In the world made of Grand Emperor Netherflame’s memories of the Heavenmaker species, the massive necropolis was wreathed in shadows. The walls were carved with complex designs, but looking closely at them would reveal only a blur. It was impossible to make out any details about them. It was only possible to sense that the designs were like liquid, constantly flowing to form a host of ever-changing images.
The necropolis was completely empty. The only beings inside were Xu Qing and the golden rat, both of whom were at the blue pool.
There were no bystanders. There was no sound. There was only time, slowly passing. So far, enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn.
Xu Qing looked down at the pool and sensed the terrifying life force flowing constantly into him, healing his injuries and nourishing his fleshly body. The sense of strength within him was growing increasingly intense, as was the feeling of flawlessness.
The Heavenmaker species....
Xu Qing had never heard of such a species before. However, given how astounding this pool of water was, he could tell that they were incredibly powerful. All in all, this was the first time Xu Qing had encountered anything that could bolster this fleshly body of his. Furthermore, from the moment he started the absorption process, he could tell with certainty that the pond was not harmful.
Too bad everything just happened so fast.
His eyes flashed as he looked at the little golden rat splashing in the water. The rat was continuing to madly absorb the water. Apparently, the unusual water was so important to it that it didn’t want to waste even a fraction of a moment.
Xu Qing thought about the situation for a moment, and in the end, decided not to do as the rat was doing and immerse himself in the pool. Although the water was obviously beneficial to him, he was also slightly suspicious about this good fortune coming out of nowhere.
Therefore, he stopped after putting only his hand in the water.As Xu Qing carefully controlled how much he was absorbing, the rat’s belly began to swell up. Eventually, it reached its limit and reluctantly returned to his side.
Looking hesitant, Xu Qing finally pulled his hand away to end the destined opportunity. However, he did take out a bottle from this bag of holding, in the hopes that he could fill it with water and take it away.
Intentionally speaking out loud, he said, “I need to think more about where this destined opportunity came from. Only then can I decide whether or not to bathe in the water. Even if I can’t take it away, I'm not going to risk immersing myself. Hopefully this works.”
He had been acting very cautiously so far, including what he was doing right now. Some time passed, and then he shook his head and sighed. It wasn’t possible to extract the water and take it away.
“What a pity,” he murmured. “What a real pity....”
But he wasn’t ready to give up just yet, so he spent some time thinking of other possible ways to take the water. Unfortunately, all attempts failed. Although the water would enter the bottle, it would subsequently disappear.
Xu Qing sighed again, then stood to leave. At the same time, he gestured to the little golden rat to bite open a rift in space.
The rat burped. Then, looking very happy, it opened its mouth wide and bit down onto the air. A loud crunch rang out, and the same thing happened which had happened in the world of euphoria irises. A spatial rift opened up.
This time, however, the little golden rat didn’t seem interested in the spatial shard that resulted. Instead of eating it, it ignored it and lazily lay down on Xu Qing’s shoulder.
Xu Qing took a deep breath, then turned into a stream of light that shot toward the rift. He vanished inside.
Everything looked normal.
After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing came back out. When he emerged, his eyes were sparkling. He was not as hesitant as before.
I was very careful in everything I did. I wanted to make it seem like I was suspicious of the destined opportunity, and in the end, I chose to just leave. As it turns out, I really could leave if I wanted to. There are a few possible explanations.
First, it’s possible there was never anybody manipulating things from behind the scenes. Everything was a big coincidence, and I was just overthinking things. After all, if there is someone manipulating things, it would make sense for them to let me take the water out of the pool to get me to let my guard down. Except, I failed to take the water away. What’s more, nothing prevented me from leaving the place.
A second possibility is that there really is somebody manipulating things, and they didn’t want me to take the water away. But they did let me leave, which begs the question of what their purpose is....
Xu Qing’s eyes glittered brightly. If the second option is the correct one, then maybe the person is simply putting a game piece into play randomly in the hopes of it paying off later. Either way, if there’s somebody trying to manipulate me, then it makes no difference if I take the destined opportunity or not. Ultimately, they could make a move on me either way.
Xu Qing’s eyes shone with determination, but at the same time, he still had suspicions. However, the good fortune in front of him was just too amazing, and considering he had already done some tests, he finally gritted his teeth.
Blurring into motion, he entered the pool of water, settled down cross-legged, and began to absorb it. The water seethed and a vortex formed.
Xu Qing absorbed it, causing it to pour into him. The sensation of nourishment was a hundred times that of before. It was the same with the feeling of life force.
After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing opened his eyes. He had reached his limit. As it turned out, the water in the pool couldn’t provide unlimited bolstering to a fleshly body made from Eminent Desolation’s flesh and blood.
At the same time, Xu Qing found that the world around him was starting to blur and fade away.
Then the emotionless divine will that had spoken to him earlier returned.
“An incense stick of time has passed. Your good fortune is over.”
The world vanished, and Xu Qing found himself in the starry sky again. The sageheaven god vine flew over to him. Xu Qing looked around and thought back to everything that happened in the Heavenmaker necropolis. Making sure to keep his guard up, he had the god vine fly off into the distance.
Time slipped by slowly but surely.
A few days later, as Xu Qing was continuing to check memory worlds, his heart leaped. It was because the sageheaven god vine had suddenly transmitted emotional fluctuations that indicated it had recognized something with a similar origin as itself.
The only explanation was that it had found Erniu.
Xu Qing immediately sent instructions to the vine with divine will, and it rushed in that direction. It didn’t take long to arrive. Xu Qing found himself looking at a very small memory fragment that depicted a barren planet full of filth and decay.
Erniu... was there.
When Xu Qing saw what was going on, a strange expression appeared on his face. Without the slightest hesitation, he sent the god vine forward to enter the place.
At the last moment, though, he backed up, his eyes shining. He couldn’t enter the world!
Don’t tell me that if somebody else is inside a memory world, others are prohibited from entering? Is it because the memory worlds only contain one Netherflame, which prevents others from coming inside...?
After some more thought, he looked at Erniu’s memory world again, then waved his hand and sent the golden rat flying out.
“Bite it open!”
***
On the barren planet, Erniu was hopping vigorously on one leg. That was because he only had one leg. As he hopped, he cursed constantly.
What the hell kind of place is this? It’s bad enough there’s no spirit energy and the place has massive pressure weighing down. And of course there’s the terrifying sealing in place. I can’t even use one damn bit of my cultivation base!
To make it even worse, I'm incarnated as a weak and dying version of Netherflame! And I'm even missing body parts....
But most outrageous of all are the maggots! How come there are so many maggots here? And every single one has extraordinary god power fluctuations! Freaking... maggots with godliness? What the hell is this place? A world of maggot gods?
He had been hopping around for quite a while trying to find a way to leave, or at least determine what Netherflame had done. But no matter what Erniu did, he found himself in error. Looking at the maggots surrounding him, his eyes began to shine with madness.
“I still have one option left. You want to eat me? Well, I’ll eat you! Let’s see who can eat who first!”
Despite the fact that Erniu prided himself on not being a picky eater, he couldn’t stomach the idea of eating maggots. Unfortunately, he was truly out of options. Shouting, he prepared to go all out.
However, that was when an intense rumbling sound filled the sky, like thunder. As it spread out, the canopy of heaven sank down. It looked as if some enormous entity were attacking the sky from the other side.
Then everything went back to normal.
Stunned, Erniu looked up. “What’s going on?”
The moment the words left his mouth, another sound filled the sky. This time it wasn’t rumbling, but rather, a cracking sound. The canopy of heaven, which had just repaired itself, looked like it was being bitten. And then a small rift opened up. Then, a loud tearing sound could be heard as the rift turned into a large opening.
Erniu’s heart pounded. Then his eyes went wide with disbelief as he realized he could see a starry sky on the other side of the rift.
And within that starry sky was a huge god vine. The vine’s leaves were spread wide, and the vine itself was shining brightly. Looking almost like a dragon, it swept through the opening and screamed through the sky.
Most astonishing of all was that there was someone standing on the vine. He had long flowing hair and a blood-red robe. He was none other than Xu Qing in the form of Sir Blood Dust. The god vine served as a foil, and starlight as the backdrop as his terrifying energy crushed down on everything.
Because of the opening in the canopy of heaven, the sealing power was vanishing. And with Xu Qing’s energy crushing down on everything, the countless maggots were being blasted away.
Erniu looked completely bedraggled as he stood there on one leg looking blankly at Xu Qing. Finally, he took a deep breath. Puffing his chest out, he proudly said, “You’re too late, little Junior Brother. Your Eldest Brother already conquered this planet!”
***
The empress was traversing the starry sky in a very different way than Xu Qing. Whenever shē appeared in front of a memory world, it would tremble before collapsing noiselessly into a mass of glittering light motes that would ultimately fade into nothing… The empress clearly had a sense of where shē was going.
After following that path to the end... a very specific memory fragment appeared in front of hēr. When shē got close to it, it didn’t collapse.
The memory world was filled with darkness and an aura of death. And it was raining.