Chapter 1105

"Mother……"

Xu Qing gazed at the desert before him, listening to the words coming from the Extreme Light Immortal Lord walking ahead.

Perhaps it was the ripples from the body he inhabited, or perhaps it was the meaning contained within those two words.

Unknowingly, his consciousness stirred with ripples of reminiscence.

Before his eyes appeared the Eastern Wanggu, appeared the Wushuang City.

The beauty in his memories, and that blood-rain that could never be washed away.

He thought of his own parents.

Perhaps it was because he had walked across too many mountains and rivers, perhaps it was because he had experienced too many things, but when Xu Qing looked back on his parents now, he found that only their outlines remained.

Yet the tenderness radiating from those outlines was a brand that no mountain, no river, no event, and no experience could ever erase.

It was etched eternally upon his heart.

Just as people are often unsure who the last person they see is at the moment of death.

But when one arrives in this world, those surrounding them are surely their parents.

"Mother……"

Xu Qing murmured.

At the same time, the body his consciousness inhabited also instinctively manifested the memories belonging to the host.

In those memories, his mother had also become a blurred outline, no longer clear……

Much like Xu Qing's own recollections.

The two resonated at this moment.

This resonance was like a ripple, churning the sea of his heart, stirring the passage of time, spreading across this desert, rising and falling with it.

It became a part of the desert.

And the voice of the Extreme Light Immortal Lord echoed slowly within this desert of time.

"Your mother and I met in our hometown."

"She was my junior sister, the seventh disciple of your grandfather."

"The sky back then, though it had a sun and moon, was not the one we see today."

The Extreme Light Immortal Lord spoke softly as he walked.

His words seemed to be spoken to Xu Qing, and also seemed to be a self-recollection.

The aura about him grew more weathered and nostalgic as his words echoed.

"Our hometown back then was merely one of the countless small worlds in this Fifth Star Ring, kept in captivity by gods."

"Living there meant worshipping gods, being enslaved by gods, living amidst the bones they wove."

"Even the light of the sun and moon above our heads was naturally the gods; to be precise, the light of those suns and moons invaded every small world."

"And the supreme divine names they broadcasted across all the small worlds were Luoyin and Mengyan."

"That era was painful, yet because of your mother's existence, it was also happy for me."

The Extreme Light Immortal Lord's voice was gentle, a low murmur.

Xu Qing followed behind, listening silently.

He knew that at this moment, the Extreme Light Immortal Lord only needed a listener.

"We cultivated together, we grew up together, and then we met Jiuan."

The Extreme Light Immortal Lord shook his head, his nostalgia deepening.

"Jiuan back then was not much different in personality from how he is now; he liked silence, liked to observe, liked to record."

"Your mother called him the Great Historian, and he identified with that title, so for many years after, he called himself the Historian."

"Silly fellow."

Extreme Light chuckled.

"Just like that, time flowed by……"

"What happened later, you know from the historical records."

"In the final years of the God Era, under the leadership of your grandfather, all the small worlds of the Fifth Star Ring launched a war of uprising against the gods."

"That war was unimaginably tragic……"

"And you were born during those years, but your mother and I did not want the world you saw to be chaotic, so we sealed you away."

"We made a pact that when the war ended, when this world became beautiful, we would break your seal, so that the first heaven and earth you saw would be brilliant, peaceful, and devoid of gods."

"So that you could live in beauty."

Extreme Light's voice echoed in the desert of time.

Only, within that nostalgia, a sorrow slowly stained his voice.

"And that war, which lasted for many, many years, finally ended."

"As cultivators, we rose up completely and suppressed the gods who had once been high above."

"The sun and moon in the sky also fell, replaced by the yin and yang of our own Dao."

"However…… by my side, one figure was missing forever."

"Your mother fell."

Xu Qing listened silently.

Even though it was someone else's story, both the ripples from this body and the resonance in his consciousness allowed Xu Qing to feel the sorrow belonging to both the host and Extreme Light.

"And I, due to some special reasons, fell into a deep slumber."

"That sleep lasted ten thousand years."

"When I awoke, everything was beyond change, and even the Constitution of Time and Space has its limits……"

"Three thousand three hundred and thirty-three years—this is the temporal limit for all star rings in this universe."

"Thus, when we sealed you, it was your mother and I, but when we broke your seal, there was only me."

The low voice drifted through heaven and earth, and Extreme Light's footsteps came to a halt.

A sea of flowers appeared before Xu Qing's eyes.

It was a sea like a phantasm, countless brilliant and colorful orchids blooming in the desert.

It was breathtakingly beautiful.

It was hard to imagine such a sea of orchids in the desert.

At the very least, when Xu Qing had walked through this desert on that day in the future, he had not seen any sea of flowers.

It was as if this were a secret hidden deep within the desert.

Gazing out, one could see these orchids in all sorts of exquisite shapes and colors; some resembled butterflies dancing, others like cranes spreading their wings to fly. Every single blossom emitted a unique fragrance.

Especially now, as Xu Qing and the Extreme Light Immortal Lord arrived, sunlight seemed to filter through the sparse clouds and spill onto the orchid sea. Golden rays permeated the air, unknowingly adding a touch of mystery and romance to this sea of flowers.

A gentle breeze swept by, and the sea of flowers swayed.

Like a dream.

Vaguely, it seemed as if a fairy stood amidst the flowers, gazing at this pair of father and son.

She whispered softly, a gentle smile on her face.

And so, the Extreme Light Immortal Lord, looking at the sea of flowers, looking at that fairy from his memories, smiled as well.

Smiling, he walked to the edge of the flower sea and crouched down, taking some seeds from his robes.

At this moment, he was not the future supreme authority of the Fifth Star Ring, nor the Master of Ten Thousand Immortals with heaven-shaking cultivation; he was merely an ordinary man immersed in the memory of his late wife.

Here, he planted those seeds into the desert.

They would surely bloom.

"Your mother's name contained the character 'Lan' (Orchid), and she was particularly fond of fairy orchids."

"This kind of flower cannot be tainted by the aura of gods, or it will wither quickly…… yet, in our small world, even with the pervasive heterogenous substances, it never went extinct."

"Even if it withers, it will bloom again."

"So we once dreamed that when the war ended, when everything became beautiful, we would find a place to plant fairy orchids, make them a sea, and have them bloom all year round."

"Every time I came here over the years, I would plant some."

"Gradually, it really did become a sea."

The Extreme Light Immortal Lord murmured with a smile, gently stroking the ground where he had buried the seeds with his palm.

Afterward, he sat to the side, gazing at the sea of flowers, and said no more.

But the smile on his face grew ever more gentle.

Xu Qing watched all of this, and silently walked to the Extreme Light Immortal Lord's side, sitting down as well, watching the sea of flowers with him.

Time flowed slowly by.

When the evening glow appeared on the horizon, the Extreme Light Immortal Lord spoke softly.

"You have grown up, and you are about to be married."

"In the future, when I am occupied, remember to come here every year to plant orchids for your mother."

"Let this place always have a sea of flowers."

Xu Qing's heart was complex.

He knew that a month later, not only would this Extreme Light Immortal Lord die, but so would the host whose body he inhabited.

Thus, in the future time, this sea of orchids was destined to never bloom again.

Perhaps that was why, when he had walked through the desert that one time, he had seen no sea of flowers.

This sea of flowers had long since withered in the passage of time.

But he still nodded.

Extreme Light smiled, and for once, reached out to pat Xu Qing on the head.

"You must remember one thing……"

"Parents cannot accompany you for a lifetime, and children cannot always be by your side; only your Dao companion is the one person who can accompany you for a lifetime."

"So, protect her well, and do not end up like me……"

"Losing the love of my life."

Saying this, Extreme Light stood up and looked at Xu Qing.

"Do you still remember the story about the dark night I told you when you were small?"

Xu Qing nodded and spoke softly.

"When the dark night descends, do not seek you out."

This sentence was deeply engraved in the memory of this Extreme Light Young Master, incredibly profound.

In his memories, the Extreme Light Immortal Lord had told him this more than once.

This made Xu Qing think of the reflection beneath the ice lake……

And looking at the memories, every time the Extreme Light Immortal Lord appeared, it was during the day.

Extreme Light nodded with a smile, looking at the evening glow about to dissipate on the horizon.

"The sky is about to turn dark; let us return."

With that, Extreme Light took a step forward.

The world blurred.

The next instant, the desert was gone, and the sea of flowers was gone.

Xu Qing's figure appeared within the Shaoji Palace, exactly where he had been before he left.

It was as if the journey he had just experienced were merely an illusion.

As for the Extreme Light Immortal Lord, his figure was no longer there.

Only the sky……

When Xu Qing had left earlier, it had been daytime.

But now, it was the moment the dark night descended.

Night shrouded the earth.

The bright moon rose into the sky.

……

And at this moment, beneath the Immortal Palace, in a mysterious cavern.

It was brightly lit.

The figure of the Extreme Light Immortal Lord was walking step by step.

But wherever he passed, the lamps behind him extinguished one by one.

And as the dark night descended outside, the white robes he originally wore were slowly invaded by black, until they were completely rendered into black robes.

The tenderness on his face was also replaced by ferocity and evil.

His body trembled slightly, but his footsteps remained steady.

Finally, he walked step by step into the depths of the cavern.

He stepped into a sealed prison cell.

The moment he entered, iron chains composed of countless runes appeared out of thin air, wrapping around his entire body, continuously reinforcing, continuously sealing.

And the light vanished completely at this instant, plunging everything into pitch blackness.

In this space of extreme darkness, only low groans and the violent pulling of iron chains continued to echo.