Chapter 19: Devouring the Starry Sky

In the boundless expanse of outer space, Shen Xing’s consciousness stretched like an immense net, enveloping several planetary systems.

Now, the number of his incarnations was so vast it could, in rough metaphor, be likened to a river of stars spread across the heavens. Using the Celestial Dome Star as his center, Shen Xing constructed a spherical skyweb spanning tens of thousands of light-years in diameter. This net continued to expand, ceaselessly devouring the minor celestial bodies within its reach and drawing them into Shen Xing’s perception.

Simply broadening the monitored area posed little difficulty. Yet to manipulate several stellar systems at once was so challenging it would demand a long, arduous process.

Thus, Shen Xing’s ambitions did not end there.

On the outskirts of a stellar system, he gathered his incarnations to forge a satellite-sized planet, naming it the Abyssal Star.

This Abyssal Star became his tool for sweeping through the belts of minor planets—dwarf worlds and asteroids—gathered at the system’s edge.

In one such belt at the system's boundary, once teeming with countless dwarf planets and asteroids, all were swept away like dust before the Abyssal Star.

Each incarnation of Shen Xing, however small, was linked to the fundamental forces and laws of the cosmos. Even the power amassed by his lesser avatars could set vast celestial bodies in motion, altering their paths.

Under his command, the minor bodies in the belt were guided one by one to the Abyssal Star, where they were absorbed, becoming a part of him.

This process took only a few years. The Abyssal Star’s volume swelled thousands of times, making it the largest planet outside the Celestial Dome system.

Its rapid growth brought Shen Xing new power.

But he was not content.

He planned to subsume the other six planets in the Celestial Dome system, making them his own.

He began altering the Abyssal Star’s trajectory, steering it toward the outermost planet—Number Six.

Though Number Six was only half the size of the Celestial Dome Star, Shen Xing had marked it as his next target.

As the Abyssal Star drew near, the gravitational pull between the two planets increased dramatically. Number Six’s orbit shifted, moving closer to the Abyssal Star.

Shen Xing did not intend to annihilate Number Six. Instead, he manipulated the fundamental forces through the Abyssal Star, countering the natural gravity with cosmic laws, gradually slowing Number Six’s motion.

At last, Number Six collided slowly with the Abyssal Star.

In the silent sky, a searing landscape emerged. The two bodies burned soundlessly, collapsing and merging.

Shen Xing began the process of digesting, devouring, and absorbing.

Once the consumption was complete, the Abyssal Star expelled Number Six, whole and unchanged.

Though the planet appeared unchanged after being devoured and divided, the crucial point was that Number Six had now become one of Shen Xing’s incarnations.

He then restored Number Six to its original orbit, where it continued as a planet of the system.

All seemed as it had been, yet Number Six was now entirely a part of Shen Xing, just as his human avatars were. It had become the third star-entity akin to the Celestial Dome Star.

Next, Shen Xing set his sights on the remaining five planets.

The Abyssal Star moved deeper into the system, ready to devour again.

Meanwhile, on the Celestial Dome Star, physicists observing the cosmos detected this astonishing sequence.

They saw a supermassive planet, moving inward along the stellar orbits, seemingly on a collision course with another world.

This discovery shocked and unsettled the scientists on the Celestial Dome Star. They urgently studied the phenomenon, seeking some means of response.

Since ancient times, humanity had observed the starry sky with the naked eye, but what could be seen was only a sliver of the universe’s mystery.

With the rise of science, new optical telescopes vastly broadened humanity’s vision.

In recent years, aided by telescopes, scientists had explored the universe more deeply, discovering and naming the other six planets of the system.

Yet Shen Xing’s disturbance in the minor planet belt shattered the universe’s tranquility.

The second avatar, the Abyssal Star, was a colossal presence, ravenously swallowing other bodies in the belt.

Its emergence was like the appearance of a dazzling new star, illuminating the scientists’ vision and provoking their confusion and curiosity.

For billions of years, celestial bodies had moved in patterns of stability. Even in the millennia since Shen Xing had gained human civilization, people had grown accustomed to the regularity of the heavens, taking it for granted.

Only with the discovery of scientific laws did people truly understand the principle underlying the stability of the cosmos: universal gravitation.

Yet, the Abyssal Star moved along an inexplicable, unnatural path, disrupting the peace of the universe.

In the year 5585 of the Celestial Dome Calendar, the Abyssal Star collided with Planet Six—a day that became an astronomical sensation.

Scientists and stargazers kept sleepless vigil by their telescopes, watching the spectacle unfold. Yet, instead of the expected explosive cataclysm, the two bodies merged into one.

Shortly after, Planet Six returned to its orbit, while the Abyssal Star continued moving inward. The scientists were utterly baffled, unable to explain this strange phenomenon by any theory.

Helpless, they could only keep observing, hoping to discern a pattern in the Abyssal Star’s behavior.

In 5587, it neared Planet Five. Drawn by its gravity, Planet Five’s orbit shifted, and it moved toward the Abyssal Star.

Once again, scientists were stunned. After colliding, Planet Five, like its predecessor, separated and returned to its original orbit, while the Abyssal Star pressed on.

In 5589, the Abyssal Star approached Planet Four.

The encounter was just as before. The scientists’ astonishment now gave way to fear and dread.

At this pace, it would soon be the turn of the Celestial Dome Star—the home of humanity.

Almost as soon as the Abyssal Star drew near, chaos erupted across the Celestial Dome.

The Empire's district councils sprang into action, ordering scientists to calculate and predict the Abyssal Star’s path, to determine the likelihood of a collision.

But the scientists found it impossible to predict the giant planet’s trajectory with any accuracy.

In the year 5591, the familiar moment arrived: the Abyssal Star reached the orbit of Planet Three.

Now, the scientists were consumed by terror, for just inside Planet Three’s orbit lay the Celestial Dome Star itself.

They could not calculate the future, but the Abyssal Star had collided with planet after planet—surely, a collision with the Celestial Dome Star was inevitable.

Doom was upon them.