragon tails, each covered in white bone arms.
When Chen Xu’s gaze fell upon these statues, they came to life under the coloring of the starlight. They flocked toward Chen Xu, running around him like a pack of dogs trying to please their master.
Although the appearances of these seventy-two Earthly Fiend Star Lords were certainly nothing to brag about, they were pure-blooded undead in style, influenced only slightly by the Ancient God aesthetic to look somewhat hardcore.
As for looks, Chen Xu had no particular requirements.
The other thirty-six Heavenly Spirit Star Gods had much more normal appearances, being primarily humanoid with some undead-style decorations.
Looking at the lively Star Gods before him, a term suddenly popped into Chen Xu’s mind: space pirates.
Since those pirates were being so high-profile and dared to obstruct his development, he would use them to test the might of these Heavenly Spirit and Earthly Fiend stars.
Rate on N.U.
