Starlight's unconscious body had just exited the rift helplessly; her body fell straight into a free fall, due to gravity and other factors working their magic.
Her body, accumulating velocity, immediately plummeted through the thick veil of clouds, falling straight toward the ongoing war on the rocky plains of the Southern Wastelands beneath.
It wasn't until she was a few feet away from the earth that she began regaining consciousness—albeit her mind was still disoriented, confused, and groggy.
Boom!
She landed headfirst on the ground with a vicious impact, causing a mini crater and blasting everything in sight away.
The surrounding aboriginals weren't bothered by this phenomenon in the slightest.
After all, this wasn't the first impact they had noticed, and they couldn't afford to be distracted lest their opponents take advantage of that brief moment.
Who knew—this might even be a strategy of the enemy!
So the bloodthirsty folks just continued their battles.
They were peak elites of their various sects, and they were here to bring victory and honor to their masters.
Starlight, who had just had a rough landing, was suffering from a sharp stinging pain in her head—probably caused by a serious concussion, given how roughly she landed. She was also heavily disoriented and had blurry vision.
She couldn't quite make out her location, and her mind was filled with questions: "Where am I? Where are the others? Did I lose and get thrown into the portal?"
Thankfully, she began regaining her senses—first with her sense of sound, which abruptly overwhelmed her with the raging roars and metal clangs of battle.
The noise was like a burst dam, with a raging influx of current overwhelming her mind, further increasing the sharp stinging pain in her head.
Gritting her teeth in agony, she crouched to the ground in momentary fear and covered her ears with her hands in a vain attempt to dampen the noise.
Next, her sense of touch kicked in, as the scalding heat of the Sunfeather Sun bore its blighting heat on her relentlessly.
This was ironic, as she was a mutant with the ability to absorb and manipulate light energy and photons at will—but unfortunately, due to her poor state, she couldn't activate her powers, leaving her no different from a regular person.
After enduring the pain for a few seconds, she finally struggled to her feet, opening her eyes and taking a breath of the fetid air of the battlefield—and that was when she realized.
Blood, bones, grime, and all sorts of filth covered her body. "You've got to be kidding me." That was the only thought she could muster.
As the feeling of pain began to numb, her eyes began twitching the more she saw her filthy surroundings.
And little by little, an overwhelming compulsion overcame her entire state of being—and just then, she blacked out.
All that was left standing in her place was an irritated OCD patient with the overwhelming desire to purge her surroundings of all filth—both mobile and immobile.
Boom!!!
Starlight's figure burst into dazzling brilliance, releasing a scorching blast that canonized everything within a few hundred miles radius—both living and non-living.
This blast finally caught the attention of those who seemed to be commander-level figures in the war.
One of the white-robed commanders quickly reacted, hopping onto his unsheathed floating sword, which immediately whisked him into the air.
His long dark hair whipped in the wind as he moved rapidly toward the direction of the blast.
Immediately upon arriving at the scene, he noticed a strangely dressed lady who seemed to be coated in a golden luster that completely obscured her figure, her eyes purely white.
His handsome face quickly contorted into a frown as he noticed something else: "There's no Qi in the atmosphere… how is that possible? An attack of that level had to have left a Qi residue."
Looking back at the strangely dressed lady, he spoke: "Who are you? Identify your sect and race."
Starlight, who stood on the verge of exploding into a killing spree, quickly noticed the commander in sight who was speaking gibberish…
Well, in her defense, this wasn't her world, so she didn't know their language. To her, his speech was incomprehensible.
Not that she cared in the first place. Scanning his bloodstained figure, she muttered beneath her breath, "Filthy. Needs to be purged."
Letting out those words, she sprang into action, moving at a speed that would make sound feel like a snail. In fact, time seemed to slow to a crawl—and in the blink of an eye, she was already in front of the commander, palms outstretched.
The commander's hair stood on end as his instincts screamed for him to move—but it was too late. He was too slow.
Boom!!!
A high-intensity beam ejected from her palm, blasting toward the commander with an intensity that promised instant death.
In that fraction of a second, the commander's mind spun in confusion. He couldn't believe his eyes: "This attack has no Qi!" That was the last thought that graced his mind as the beam connected, vaporizing him on the spot—gifting him with the cold, or in this case hot, embrace of death.
And just like that, a cultivator at the ninth phase of Qi refinement died without putting up a fight.
…
High in the skies, overseeing the entire battlefield, were various sect elders and senior sect members watching the battles unfold. They were also there to keep each other in check.
Among them, they were obviously divided into two groups: the Demonic Path cultivators and the Righteous Path cultivators.
"Ling Yue, what sinister plans have you come up with this time around? Who are these individuals falling from the skies?" an elder of the Righteous Path accused, pointing at a gaunt-looking old man of the Demonic Path.
"Wang Jin, you're the one I'm meant to be asking. You righteous bastards are the ones famous for schemes and traps," Ling Yue argued back.
Wang Jin frowned in irritation, unable to refute. But looking downward and seeing the damage being caused by the outsiders toward both parties, he couldn't help it. His eyes twitched in anger.
"Regardless of who did this, we have to do something—lest our losses increase." As he said this, he looked toward the direction where one of the commanders had just been killed. His heart ached in regret. That commander was a talented lad—with enough time, he could have achieved Core Formation. And now, just like that, he was gone.
Both parties nodded in agreement. They couldn't bear to lose any more talents. After all, it was for this specific reason that they restricted the battle to Qi Formation juniors only. But now…
Quickly darting out of the groups were Foundation Building experts, sent to deal with the intruders—one flying toward Starlight's rampaging figure.
Another flew skyward toward an impertinent outsider who dared to hover above the battlefield, observing the fight. He even dared to stay at an altitude higher than the elders—showing blatant disrespect.
He immediately readied his hand to deliver a slap!
…
High above the sky, in the outer reaches of space, the Sunfeather Sun stirred as a mysterious voice could be heard whispering:
"Who dares steal my sunlight?"