Chapter 464: The Ghost Emperor Arrives
It wasn’t that he wanted to absorb the information. It began pouring into his mind because of the beam of light and the god magic. It was as if the bits of information were contained in the god magic and the gaze of the god. Xu Qing had no choice but to accept the information, and thus veins bulged on his forehead, and his head filled with intense pain. His eyes turned bloodshot, and then bulged as if they might explode. As Xu Qing was wracked with pain, and as the information filled his mind, he suddenly came to understand something about the world.
To the eyes of gods, the lives of all living things were like a picture book open for perusal. What happened when thēy looked at you was that your past, future, and everything about you were like countless pictures that could be flipped through, combined, or changed. Your every action, including the tiniest step forward, acceleration, or pause in movement, could affect the future by creating countless branching possibilities.
Because of that, the pictures of the future contained countless variations. They were like a majestic river that formed the picture book of life. That picture book was so massive that mortals couldn’t even sense its existence. Not even cultivators could do that, unless their cultivation base reached an extremely high level.
And only someone at an apex level could possibly see the entire thing. That was because even just the pictures of one life contained information that most existing entities couldn’t sustain, much less the collective picture book.
When considering all of the living things in an entire world, and the world itself, it was simply too ‘weighty’ to even imagine. The nearly infinite amount of information that would erupt out every single instant would create different levels of destruction based on the level of the cultivation base involved. That was one reason why gods couldn’t be looked straight in the eyes.
Gods had such picture books which contained, not just the future, but countless other pieces of indescribable information. The more information, the greater the weight. In some cases, a god might not even have any destructive intentions, but if a living thing looked at thēm, the unbounded information would be too much to sustain. It would affect that living thing’s body, causing mutation and, ultimately, death.
But as for the broken face of the god in the dome of heaven... hē was different. When hīs eyes were closed, it was possible to look at hīm. Only when those eyes opened did an explosion occur.
Perhaps compared to other gods that would seem like a weakness. But when hīs eyes opened, that gaze encompassed all of the Revered Ancient mainland, and could invade anything and everything. In fact, even other gods could be invaded. After all, when hē gazed at something three times, it was called a god domain. It was very contradictory, and was seemingly incomprehensible.
Such information inundated Xu Qing’s mind, and that contradictory nature caused blood to spill out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. He shook from head to toe, and his blood vessels started collapsing.
The hand fused with that light was absolutely terrifying. This was a godly authority that was completely different from that of the taboo poison and the violet moon. It was purer.
A sense of deadly crisis sprang up within Xu Qing. He gasped for breath as he sent the power of the taboo poison and violet moon through himself, both to sustain himself and also resist the terrifying god magic.
The surrounding pictures blurred, with some of them turning dark. It looked like the flipping of pages was slowing down. But the pictures didn’t disappear. There was a deadlock between the two types of power, as they contended with each other.
Up in the sky, Chu Tianqun looked down, his expression turning more vicious. He was putting his life on the line in his attempt to kill Xu Qing. And he was tapping into his very core essence to do so.
The gaze within that box came from the heart of his experimental god body. And that body had been specifically designed for that box. Based on what he knew, the other four experimental bodies had been crafted similarly, yet none of them had boxes in their hearts. His was the only one. And that was also why he had been able to maintain his faculties in the experimental god body.
Furthermore, when his essence exploded out in this manner, it would influence his resurrection ability. But he didn’t care about that right now. What he cared about was that the picture book he had paid such a price to unleash was now turning blurry. Worse, it was becoming much more difficult to flip the pages. That was what he cared about the most, and it was also causing him to devolve into madness.
He couldn’t accept an outcome like this, and thus, he inhaled deeply. In doing so, he caused everything beneath his waist to wither up. All of the flesh and blood there disappeared. The bones melted. In the shortest of moments, his lower half turned into ash.
As they vanished, the god power essence within them swept up into the top half of Chu Tianqun’s body, converging in his throat, where it turned into a second beam of light that erupted from his mouth and fused into the god magic in his right hand.
Instantly, his hand shone with blinding, dazzling light. At the same time, it surged with unprecedentedly powerful godly might. It was so bright it made everything else seem dim, and made him the only source of light in heaven and earth. The ground quaked. The world blurred. Everything twisted and distorted. And at the same time, Chu Tianqun extended his hand toward Xu Qing and then slowly clenched it into a fist.
“Die! Die! Die!”
Xu Qing had just stabilized himself, only to suddenly feel himself reeling out of control. Countless pictures appeared around him, and instead of being blurry, they were extremely clear.
Chu Tianqun’s expression turned into one of wild hatred, and he let loose a hoarse howl. Swishing his right hand, he caused the pictures around Xu Qing to start flipping rapidly. He wanted to quickly find the perfect image.
Xu Qing’s pupils constricted as his organs, his flesh, his blood, his bones, and even his soul filled with indescribable pain. It was as if a red-hot poker had been plunged directly into his abdomen and then maliciously wrenched back and forth. Xu Qing spasmed. Blood sprayed out of his mouth. And his face turned pale white as he staggered backward. He felt death looming over him as he looked at the pictures around him and saw innumerable futures, all of them turning clearer and clearer. It looked like, within moments, one of them would be extracted.
It was a picture of him shattering into pieces, losing everything, leaving behind only a head and bitter grievance. Then Chu Tianqun took that head to a grave in the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains. There, he placed the head as a sacrifice in front of the grave. There was a name on the gravestone, clearly visible.
Master Shengyun.
There were some other branches of possibility attached to this future. In some of them, Chu Tianqun died. In some cases, he was killed by Arch-Immortal Plumdark. In others, it was Sir Bloodsmelter. In yet others, he died at the hand of Master Seventh. Sometimes he died at his own hand, and in other cases, he was killed by the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan.
In that critical moment, Xu Qing’s eyes turned bloodshot. The gaze contained in that shattered box was full of boundless godly might. Beyond that, Chu Tianqun was obviously going all out. It was a deadly scenario. The only thing Xu Qing could think to do to resolve the situation was to crush his own future, and thus make it impossible for his enemy to change those pictures.
Taboo poison and the violet moon aren’t enough. In that case, let’s see how you tamper with my future when I show you a Smoldering God shouldering two major worlds!
Xu Qing gritted his teeth and lifted his right hand. Instantly, thirty pact symbols from the Supreme Void World appeared in front of him. As they burned, an enormous mountain suddenly manifested behind Xu Qing. It started out blurry, but as the demonization symbols burned, it became clear. As it superimposed over Xu Qing, the mountain gradually came to resemble a humanoid form seated cross-legged in meditation.
Hē wore a pitch-black suit of armor, and had an enormous blade resting in his hands. In front of hīm was the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar, and two major worlds were on hīs shoulders. It was an image that seemed like nothing other than a wretched god. Every bit of the armor pulsed with destructive power, and the blade looked like something that could slice worlds apart. Endless animosity spread out from the mountain, creating spectacularly brutal fluctuations. They contained mad fury as they spread out to devour everything.
The entire world trembled. The desert started to collapse, and even the air seemed to shatter.
What was more, the facial features of the Ghost Emperor were about eighty percent similar to Xu Qing!
Xu Qing was no longer visible. He had fused with the Ghost Emperor. And as that Ghost Emperor floated up into the air, a pair of eyes opened and locked onto Chu Tianqun. That godly gaze was like that of the sun or moon. It was dazzlingly brilliant, making the world brighter, and also causing waves of incredulity to batter at the shocked Chu Tianqun.
Th-this... this.... This is freaking Gold Core?? Chu Tianqun was in a state of madness, but he was so astonished that he suddenly gained a bit of clarity. He looked completely flabbergasted. Never could he have possibly imagined that Xu Qing would be able to produce something as terrifying as this. Two types of godly authority... plus the projection of a Smoldering God with two worlds? Is that the Ghost Emperor??
As Chu Tianqun reeled, the Ghost Emperor Xu Qing had summoned descended with crushing power toward the ground, and Chu Tianqun!
A disdainful aura erupted from hīm, sweeping out everywhere, causing the ground to shatter. A miserable shriek erupted from Chu Tianqun’s mouth, along with a spray of blood, as he was shoved downward.
As the Ghost Emperor descended and blood erupted from Chu Tianqun’s mouth, the countless pictures that had appeared around Xu Qing went from clear back to blurry. They went from bright to dark. And then they started vanishing.
Winds screamed, picking up the rubble in the world around them. Chu Tianqun laughed bitterly as he looked up at the shocking figure dropping toward him. Sensing Xu Qing inside, he said, “You’re using two types of godly authority plus a projection of the Ghost Emperor to crush me.... Very, very impressive! Xu Qing, I might not be able to do anything about your future, but what about your past? If I erase your past, then the world will forget you!”
Chu Tianqun had already burned half of his body into ashes. And now he could sense that if he wanted to continue to use his god power essence, he would have to lose his power of infinite resurrection. But he was ready to use his god power to kill Xu Qing.
Pointing downward with his hand that radiated godly light, he said, “God Magic: Leave Nothing of the Past!”