Xu Qing’s heart was racing.
Naturally, the scene playing out in front of him was not something from Sir Blood Dust’s memories. His search had ultimately led him to find a face made of a planet, and that led him to realize something....
This definitely had to be the origin of the white dust he’d found in Sir Blood Dust’s soul!
Although he didn’t know what exactly that white dust was, he didn’t hesitate at all to lift his right hand, then drop it down. As a result, a majestic hand materialized in front of him. Then the hand stretched forward to grab the face. The nearer the hand got, the larger it became. By the time it reached the collapsing planet, the hand was actually bigger than the planet.
However, just as the hand was about to close around the face... something unexpected happened! It was impossible to say whether it was a coincidence or not. However, the collapsing star apparently passed a tipping point, and suddenly exploded. Rubble showered out in all directions.
The face was among the things that broke apart. The mountain that was the nose was leveled. The eyes that were lakes were wiped out. The mouth made by the valley... crumbled.
The huge face no longer existed!
A destructive shock wave blasted out from the remains of the planet, spreading out with terrifying force. The hand that Xu Qing had summoned bore the brunt of the destructive shock wave. A terrifying, deafening rumbling sound echoed out, joined by an aura of eradication, as Xu Qing’s hand stood up to the force for a moment before shattering.
Xu Qing himself fell back, shooting 300,000 meters to avoid the deadly force.
When he managed to look back… the planet was now nothing but dust. And that dust was white. It was exactly the same kind of dust that had been present on Sir Blood Dust’s fate threads.Shaken, Xu Qing immediately made attempts to collect it. Unfortunately, the moment the white dust appeared, it started fading away. Nothing Xu Qing tried was effective. That made sense considering that he had tried many ways to collect the dust from Sir Blood Dust’s fate threads, only to meet failure in every attempt.
Yet he wasn’t willing to just give up. That was especially true considering that the white dust had not fused with any fate threads, and thus existed in a different form. Therefore, after Xu Qing tried a host of different collection methods, he found that by combining godsource and his two types of authority and using that to bolster a jade bottle, he was able to collect a small amount.
Afterward, he looked down at the jade bottle in his hands, and his mind raced.
All of a sudden, he realized he knew exactly where that white dust in Sir Blood Dust had come from. Earlier, he had noticed other planets and worlds collapsing, but never had any white dust appeared. Yet when this planet exploded, it did appear. The difference between the two situations was obvious.
The white dust shows up with the destruction of a planet or world that resembles a face! Unfortunately, even though I went all out, I was only able to collect a small amount. It disappeared too quickly. I hardly have any....
Then Xu Qing checked the jade bottle and found that, despite the bottle being bolstered by godsource and authority, the white dust inside the bottle was still disappearing. The process was going slow. But at the very most, it would be completely gone in a day.
One day....
Xu Qing frowned. There wasn’t any time to lose. His cautious nature ensured that he wasn’t going to simply fuse the white dust with his own fate threads without doing some experimentation and research first.
When it comes down to it, what’s most important here isn’t the white dust. It’s the face....
He looked around.
Is there a second face around here?
Xu Qing thought for a moment, then sent some divine will out to Little Shadow. Instantly, Little Shadow fused with Xu Qing, causing Xu Qing’s eyes to turn pitch black. His plan was to use those shadow eyes to search through the pocket realm in the hopes of finding a second face.
Xu Qing didn’t waste any time. Now that the pocket realm looked like a painting again, he immediately started his search.
Time passed.
The World Origin Pocket Realm wasn’t a static painting. Instead, it was constantly moving. Most importantly, as Xu Qing searched, the heat, light, and danger of the red candle grew more intense.
Two days later, he had no choice but to leave the area of light and heat. Once outside, he looked back grimly.
Two days, and I only managed to search about a third of it. And most of those areas were close to the periphery. If I want to search more deeply, it would take more than ten days for sure. And the closer I get to the red candle, the more danger there is of being absorbed. This isn’t going to work.
After pondering the situation for a while, he made a decision. He still had a trump card to use.
“In that case....” He closed his eyes, and godsource rumbled. Then, a seed of godsource in his void soil glittered with golden light. The light grew increasingly intense, illuminating all of his void soil. Then it spread out from inside of him, eventually converging into a golden thread that wrapped around Xu Qing’s finger. ⱤＡ𐌽ôꞖÈs
Seeing that thread caused his eyes to shine with anticipation. That golden thread was the manifestation of the godly authority he had acquired from that Northfate King cultivator surnamed Long. It was the godly authority of good luck!
He squeezed it, and the thread of good luck burst into flames. Nothing happened.
Xu Qing looked around and confirmed that nothing unusual had played out. That said, this was his first time unleashing this type of godly authority, so it could be considered an experiment. A moment passed. He took a deep breath. Then he charged into the area of heat and light cast by the red candle, to start the search anew.
This time... after enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing sensed something different.
He saw traces of natural and magical laws. He knew that it was because of natural and magical laws that the World Origin Pocket Realm was so beneficial to Smoldering God cultivators. There were a vast amount of worlds and planets here, and they were collapsing and reforming constantly. All of that could be used as a reference point for Smoldering God cultivators seeking to form new worlds. It could be used as the basis to seek enlightenment.
And though all planets and worlds had some of the same fundamental natural and magical laws, in most cases, such laws differed greatly from place to place. Some could be considered suitable, others, not so much. The needs of Smoldering God cultivators differed based on the details of their worlds. And they also had to pay attention to the life cycles of the worlds and planets.
The most ideal situation was to observe laws from the moment they appeared until the moment they vanished. Only by witnessing all of its transformations and variations could one gain enlightenment of that variety of natural law.
However, time within the pocket realm was limited, so another big factor at play was luck. Though Xu Qing’s focus was on finding another face, the fact remained that he also got to observe natural and magical laws within the worlds being destroyed and born anew.
Of course, such observations were fleeting, like viewing a flower while speeding by on horseback , and were generally incomplete.
But then... something very gruish happened. A complete thread of magical law unexpectedly appeared in front of Xu Qing, as if it were taking the initiative to reveal all of his transformations.
And it didn’t just happen once....
As Xu Qing proceeded on his way, it happened over and over again. Many natural and magical laws would suddenly reveal themselves like the spreading tail of a peacock. They almost seemed to be trying to outdo one another! Any outsider who observed this happening would find it completely unbelievable.
Even more ridiculous, and shocking even to Xu Qing, was what happened to the collapsing planets. There were some that, after he looked at them, started collapsing more slowly. Either that, or they started revealing collapsing natural and magical laws. Because of that, it made his observations much more comprehensive.
The shadows in the pocket realm also seemed to be affected. When they noticed Xu Qing, they would instinctively charge toward him. But when they got near, they would get distracted by other things, and rush off to those instead.
Most astonishing of all was that the collapsing planets and the fleeing shadows seemed to be trying to shield Xu Qing from the light and heat of the red candle.... Because of that, everything went very smoothly for him. In fact, it was only after a few hours of searching that Xu Qing actually found that second face.
Xu Qing tried to suppress his astonishment at the results of the godly authority of good luck. Stopping in place, he turned to look in the direction of a collapsing planet. In the middle of that planet was a continent that was only about half-intact thanks to the way the planet was falling apart.
On that continent was a mountain and some lakes that made a face. Thanks to the collapse of the planet, the continent couldn’t stay in one piece. And even if it had been in one piece, the cloud cover would have made it difficult to spot the face. Nevertheless, Xu Qing spotted it.
Unfortunately, the moment he laid eyes on it, the planet vanished as the mountain and lakes crumbled into nothing. The face disappeared from sight.
A shock wave spread out, within which it was just barely possible to see the outline of a face, racing off in the opposite direction. Xu Qing blurred into motion as he started chasing it.
The face moved with shocking speed. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quite fast enough. After giving chase for the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the outline of the face disappeared.
Three breaths of time passed, whereupon Xu Qing appeared in the spot the face had disappeared from. After scouring the area, his gaze locked onto a spatial rift. His eyes narrowed. Rather than continuing with an aimless search, he decided to enter that rift.
The moment he did, a mind-blowing scene appeared in front of him. Inside of that rift was a world of mirages. There was no red fire. Instead... there was another snapshot! The jade slip of the World Origin Pocket Realm didn’t just have a single snapshot. There was a second level with another snapshot!
Underneath the red candle flame, Xu Qing found a second snapshot. Astonishingly, it depicted a star chart! It was a map containing thirty-six different star rings![1]
Every single star ring was made up of countless planets and planetary systems. They were incomparably dazzling, and amazing in a way that defied description.
One of those star rings was blurry, but clear enough to see what was inside. It was the fifth of the star rings! And in the middle of it was an old man seated cross-legged. It was only a symbol, but Xu Qing instantly recognized what it represented. That old man... was the very same old man he and his Eldest Brother had encountered in the outer sea!
What was most shocking of all to Xu Qing was the ninth of the star rings. In the very middle of that star ring was the symbol of a broken face! The moment he looked at it, he knew what it was. That was... the Living God Eminent Desolation! And that meant that it was also the location of the Revered Ancient mainland!
Inside of the ninth of the star rings, surrounding the Revered Ancient mainland... there were other terrifying symbols! In the east of the star ring, there was an enormous sleeping beast. In the north of the star ring, there was a flowing golden river. In the south of the star ring, there was a black pagoda. In the west of the star ring, there was a paper person seated cross-legged.
1. We first learned about the thirty-six star rings in chapter . ☜