Awakening：The Infinite Evolution of My Talent as a Low-Level Awakener - Chapter 688

Chapter 688: Chapter 688: The Super-strong Defense of the Star-Bone Body! Deceived Again?
“Everyone… SHATTER!!!”

Sterl howled to the sky, his Power of Star-Bone surging within him. In that instant, the duration of the Star-Bone Body was reduced to just a single second, but a vast amount of obliteration energy quickly surged into his hands. Just the act of his hands hovering motionless caused the surrounding space to tremble and deteriorate.

Not only that, he directly summoned the souls of ten million Hellborn spirits from the Purgatory Space, channeling them all into the Soul Devourer Sphere for refinement.

Then, with his five fingers curling into a fist, he didn’t use any flashy or intricate techniques. Instead, with sheer power, he threw a punch straight at the incoming gray droplets.

In the blink of an eye!

The force erupted like a supernova from his fist, expanding in an instant!

In mid-air, a light brighter than the sun suddenly flared, filling the space with an overwhelming aura of destruction. It felt as if all matter, energy, and even souls would be annihilated under this force.

At this moment, the obliteration energy strangely resembled that eerie gray energy, yet it was far more domineering and wild—like the difference between a hyena and a raging tiger!

The gray droplets were immediately enveloped by the full force of his punch. A tremendous gravitational force instantly wrapped them up, trapping them within the reach of the punch’s power, unable to escape and forced to face it head-on.

In an instant, five of the mysterious gray droplets collided directly with the mightiest punch from Sterl’s Star-Bone Sacred Body. The brilliance in the air, like the light of the sun, grew even more dazzling.

At the point of impact between Sterl and the droplets, the temperature instantly soared beyond one hundred million degrees and kept climbing, causing the space around them to fracture and collapse.

Then, the wave of power spread outward like a shockwave of light. Wherever it passed, everything was obliterated!

Even the very land and sky began to collapse and fade away, as if a piece of paper was being scorched by raging fire.

All things vanished without a trace.

In just a fraction of a second, the aftermath of the collision rippled through the entire layer of Hell. This vast Ninety-First Layer of Hell disappeared from this world entirely.

All the beings that survived here—whether ordinary lifeforms, legendary demigods, or even gods—were extinguished like a candle snuffed out by the wind under the force of this power.

Only the strongest beings on this level, the one and only upper divine authority, barely survived. But even they were left with nothing but a shell of their former power, transformed into something resembling a statue, floating within the now pitch-black, hollow space.

If there was no external interference, he reckoned he would remain here in silence forever, until his consciousness completely faded and he ultimately perished.

The force between the collision came swiftly and left just as quickly. In only a moment, everything returned to stillness. Sterl stood silently in place, still maintaining his punching stance. However, the five mysterious gray droplets that had been before him were now nowhere to be seen.

The next moment, a sound like glass shattering echoed. A crack ran through Sterl’s fist, splitting across his entire palm, then down his forearm… up to his upper arm… and finally extending to his shoulder.

Then, with a resounding boom, his entire arm shattered like broken porcelain, the fragments vanishing into the air. Through the gaping hole at his shoulder, one could even see his internal organs.

But in nearly an instant, his shattered arm began to heal at an incredible speed, returning to its original state, looking exactly the way it had before.

“I told you… I am invincible now!”

A slight smirk tugged at the corners of Sterl’s mouth, his expression twisting into a menacing grin. Then, a wild, exhilarated laugh erupted from his throat.

What did it matter if there was a mysterious force, or shadowy figures pulling the strings behind the scenes? All of these powers that had once made him wary would soon be crushed beneath his feet!

Nothing could stop him now. No force could threaten him anymore!

He would transcend everyone and everything, reaching the very pinnacle of power!

“Truly worthy of defense strength on par with Stellar Crystal. It’s really strong,” he murmured as he regained his composure.

Quickly, he poured the one hundred thousand souls he had refined into his body, converting them into Power of Star-Bone, allowing the Star-Bone Body to remain active.

If he didn’t do this, once the passive effect wore off, it would mean that the Power of Star-Bone would be exhausted, and he would fall into an unknown weakened state.

If that state was severe, it could be troublesome to deal with.

With the infusion of those hundred thousand souls, the duration of the Star-Bone Body increased by nearly ten more seconds. Of course, this was only the base duration—if he engaged in combat, the consumption of Power of Star-Bone would increase drastically, causing the duration to decrease just as rapidly. But for now, it was enough.

Looking at his fully healed arm and the now-vanished droplets, he felt a great sense of satisfaction.

There was a time, back when he only had four hundred thousand souls backing him, when he had almost perished along with a single one of those gray droplets. But now, even five of them couldn’t do a thing to him. The difference between then and now was staggering.

“My strength… will never stop growing…”

A faint smile appeared on Sterl’s face as he refocused his attention on Purgatory Space, but this time, a chill ran through his body, and the smile on his face instantly froze.

“Shit! What the hell is going on?!”

He saw that, within Purgatory Space, the mother soul units that had been in the process of being refined had mysteriously dwindled down to only seven. The original twenty had vanished without a trace—gone, just like that!

A surge of intense rage flared within him, and he quickly checked the situation. It turned out that at the moment the five droplets shattered, one of them had emitted a soul-like droplet.

Because the power from his punch had been almost entirely absorbed by the five droplets, this soul droplet had not been affected too much.

Seizing the opportunity, this soul droplet unleashed some mysterious force, silently breaking through the outer protective layer of intricate symbols and made its way directly toward his soul.

However, Sterl’s soul was far too powerful, especially with the Star-Bone Body augmenting it, so the droplet didn’t cause him any harm. Instead, it self-destructed.

Immediately, the mother souls within Purgatory Space seemed to be triggered by something and began to rapidly disintegrate.

This wasn’t the effect of Soulforge Fire burning them away; instead, they self-destructed and disintegrated, even their true soul essence vanishing.

By the time he noticed, only seven mother souls remained.

Sterl activated his Dimension Perception ability and saw the overlooked moments. His previously high spirits immediately darkened. His eyes blazed with fury.

“So, this is how it is! Fine, very fine!”

Sterl had never expected that these mysterious forces could silently break through the protective mystical patterns on his body’s surface.

To make matters worse, these invaders had managed to influence the mother souls to disintegrate outside of Purgatory Space—this was something he hadn’t anticipated.

Of course, this could also be attributed to his growing arrogance after the immense power he gained from the Star-Bone Body.

He quickly reined in his inflated sense of pride, forcing himself to calm down.

There was always someone stronger—no matter how much he had grown, he was still far from invincible. Even in the Endless Void, let alone the Tanscendence realm, there were beings far more powerful than he.

He needed to remember that.

At this moment, he silently warned himself: the threat from these mysterious invaders had just been raised to an entirely new level.It made sense when he thought about it—after all, this was a massive force that dared to extend its claws into the Tanscendence world, one that even the gods feared. It wasn’t something as simple as he had originally perceived.

Moreover, Hell was just one of their minor targets in the invasion, like a small squad from the vanguard army.

If someone became overly proud and reckless after barely defeating a small squad, they were only a hair’s breadth away from death.

Sterl shook his head, pushing those thoughts aside. He was shocked to realize that the remaining seven mother souls also showed signs of collapse and dissolution.

If they really did vanish, his entire plan would be for nothing!

He couldn’t afford to hesitate for a second. Without thinking twice, he fully activated Phantom Purgatory under the boost of Star-Bone Body.

Fortunately, for some reason—perhaps it was the enhanced damage of Phantom Purgatory under the Star-Bone Body, or maybe the mysterious soul droplet’s influence wasn’t strong enough—the seven mother souls didn’t disintegrate as quickly as he feared.

Within less than two seconds, he barely managed to refine them successfully, narrowly avoiding disaster.

“Phew… Finally, it’s done.”

Looking at the seven obedient mother puppets in Purgatory Space, Sterl let out a long breath, feeling the weight lift off his shoulders.

It wasn’t hard to see why he was so tense. If he had failed, all the time and energy spent, along with the soul power and Power of Star-Bone consumed, would have been for nothing.

And after revealing his strength once again, those hidden entities would surely be even more cautious. His task of collecting mother souls would become that much more difficult.

“Damn it!”

He couldn’t help but curse under his breath. If only those droplets had emerged a second later, he would’ve succeeded! In that case, he’d have thirty mother puppets—each reinforced, producing over 1,200 points of high-level soul power a day!

At that rate, it wouldn’t be long before he could make a third extreme breakthrough!

Even without the breakthrough, the reserves would be incredibly valuable. He could even convert them into Power of Star-Bone, making them highly useful in many ways.

But now, his progress had taken a hit. Adding the three previous mother puppets, he only had ten in total. While it was still a good number, the feeling of a once-captured duck flying away was incredibly frustrating for Sterl.