“Wang Lin stands upon the Cloud Sea!”

He sought no direct path to the celestial realm of Luo Tian, for alone, he could not hope to overturn the tide of war. Even with the Bow of Li Guang at his command, he could only, for a fleeting moment, shift the balance.

Three years weighed heavily upon him, a span he must use wisely. For beyond Luo Tian’s woes lay the ancient Xian Clan, stirring from their timeless slumber. And beyond even them, the boundless Outer Realm must be purged of its ancient evils. All of this hinged upon the arrows of Li Guang, yet his own celestial energy was not boundless, and each draw upon the enchanted bow taxed him dearly.

He knew the perils that beset Luo Tian, yet he could not hasten to its defense. First, he must scour the other starfields, reaping a harvest of Outer Realm souls. He needed their severed heads and captured spirits, to weave the ultimate array!

And so, Wang Lin ventured forth, his passage marked by a trail of shattered continents and dying screams. Behind him, the tally of severed heads swelled beyond fifty thousand!

When that gruesome number was reached, Wang Lin unleashed his power. His left hand rose, pointing to the void.

“The left hand, bearing life!” he intoned. At his command, half the severed heads surged forth, swirling to his left, forming a colossal vortex that churned within the starry expanse.

“The right hand, embracing death!” With a gesture of his right hand, the remaining heads answered the call, coalescing into a vortex of chilling mortality.

His eyes narrowed, Wang Lin’s hands moved with blinding speed, weaving a tapestry of arcane seals and binding glyphs, infusing them into the two swirling maelstroms. Finally, with a guttural roar, he commanded.

The two gargantuan vortices, representing life and death, collided and merged, becoming one.

The cosmos trembled as the unified vortex spun with ferocious speed, expanding exponentially. It reached a hundred feet, then a thousand, then ten thousand, until it spanned over a hundred thousand feet!

This monstrous vortex, swirling above Wang Lin, seemed to drag the very stars into its chaotic dance.

“The Cycle of Life and Death, complete!” Wang Lin bit his tongue, expelling a mouthful of essence, the blood of his Third Step cultivation. It dissolved into a crimson mist, merging with the vortex above.

As the two became one, a cacophony of cracking sounds arose, and the spinning vortex shuddered, grinding to a halt. It ceased its chaotic dance, and instead, began to solidify.

In the blink of an eye, the immense vortex was completely frozen. It hung in the heavens like a spectral ring, pulsing with crimson light, radiating an aura of boundless power!

From afar, the solidified vortex resembled a multitude of annual rings, but more accurately, it was a colossal wheel. This Wheel of Fate embodied life and death; in stillness, it offered existence, but in motion, utter annihilation!

Forming this gruesome Wheel were the fifty thousand severed heads, their silent screams forever captured within its icy prison.

Wang Lin leaped, landing atop the massive Wheel. His eyes burned with an otherworldly light as the Wheel, though still, began to move forward with a thunderous rumble, carrying him toward another distant continent.

He craved more bloodshed, more heads, and more captured souls to forge his second array: the Array of Karma!

He sped across the starfields, shattering continents in his wake. The Outer Realm cultivators within were crushed, their heads claimed by Wang Lin, and added to the macabre train that trailed behind him.

Reeking of death, Wang Lin was surrounded by a blood-soaked aura so thick it threatened to coalesce into a crimson rain. His eyes were bloodshot, his every cell consumed by a thirst for slaughter. After obliterating thousands of Outer Realm cultivators on yet another shattered continent, he strode onward.

Soon, the number of heads in his wake reached the tens of thousands once more, yet the killing was far from over. With a swift movement, Wang Lin raised his right hand and unleashed a palm strike. The earth trembled, and from within the continent before him, a horde of Outer Realm cultivators erupted, seeking escape. But his blow crushed them all, splattering blood across the stars, and adding their heads to his collection.

His onslaught was relentless. With Wang Lin’s sweeping advance, the slain Outer Realm cultivators piled up, filling the void. Before him materialized a colossal Cultivation Star, overgrown with writhing seaweed. As he approached, a Third Step aura emanated from the world.

This was the star once inhabited by the woman who had previously sought to evade him. Sensing Wang Lin’s approach, she had dared not engage him sooner, nor could she find any means to escape. She had waited, biding her time until Wang Lin arrived, ready to wage war on this world!

The Cultivation Star had been wholly consumed by her power. The countless strands of seaweed were manifestations of her faith and soul. Here, she could hope to reach a state of power she had never before achieved, though even here, victory was far from assured.

A piercing shriek echoed from the Cultivation Star as Wang Lin drew near. As the sound ripped through the void, the seaweed on the planet surged, growing to a thousand feet, then ten thousand, and eventually reaching lengths of a million feet and beyond!

Before Wang Lin’s eyes, the Cultivation Star underwent a transformation so profound and bizarre, he had never witnessed its like. Under the inexorable growth of the seaweed, the star…

…had become a severed head! The spiraling seaweed became the severed head’s long and flowing hair.

The blossoming flower on the star opened, revealing the beautiful face of the woman, who spoke in an incantation that swept across the Cultivation Star, causing its lands and rivers to shift.

Mountains crumbled and reformed, rivers dried and surged into being from the void. As the face of the planet was reshaped, the Cultivation Star was turned into a colossal head!

It was a woman’s head, molded from the very ground to resemble the one within the blossoming flower. In the starlit void, it was a sight both beautiful and terrifying.

The vast Cultivation Star had become a woman’s head, her beautiful face peaceful, her eyes closed. Her seaweed hair drifted in the star-winds, a mesmerizing sight to all who beheld her.
Its peaks were the nose, its mountain ranges the brows, the chasms its lips, and the vast ocean its eyes – all revealed the astonishing divine power of this celestial being!

Wang Lin’s gaze sharpened as he stared. At that moment, the head of the female, formed from a cultivation star, twitched its eyelashes. A series of earth-shattering rumbles echoed as the tremor of those lashes became the shaking and crumbling of mountains upon the cultivation star. With this tremor, the celestial woman’s eyes snapped open!

Her gaze, filled with unparalleled fury, locked onto Wang Lin. From the head of the woman came a piercing shriek that threatened to shatter the very fabric of the cosmos!

“Hmph, impressive power, but your cultivation is too weak!” Wang Lin’s right hand rose and seized the void. Instantly, a bloody mist coalesced, revealing the Blood Sword in his grasp. As he lifted it, a faint flicker of fire danced in his left eye, while lightning crackled in his right. Upon his brow, the essences of Life, Death, Cause, Effect, Truth, and Illusion swirled, and the destructive power of the Spirit Void Intermediate stage surged, all converging within the Blood Sword in that instant!

The Blood Sword thrummed with a terrifying resonance, as though filled with boundless excitement, its thirst sated after countless years. Only now, in Wang Lin’s hands, could it unleash its full might!

Gazing upon the celestial woman’s head, her eyes burning with fury and her screams weaving the incantation for her power, Wang Lin’s eyes flashed with cold resolve. He grasped the Blood Sword in his right hand and, in a single, decisive stroke, brought it down!

As the blade fell, the cosmos roared and the howl of the wind was subsumed by a single sound. A ray of sword light, capable of splitting the heavens, erupted forth. Boundless in length, capable of cleaving through any obstacle, it plunged down from above and struck the head squarely between the brows. In that instant, the woman’s fury collapsed, replaced by a terror and despair as her power was brutally interrupted. The sword pierced her brow, cleaved the cultivation star, and split the massive head in twain!

With a flash of light, the sword’s brilliance continued, leaving a hideous scar across the celestial woman’s face. Then, with a thunderous roar, the head split into two, and with it, the woman’s true form, nestled within the blossom, was severed. Her head, filled with confusion, was separated from her body.

Wang Lin lowered his right hand, the Blood Sword dissolving back into mist. He spared not another glance, instead striding past the ruined cultivation star. As he passed, his left hand casually reached out towards the severed head of the cultivation star.

Instantly, the woman’s true head, separated from her body, flew from the shattered cultivation star and into Wang Lin’s grasp. He casually tossed it behind him and strode away.

Only long after he had departed did the cultivation star fully shatter, collapsing into dust and ruin.

The Cloud Sea Starfield, a nightmare for outsiders, was nearing its end. Wherever Wang Lin’s divine sense reached, every invading cultivator would find no escape from death at his hand!

None could halt Wang Lin’s advance. He left bloodshed in his wake and collected the heads, each sealing the souls and nascent divinities of the slain. Gradually, the number of severed heads trailing behind Wang Lin once more reached fifty thousand!

After claiming the heads of the last outsiders from the final continent, save for the misty Cloud Sea Battlefield, Wang Lin’s eyes gleamed with frigid light. He turned his gaze towards the distant Cloud Sea Battlefield, the mist-shrouded rift that connected to the outer realms.

There, a floating continent was on the move. Within it, thousands of cultivators worked in unison, urging the continent toward the rift leading to the outer realms. As Wang Lin watched, half of it had already plunged into the gap, anchoring itself within the Outer Ancient Star Domain.

“Hmph, attempting to flee? Too late!” Wang Lin raised his right hand and pointed. Beneath his feet, the solidified vortex of Life and Death, the Wheel of Samsara, flashed from beneath him, tearing through the void with a thunderous roar. It hurtled directly towards the last continent shrouded in mist!

“I shall use you as sacrifices for my Great Life and Death Formation! To end the slaughter of the Cloud Sea!”

In an instant, within the mists above the continent that was halfway through the sealed rift, the mists churned violently as the Wheel of Samsara manifested with a deafening roar!

As it appeared, an indescribable pressure descended upon the continent. Upon the statue, the elder’s face contorted in horror as he witnessed the enormous Wheel of Samsara slowly complete a single rotation!

Life and Death, within a single turn!