Chapter 1173: Xu Qing Furious!

The wind of Eastern Wanggu carried the familiar humidity from memory.

It came from the vast ocean of the Boundless Sea, and also from the alien quality within this heaven and earth.

It was utterly different from the Fifth Star Ring.

Feeling all this, Xu Qing opened his mouth to say something, but after moving his lips, he remained silent.

In his eyes, the surrounding heaven and earth were somewhat blurred, perhaps due to the alien distortion of the void, or perhaps because the spirits of Eastern Wanggu influenced everything.

Only… the old woman in a black robe, her face weathered by wind and frost, appeared exceptionally clear in Xu Qing's eyes.

Wrinkles like the gullies of time, mixed with wind and rain, and perhaps also with fate.

Xu Qing naturally still remembered the little butterfly from back then.

In his memory, the other party had once been a maiden, with whom he had once had a disagreement, and then… she had brought him to the Xia Xian Palace for the first time, where he first saw the old human palace master.

But these memories, contrasted with what he now felt and saw, always gave Xu Qing a sense of unreality.

"My teacher once said while alive that those who have not experienced extreme pain cannot know that feeling—it is… unwilling to believe, even instinctively wanting to deceive oneself, pretending nothing happened."

"Because after extreme pain comes emptiness."

The old woman gave a bitter smile.

"And only after I personally witnessed the catastrophe, and saw the loss… did I understand what my teacher said, and feel it all. In the thousand years since, I have never been able to walk out of it."

"Today, seeing you… I hope that in the future, you can walk out."

The old woman's expression turned bitter as she slowly turned and walked away into the distance, her back view desolate, filled with endless loneliness.

Xu Qing slowly raised his head, gazing at the old woman's back, and suddenly spoke.

"Where is my master… where is my eldest senior brother… Immortal Zixuan and Ling'er, and… and my friends, fellow disciples, and… everyone—how are they?"

The voice issuing from his mouth was so altered that those who knew him could barely recognize it—hoarse, as if countless grains of sand had been ground together.

This question, Xu Qing dared not ask, yet he still asked it out, his voice hoarse with trembling.

The old woman paused her steps, her back to Xu Qing, and fell silent for a long while.

Finally, her voice flowed like history's current, echoing back from the reed flute of the ages.

"A thousand years ago, the Ancient Immortal descended into the world, seeking an object."

"He first went to the human race, saw the Sword-Wielding Emperor's statue, then raised his hand—above and below, all of humanity was exterminated."

"Even as formidable as the Empress of Li Xia, before the Ancient Immortal, was ultimately just a junior, and in the end had her wisdom erased, becoming a divine slave at his side."

"Your master did not act; to him, the human race was of no concern—he only cared about what he could see around himself."

"That Ancient Immortal also never went to Nanhuangzhou, seemingly due to karmic ties with your master, deliberately letting him pass."

"But in the end, your master still emerged from seclusion, stood before that Ancient Immortal, and blocked his search—because… the object the Ancient Immortal sought was your eldest senior brother!"

"Your master fought for him, and your eldest senior brother returned from Huangtian, displaying peak quasi-Immortal cultivation, yet the outcome remained unchanged."

"In that battle, your master died in battle, your eldest senior brother went mad, becoming an object for the Ancient Immortal's Dao sacrifice."

"Afterward, your sect was utterly destroyed, your other senior brothers and sisters none spared, and Nanhuangzhou, for this reason, sank into the Boundless Sea—Nanhuang… became a corpse."

"Thus, the Ancient Immortal departed; afterward, Huangtian trembled, rose again in revival, the Ancient Spirit Emperor seized the opportunity to rise, and all of Eastern Wanggu fell into turmoil."

"As for the Immortal Zixuan you mentioned, I have some impression—she fell amid turmoil and displacement, becoming fodder for the new god."

"As for the Ling'er you mentioned, I likewise remember—she was devoured by the Ancient Spirit Emperor, her fortune returning."

"And everyone you know also largely perished in these thousand years, each in their own way."

Xu Qing lowered his head.

The old woman also said nothing more.

This is the end of everyone.

Wind blew from afar, carrying a howling sound, sweeping over this place.

It raised dust, also lifted Xu Qing's long hair, but could not carry away the stillness in his heart at this moment.

This is the end of everyone.

The old woman's sigh merged into the wind, finally a soft whisper.

"If not for what you left behind in Eastern Wanggu, I would have thought you already died in the outside world."

Having said this, she silently shook her head, carrying her own loneliness and desolation, walking toward the distance.

It seemed that although her teacher had departed, she still bore the mission of the Xia Xian Palace, though… she also did not know whether this mission still held any meaning.

But this was her teacher's last wish.

Thus, her figure slowly faded away, until it vanished within the distortion of the world.

Time passed.

Xu Qing stood there, he did not know what state he was now in, he only knew that at this moment his thoughts seemed to have solidified, everything about him seemed to have been paused.

Including the soul.

Only the wind sound reaching his ears continued.

But as he listened and listened, that howling seemed to also become a sob.

Then endless pain, like a tide, suddenly surged forth, engulfing him.

Everything before his eyes turned blood-red.

It was blood staining his eyes red.

He opened his mouth, wanting to murmur, but blood also kept flowing out uncontrollably from his mouth.

All he could do was stagger backward in retreat.

"So… extreme pain is emptiness…"

He could not shed tears, as if he had lost everything.

The emptiness within his heart, like a black hole, swallowed everything.

In the black hole, he sank, without beginning or end.

This feeling, Xu Qing thought, should be familiar to him, similar to being in the Sea of Time Chaos, only he could not quite recall the state he was in then.

In his heart, only the old woman's voice before she left remained, echoing again and again.

Gradually, some words among these voices became sparks, slowly gathering in his eyes.

"Your eldest senior brother is mad, turned into an object of the Ancient Immortal Sacrificial Dao."

"You speak of Xiang Linger—she was devoured by the Ancient Spirit Emperor, her fortune returned."

"Li Xia Empress, in the end, had her wisdom erased, becoming a divine slave beside him."

"If not for what you left behind in Eastern Wanggu..."

Sparks can entwine.

Xu Qing's head moved slightly.

"Eldest senior brother, perhaps he did not die.

Xiang Linger, perhaps she can still be separated.

Li Xia Empress, perhaps there is still hope.

Zixuan, perhaps there is still a next life..."

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"I still have a long road to walk... Moreover, all this is merely what others say, and not entirely true!" Xu Qing's eyes burned with flame at this moment.

"And here, I still have something left behind."

Xu Qing suddenly lifted his head, his gaze seeming to traverse the endless, his divine sense perceiving all directions.

Gazing at the ruins, at the familiar yet strange world, at the divine spirits scattered across the land... his heart called out, his soul surged.

After a long while, a faint response, nearly extinguished, came from the direction of the Endless Sea.

In the next instant, Xu Qing's body vanished suddenly.

Beneath the Endless Sea, in a deep layer of silt, vicious sea serpents writhed in the mud.

Dense divinity pulsed upon them, and upon close inspection, each sea serpent bore a ferocious, eerie ghostly face.

And in the depths of the silt, a skeleton lay buried.

This skeleton retained only half its body; from the waist down, it was already lost.

Yu Liu's upper half was also riddled with wounds, little flesh remained, and in every way it resembled a corpse.

He seemed to be sealed here; even as a remnant, one could sense divine technique fluctuations upon his form, and under the influence of these techniques, his body continued to degenerate from a divine state, now not far from becoming a mortal body.

The surrounding sea serpents would occasionally come here to devour the remaining flesh.

Originally, if no accident occurred, all this would continue indefinitely, and eventually this skeleton would completely dissipate.

But at this moment, in the tranquil, black seabed, ripples arose.

As if space had shattered!

Whether it was the foreign essence or the pressure of this place, in this instant they were as if directly erased, vanishing suddenly.

Appearing next was a figure walking forth from nowhere!

It was Xu Qing.

He walked step by step, and wherever he passed, the myriad things of the seabed trembled; even if divine spirits existed, they all chose silence.

Until he reached the silt where the sea serpents lay.

At the moment he looked, all the sea serpents trembled, the silt itself churned, revealing the buried skeleton below.

Gazing at this skeleton, Xu Qing's heart surged.

This skeleton was precisely his divine spirit clone.

Only the soul remaining in this body was now like a candle in the wind, destined to extinguish at any moment.

Through the injuries on this skeleton, Xu Qing could see that his divine spirit body had suffered great injury back then, which likewise indicated... the divine spirit body had endured the catastrophe of that time.

"Fusing this divine body into mine, by the method of same origin, I can then know all that happens upon this clone, and verify everything!"

Xu Qing's heart rose with a strong impulse, his body swayed, he neared the remnant, and raised his right hand, about to fuse it into himself.

But just as his hand was about to fall, Xu Qing suddenly paused his body, gazing at the divine remnant before him, his expression turning strange.

My divine body comes from a broken face—even if the soul can be extinguished, how can flesh be shattered to this degree, and how can it be so easily sealed by divine technique!

Xu Qing's pupils contracted, he suddenly lifted his head and gazed far upward, his sight piercing the Endless Sea, looking toward the heavens.

There... there was no broken face!

Yet before, he had never felt any doubt about this.

At the same time, recalling his past experiences—whether on the battlefield or encountering a divine lord—he realized he had only recalled the process, not the details; even Eastern Wanggu was hazy.

All these thoughts, like so many mirrors, flashed in Xu Qing's mind at that instant, and he suddenly spoke.

"Aurora Immortal Palace, Heaven Beyond Heaven!"

"Seal!"

As his voice rang out, heaven and earth changed color, the Endless Sea roared, the Eastern Wanggu continent shook with moving mountains, the entire world trembled.

The sound of cracking, rising like a flood!

As if a heavenly palace, coming from outside to seal!

Until the next instant, all that lay before Xu Qing's eyes, like a bubble being squeezed, exploded with a boom, shattering completely!

Everything was pulverized, overturned, replaced by the starry sky, bathed in starlight, and the might of the Immortal Palace erupted at this moment.

The illusory was wiped away, revealing the truth!

The world, transformed!

Xu Qing saw everything clearly.

This is not Eastern Wanggu; this is clearly still the Realm Within the Realm!

And the skeleton before him was not his divine body—it was clearly… the true god of half-man, half-spider!

This true god intends for Xu Qing to actively merge with it!

Thus, to transfer its vessel and return by borrowing a shell!

Xu Qing, awaken!

And his awakening, to the returning true god, also provoked a fierce backlash, especially at this moment with the Immortal Palace's suppression and the Realm Within the Realm's empowerment.

This caused the true god's expression to twist, vast amounts of golden blood to spill from its body, and even more, painful wails to echo in all directions.

"How could you awaken!"

But facing it, Xu Qing's eyes now burned with ultimate fury, blazing like a flood.

In his entire life, his anger had rarely reached such a peak!