Divine Emperor of Death

Shirley entered the Ninth Hidden Pagoda, full of excitement.

She landed in an empty space.

"Wait… this isn't my true body…"

Shirley rubbed her palms, feeling it was similar to one that of a soul body. However, it still felt fleshly, making her feel this was no different than her avatar. But she could tell in the confines of her mind this wasn't her true body or her avatar as they were both somewhere else, perhaps in another space in the Ninth Hidden Pagoda.

'No wonder Dewzai didn't waste her energy. For the same reason, her body also returned in the same state, unhealed…'

Shirley understood her body was stored somewhere. She couldn't help but laugh wryly, wondering just how the World Master was. She just wisped into this space and she didn't notice anything strange yet her body was already stolen from her.

She was speechless but also looked up to that kind of power, wanting to be near it.

After guessing that her main body was safe somewhere else, she looked around.

Her soul sense was sealed here, but she noticed she was standing on a circular spatial platform. It slightly glowed black but was also translucent, allowing her to see through it.

Once she did a three-sixty-degree search with her eyes, she noticed that there were more circular spatial platforms around her. She was standing on what seemed to be one corner of an octagram or an eight-point star.

Accurately, she was standing on the southwest point of the outer octagram as there was an inner eight-point star as well.

Further outside the two eight-point star formations, there were more circular spatial platforms surrounding them. There were about ten of them surrounding the outer and inner octagram formations, making Shirley blink.

She walked to the edge of the circular spatial platform she was currently in and further sighted five more circular spatial platforms up and five more circular spatial platforms down. Further up, there were five more circular spatial platforms that were curved inwardly, and the same could be said to have taken shape further downwards. They all led to a circular spatial platform at the highest point and the lowest point, appearing to complete a diagram or some kind of formation.

As far as she could count, there were forty-eight circular spatial platforms.

All these circles made Shirley narrow her eyes as she felt it was pointing to something she recognized.

However, that wasn't in her mind as she wanted to know what exactly caused Dewzai's failure.

'Well, staying here won't solve anything…'

Shirley decided.

She looked towards the southern direction, wanting to jump to the circular spatial platform there. Standing at the edge, she didn't hesitate. She jumped, finding herself perfectly capable of hovering.

"Nice, I can fly…"

She smiled and glided like a fairy to the southern circular spatial platform.

*Whoosh!~*

But halfway there, a gust of wind emerged from nowhere, causing her eyes to widen. It pushed her all the way back.

Shirley tried to go against the force by accelerating, but it was of no use. The more she accelerated, the more the wind force acted against her, eventually causing her to backpedal all the way back to the edge where she stood.

"…"

She looked at the empty space in between, wondering if there was some kind of formation that prevented her from reaching the other circular spatial platform.

"It can't be…"

Shirley redirected her attention to the other nearest circular spatial platform. It was at the southeastern direction. However, compared to the western circular spatial platform, it was really far away.

But since she stood at the eastern edge and could fly, she shrugged and jumped towards the southeastern circular spatial platform.

She glided, her white sleeves swaying as though she was really crossing an airspace when this space was supposed to be nothing but empty space with these strange circles. She could even feel the wind hit her face.

She readied herself for another gust of wind as she almost reached the halfway point.

However, nothing came.

She made past the halfway point gliding across the empty space and arrived at the southeastern circular spatial platform. Once she landed, the platform illuminated a bit more, still black.

Shirley blinked. Her eyes perceived everything she could take in. There were no changes other than the platform she landed on, which was illuminating a bit, the same as the first platform she stood on.

Nothing popped up in her face and ate her as she expected some creature would. Nothing crushed her into meat paste for landing here, which finally made her relax.

She heaved a sigh of relief and wondered what the difference was when she crossed the first time and now when suddenly her eyes widened.

"I see. So this is a double square eight-pointed star instead of a normal eight-pointed star…"

Shirley ran to the northern edge. Instead of jumping to the west, she jumped to the northeastern circular spatial platform, which was far away from the east circular spatial platform.

She glided all the way and safely landed there before making her way to the west circular spatial platform.

And as she expected, she was pushed back by tumultuous winds that sent her back to the northeastern circular spatial platform.

"Hehe… so that's how it is…"

Shirley giggled.

She knew the layout of not only the outer eight-point star and inner eight-point star, which were the double squared eight-point stars, but the entire forty-eight circular spatial platforms.

Because in her mind, this was no different than-

"The Lower Realm Star Map…"

Shirley knew if she was in a star map of the Lower Realms, then chances are she needed to make her way up to enter an Upper Realm.

"Need to find a spatial node…"

Shirley looked around with much more focus than ever. She picked out every nook and cranny she could see, but there were no spatial nodes. She thought perhaps they were hidden, so she ran to the edge and looked up and down, wondering if she could see it.

"There it is…!"

She finally spotted a black dot spiraling at the lowest point.

Shirley jumped off like she was jumping off a cliff and descended. She tried to land on a circular spatial platform below but was sent flying upwards.

"As expected. It really is the Lower Realm Star Map…!"

Shirley flipped and landed back in the place she jumped from. Instead of jumping again, she jumped further right, heading towards one of the ten circular spatial platforms surrounding the inner and outer eight-star points.

She safely landed on it and continued down, landing on one of the five circular spatial platforms.

Then she descended again, making it to one of the five circular spatial platform that curved inwardly to a final circular spatial platform where the black dot spiraled like a spatial node.

Shirley jumped down for the last time and descended to the lowest point.

She landed on the circular spatial platform there and rushed towards the spatial node. Its undulations were getting weaker and weaker, so Shirley imagined that this would soon disappear if it followed the rules of the Lower Realms.

Only through a spatial node leading to an Upper Realm could she get to a higher layer. If not, it would prove impossible to a higher layer or even a lower layer.

Shirley clenched her teeth and pounced towards the black dot.

As soon as she came into contact, she was absorbed and found herself falling down to a circular spatial platform.

Standing up, Shirley looked around and noticed she was standing in the northern part of the inner eight-point star.

This time, there were only the inner and outer double square eight point stars, so a total of sixteen circular spatial platforms, which matched the number of Upper Realms, also sixteen.

She saw the circular spatial platforms were now way bigger and wider, also indicative of the size of an Upper Realm. It pretty much confirmed for her that this was the Star Map of an Upper Realm but it was the Star Map underneath the Celestial Transcendent Galaxy and not the other seven Galaxies.

"Which would make my next stop…"

Shirley soon found a black dot that was on the eastern circular spatial platform of the inner eight-point star. Fortunately, it was only a jump away. She knew it would lead her to the Celestial Transcendent Galaxy or accurately, the circular spatial platform that could be considered the Celestial Transcendent Galaxy.

She wondered what kind of battle she was going to face there since the layout of the trial seemed very peculiar, leading her to believe something was awaiting her there.

Shirley didn't delve too deep since the black dot spiral was just one jump away.

She made the jump without flair and entered it, causing her to appear in a super wide circular spatial platform. Its dimensions were huge, so much so she couldn't see the end of it in the darkness.

However, she did find something peculiar at the center of the circular spatial platform.

It was a statue of a man who had his hands folded behind his back, looking dignified yet kind at the same time as he possessed a light smile on his face. The features of the statue were pretty shady, perhaps due to the fact that it was only a stone statue and didn't have anything special about it.