Chapter 879: An Original God Domain
The auras of Sunfire, Moonfire, and Starfire spread from God Mountain, unleashing such dramatic force that it seemed as if the canopy of heaven might not be able to sustain it. It seemed like it was going to cave in. All three were visible as illusory projections.
In the middle was High God Sunfire, apparently clad in a golden robe. It was hard to determine if High God Sunfire was male or female. At first glance, shē seemed female, but at the same time, had male features. Behind hēr was a rising sun that emanated intense heat and godly might.
On the right was High God Moonfire, clad in a silver gown with a flowing skirt that spread out to cover the dome of heaven. Hēr face was so attractive it seemed to contain all the beauty in the world. The mere sight would leave one feeling stunned. However, hēr expression was as cold as a mountain of ice. Shē had one hand in front of her chest posed in an incantation gesture, while a moon hung behind hēr, casting out cold, holy moonlight.
On the left was High God Starfire. Shē was not majestic like Sunfire or flawlessly beautiful like Moonfire. Shē looked like nothing more than an ordinary clay fox. But any who looked at hēr would feel their hearts starting to pound. Heat would spread through them, filling their bodies and affecting their hearts and minds. Behind hēr was a glittering star, whose light spread out to form a sea of starlight.
Three gods had come out.
All cultivators who flew into the open in the holy city bowed their heads. It didn’t matter their status or the level of their cultivation base. They all looked pious as they dropped to their knees and kowtowed.
Further off in the distance was the projection of the three stewards’ tents. And even the stewards emerged and bowed their heads to the gods.
Xu Qing hovered in the air outside his residence, looking around, his heart pounding. As of this moment, he could see the difference between humans and Firemoon Darkheavens. The Firemoon Darkheavens were a species controlled by gods. In front of their gods, all living beings were like slaves! Xu Qing frowned slightly. He was not a Firemoon Darkheaven, but he was in their lands, and thus he bowed.
Eventually, everything went still and quiet. The three gods on God Mountain looked around. When thēy looked at Xu Qing, different expressions could be seen. Sunfire was apathetic. Moonfire’s expression was complex. And Starfire smiled.
Next, the sun behind High God Sunfire shone with radiant light that caused the color of gold to fill the dome of heaven. It was godfire. As it burned, the sky started to melt away layer by layer. Eventually, a void was revealed. And after enough layers were gone, a black hole could be seen. The burning continued.
Thanks to the godfire, the black hole collapsed, and a new black hole formed. It happened again and again in a cycle. During the process, the lands quaked, and the angry howls of heavenly daos could be heard, as if they wanted to stop what was happening but were powerless to do so.
In the end, a golden vortex could be seen spinning in the void. Within that vortex was a blurry membrane, beyond which it was just barely possible to make out another world.
The moment the golden vortex appeared, High God Moonfire’s hand lifted, and moonlight swept out to make a huge river that flowed right toward the vortex. Soon, different howls from other heavenly daos echoed out from within the vortex, as if they also wanted to stop what was happening. Moonfire snorted coldly, and all of a sudden, some of the aura of Crimson Mother appeared on hēr....
Xu Qing shivered. Next, the power of Moonfire entered the membrane, which transformed, becoming clearer and clearer to reveal the world beyond. What was visible appeared to be a pure white world....
Before anyone could study it closely, the clay fox laughed. Starlight erupted, transforming into two enormous clay hands that reached into the vortex, grabbed the transparent membrane, and ripped it open!
A heaven-rending, earth-crushing ripping sound echoed out, causing the minds of all cultivators to vibrate. The effects of the ripping spread, until, from the perspective of the people on the ground, the opening filled half the sky.
It was like a wound. An aroma of rot and decay spread out, along with an ancient aura. It seemed completely foreign. It, along with strong mutagen, emerged from the vortex along with howling and roaring. At the same time, the opening grew large enough that it was possible to see some of the details of the world beyond.
Xu Qing looked up, a thousand thoughts running through his mind thanks to what he was seeing.
The world beyond the opening actually seemed familiar to him. Inside of the opening was an unfamiliar starry sky. And within the countless glittering stars was an enormous mass of... spider webs!! The webs were shocking and ghastly, and were filled with innumerable planets. Every single web strand was about one tenth the width of any of the planets.
This was the god domain that the Firemoon Darkheaven people were opening for the Great Hunt.
A god domain with no god in charge. It’s been explored three times in the past. An original god domain....
Sir Heavenink’s words echoed in Xu Qing’s mind. Combined with the information from the jade slip, an obvious explanation occurred to Xu Qing.
This is the god domain of the spider god from the cave in the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands!!
Xu Qing’s eyes glittered as he came to this understanding.
Everything fit together. Something happened to the spider god, and īt ended up being suppressed by the three other gods. As a result, īts god domain came to be masterless. Now it made sense why the three gods wanted the place explored.
As Xu Qing reeled inwardly, another godly voice echoed through the dome of heaven.
“Let the children hunt!”
The word provoked a gravitational force, which spread from the opening in the rift. Guided by the three gods, it became tens of thousands of threads that shot toward the cultivators who had passed the second round.
All of those cultivators, Xu Qing included, were pulled up into the sky, moving faster and faster until they were beams of light that shot into the opening. They entered the void that contained the god domain, and they entered an unfamiliar starry sky!
Compared to the massive god domain, a few tens of thousands of cultivators were like nothing. What was more, the danger was going to be immense.
As they were pulled into that starry sky, one of the participants shivered, screamed, and then exploded. Blood and flesh sprayed everywhere. The bits then exploded, until that cultivator was thoroughly destroyed in body and soul. He had been killed by a black tentacle that had appeared in the nearby void.
Whoever that tentacle touched would end up either injured or dead. At the end of the tentacle, Xu Qing spotted a 3,000-meter decomposing fish. It was covered with a host of tentacles, some of which hung limp and some of which swept this way and that. It was a very gruish sight. The fish emanated an aroma of decay, plus terrifying fluctuations that struck fear into the hearts of the Firemoon cultivators. However, they quickly suppressed that fear. Clearly, they had come prepared. After all, they were going into a god domain!
When the gruish fish appeared, everyone reacted quickly. They scattered, all while speeding in the direction of the god domain full of spider webs.
Xu Qing personally witnessed some chosen from subsidiary species get hit by the tentacles and killed. That caused his pupils to constrict. This fish was something he had read about in the jade slip from Sir Heavenink.
“A god domain void spirit that looks like a rotting fish, with tentacles that can exterminate life. It will eat anything and everything. Strangely, its size varies depending on who is looking at it! Some people look at it and see something 300,000 meters in size. To other people, it’s only 3,000 meters. There are large numbers of these void spirits. They have undying bodies, so that if you kill them, they’ll be resurrected soon after.”
Without any hesitation, Xu Qing accelerated, leaving that area and speeding through the starry sky while remaining fully on guard. Along the way, he saw several of the tentacled fish, and was very careful to avoid them.
As he neared the spider webs, they got bigger and bigger. He passed a few areas full of planets that, based on his senses, were full of death. They were dead planets. They emitted no fluctuations of life force, and were simply ruins full of endless spider webs. Meanwhile, the spider webs got so enormous that the strands were like white roads going through the starry sky. Compared to the spider webs, Xu Qing was like a mote of dust.
What was more, Xu Qing spotted numerous enormous objects wrapped in spider silk, dotting the spider webs. Inside were skeletons that must have been dead for countless years.
A sense of danger was starting to build up in Xu Qing. After some testing, he found that the spider webs were terrifyingly sticky. If he threw something onto them, they would become permanently stuck. After that, silk would start to spread out and cover them.
Now Xu Qing realized where all those skeletons came from.
I definitely cannot touch the spider webs!
Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed as he carefully flew through this gruish god domain and reviewed all of the information he had in the hopes of coming up with something that would help him in the moment. He also took out the bottle with the Captain in it.
All of a sudden, his expression flickered, and he shot backward by about 30 meters. Soul threads whipped out, millions of them, which instantly turned into his fourth-level god state.
Meanwhile, a shadowy form swept right past the spot where he had been a moment ago. It moved so fast it shattered the void. After pouncing in vain, though, it shot back to one of the enormous spider webs.
That was where its appearance became clear. It was a spider! It was some 300 meters in size, with a speckled golden body and the head of an old man. The head’s eyes were open, and the pupils were crimson as they stared coldly at Xu Qing. As for its mouth, it was filled with sharp, pointed teeth.
The sight of this creature reminded Xu Qing of the spider god in the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. They... looked very similar with the exception of the head. That said, this spider had none of the majestic pressure of the spider god.
While Xu Qing studied it, it also studied him. Gradually, its eyes turned even redder, and then it howled and lunged toward him.