Chapter 1364: Shang Huang Complete! (Grand Chapter)

Morning glow light, falling from the sky, sprinkled over the ruins of Shuangshuang City, enveloping this mortal realm.

In this light, the young Xu Qing remained utterly still, as if time had been fixed around him.

And before him, the adult Xu Qing from the future appeared, his figure gradually emerging within the radiant morning glow.

Clad in a black robe that danced in the wind, emitting a rustling sound.

His long purple hair floated upward, each strand seeming to contain the primal force of the star ring.

As he walked, the Eastern Wanggu continent rippled with disturbance.

The earth trembled, the heavens surged, and the entire Eastern Wanggu seemed, in that instant, to begin awakening, radiating a sense of compliance.

Not only Eastern Wanggu, but Huangtian beneath it was the same!

It was as if this figure stepping from the light possessed a status that was the source of Eastern Wanggu and the beginning of Huangtian!

Thus, auspicious signs manifested in all directions, and auspicious colors formed in the morning glow.

All were welcoming him!

Until the moment the figure in the light fully revealed himself, heaven and earth thundered.

A heaven-shaking, earth-moving power erupted upon him, accompanied by the resonance of Eastern Wanggu and Huangtian, and by an aura surpassing that of Xia Xian—... —the Immortal Lord!

And not an ordinary Immortal Lord, but the pinnacle of that level!

Even more astonishing, behind Xu Qing, faintly, another adult version of himself could still be seen.

Like the primordial twin mother stars!

He stood there, turning his head to gaze at the childhood self frozen in time, then looking toward the distant Purple Qing gazing at him.

After a long while, he stepped forward toward Purple Qing.

Step by step, he crossed the frozen time, walked through the viscous blood plasma, through the blood rain within the light, and arrived before Purple Qing.

Facing Purple Qing, Xu Qing spoke calmly.

"Why did Shang Huang not come to stop my ascension?"

Purple Qing smiled.

At this time, he was just revived, so he possessed neither his previous life's cultivation nor the Divine Spirit realm he had after swallowing the Great Heaven Domain.

At this moment, his body contained only dense divinity.

Before Xu Qing, he was fragile.

Yet he did not care.

He smiled at Xu Qing, his eyes revealing admiration and relief, and also a hint of deep anticipation.

"Before telling you this answer, younger brother, I want to ask you—do you know who you are?"

Xu Qing fell silent, coldly staring at Purple Qing without speaking.

Purple Qing's smile grew wider.

"You do not know—"

"You could not possibly know!"

Purple Qing's eyes flashed with intense light as he gazed at Xu Qing.

"Younger brother, I have searched for you for many years—and I never believed it was you—"

"Until I repeatedly entered the fate of this life, experiencing various outcomes, including the day Shuangshuang City was sacrificed, in some fates I ignored you, in others I took you away.

In yet other fates, I destroyed you."

"This is also why your memory of Shuangshuang City is confused!"

"And after doing so, I finally discovered a clue—"

"But I still remained uncertain, so I let you live and die on your own, let you grow all the way—your first half of life, I saw clearly in fate.

Including your killings, your taking a master, all your different choices and methods, and the various fates derived from them—I saw them all clearly.

I examined each frame in detail.

And I originally planned, after Purple Qing returned to his homeland, to bring you back and sacrifice you."

"Until, upon the human imperial capital, I finally saw the throne deep within your soul—

Younger brother, do you know, on that day, at that moment, I saw your true fate, and resolved the doubt that had troubled me for so long, and simultaneously saw, within the fate I had plotted, that true opportunity———"

Purple Qing laughed and spoke, laying everything bare!

"Therefore, I naturally exerted all my effort to influence the remnants of Shang Huang, preventing anything from interfering with your consumption of the primordial mother star."

"I hope even more than you that you succeed."

Purple Qing burst into loud laughter, the anticipation in his eyes growing stronger.

Xu Qing listened to these words, silent for a long time, then he gazed at the anticipation in Purple Qing's eyes and slowly spoke.

"Who exactly are you."

Upon hearing this, Purple Qing laughed even louder.

"Who am I.."

Laughing and laughing, his expression revealed a hint of deep complexity.

"I have many identities: the Purple Qing Prince in history is me, the self-rescue of the human race's fortune is me, the hope of Eastern Wanggu is me, and a strand of Huangtian's will reincarnated is also me!"

"But I still have one identity, which I only learned after sacrificing myself—"

"The remnants of Shang Huang are also me!"

Purple Qing's voice echoed.

Shocking heaven and earth.

This answer, though within Xu Qing's speculation, still, upon hearing these words, his gaze deepened somewhat.

And Purple Qing's voice continued.

"Or to put it more precisely, younger brother, I am the possibility that emerged when I, having entered the divine umbilical cord from the Upper Desolate, ascended to half-step divinity within it."

He sent this possibility out of the divine umbilical cord, merging it into the stellar ring of his birth, located in the primordial mother star of Huangtian.

This is the hope he left for himself!

Should he die during the process of ascending to divinity, then this possibility he scattered would replace him, becoming the new one!

"But an accident, and thus this appeared—"

Prince Ziqing raised his hand, pointing a finger at the heavens.

"After failure, there was no true death, but instead I came here to seek!"

"And I, too, was born from the primordial mother star's self-rescue, combined with fate!"

"So, it can be me, and it can also be him!"

Xu Qing heard the words and suddenly spoke.

"He came here not to find you!"

Prince Ziqing gazed at Xu Qing, the light in his eyes growing brighter.

"He is certainly not seeking me; he and I are the same—we are both——-seeking you, younger brother!"

"Only, our purposes differ, and his consciousness has nearly faded, leaving only instinct, so he can only sleep more deeply. Thus I found you before him, and under my influence, he has always overlooked you."

"That is why you could appear multiple times in his sight without being noticed."

"Now, I have resolved your confusion, younger brother—your turn!"

"With the power of the primordial twin mother stars you have devoured, in the long corridor deep within your soul, near the right side of the chair, on the third door,

carve my name!"

"As payment—when I succeed, I will guide the remnants away, from now on returning to you a pristine Eastern Wanggu, free of any foreign existence!"

"At the same time, I will cleanse the entire Ninth Stellar Ring, leaving no divine sovereign within it, so it poses no further threat to you!"

"Let the Ninth Stellar Ring become a realm for cultivators, become your stellar ring!"

"Furthermore, after I succeed, I will tell you who you truly are!! This is an absolute secret known only to me!"

"And after I succeed, I will draw the sacrificed Peerless City back from fate, including your parents, restoring them to life and reuniting you!"

"This transaction, younger brother—what do you think of it?"

Prince Ziqing's eyes, filled with anticipation, grew intensely fierce after he spoke these words,

for he had seen the outcome in all possible fates, knowing Xu Qing would surely agree!

And his voice had become a divine covenant, a part of the Ninth Stellar Ring's rules—this Xu Qing could clearly perceive, understanding that on this point, the other spoke no falsehood.

He would truly do it.

Xu Qing gazed at Prince Ziqing, then lifted his eyes toward the remnants of the heavens.

After a moment, he spoke softly.

"I refuse!"

The instant these three words were transmitted, his right hand had already risen, and he brought it down directly.

In Prince Ziqing's stunned instant, terrifying power erupted from Xu Qing's palm, forming a destructive might that swept all away, crushing everything like rotting wood, surging into Prince Ziqing's body.

Divinity collapsed, karma severed.

Prince Ziqing's flesh and blood scattered.

And Xu Qing's voice murmured, echoing back.

"All that you said—I choose to accomplish it myself."

"As for whether your attempt to seize the Upper Desolate will succeed, that depends on your fortune."

Xu Qing finished speaking, raised his hand and swept, flinging Prince Ziqing's flesh and blood toward the heavens, toward the remnants, while a heaven-shaking sound rang from his mouth.

"Sacrifice!"

At this moment, heaven and earth thundered!

Prince Ziqing's flesh and blood were now rising into the air.

Xu Qing lifted his head, his gaze piercing through the rising flesh and blood, toward the remnants.

Prince Ziqing's purpose was to replace him!

This, Xu Qing had fully understood.

And the other's demand—that you inscribe your name on the third door—

Clearly, this was the path most aligned with the other's purpose.

It would make his possession easier, and reduce the risk.

Thus, Xu Qing chose to refuse.

Though he knew that, according to Prince Ziqing's calculations, his refusal might itself fall within the other's scheme, but at least. this is the path Xu Qing chose for the other.

And indeed, it is so.

At the moment Prince Ziqing's flesh and blood rose into the air, an anomaly erupted suddenly!

Within this spacetime, a pillar of black mist, stretching a million li in range, surged skyward!

Rushing straight toward the heavens!

This mist was black to the extreme, and upon its appearance, a thick, eerie aura erupted within it, accompanied by waves of piercing ghostly wails and wolfish howls.

Echoing through the mortal realm.

And it was not only this one—at this moment, within this spacetime, the entire Eastern Wanggu was thundering!

One after another, identical black mist pillars appeared in various places, continuously rising into the sky!

Their number was so great, they filled the entire Eastern Wanggu.

A total of ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine!

Their appearance thundered across the heavens, shaking all.

And as the black mist gathered, the entire Eastern Wanggu's celestial expanse was rendered!

The black mist covered everything, submerged all, and thus Eastern Wanggu's Heaven became the Heaven of Black Mist!

Gazing upon this, Xu Qing's eyes flickered with a deep light, recognizing this as the power of the Ghost Realm!

Before his battle with Prince Ziqing, Yu Liuchen had warned him that in the opponent's countless stories, he had sensed the aura of the Ghost Realm.

Clearly, the Ghost Realm is Prince Ziqing's arrangement!

And at this moment, between heaven and earth, Prince Ziqing's voice is heard!

"If I succeed, the world shall again have Ghost Light!"

This voice carried something strange, echoing in all directions in an instant, the Heaven of Black Mist thundered, violently churning, and then the black mist exploded with a boom, as if the Ghost Realm had opened!

In this churning and explosion, countless black shadows suddenly burst forth from within that black mist.

They surged suddenly toward this place, Shuangshuang City!

They surged suddenly toward Prince Ziqing's ascending flesh and blood, fiercely gathering!

In an instant, they enveloped that flesh and blood, then the flesh rotted and rapidly dissolved, until it completely vanished—countless black shadows had already completely permeated the place where Prince Ziqing's flesh and blood had been.

Moreover, in this permeation, they writhed against each other, actually forming a—

Mutilated Face!!

That mutilated face was enormous; from its outline, it looked remarkably similar to the mutilated face of the Upper Wasteland.

To be precise, it is the missing half of the mutilated face of the Upper Wasteland!

Only, it is not formed of flesh and blood, but of black shadows fused together,

forming a mutilated face of shadow!

Pitch black beyond compare, existing yet not existing!

Moreover, in Xu Qing's gaze, the eye of this shadow mutilated face suddenly snapped open, revealing a crimson gleam.

He is Prince Ziqing!

At this moment, after opening his crimson eyes, Prince Ziqing, gazing upon the earth, Xu Qing, revealed a hint of complexity in his eyes.

Xu Qing's choice surprised him, forcing him to unveil the second preparation he had reserved!

Open the Ghost Realm, borrow the power of the Ghost Realm!

But if there were any other possibility, he would not choose this.

Yet now, it has appeared.

He can only use the Ghost Realm to generate karma, to form this shadow face.

"Very well, I have plotted against you beforehand—now, our karma ends here."

Thus, after gazing upon Xu Qing, the shadow face that Prince Ziqing had become, the complexity in his eyes turned to resolve, and in a flash, he shot straight toward the firmament!

Straight toward the mutilated face of the Upper Wasteland!

He intends to go and piece together a complete face with the mutilated face of the Upper Wasteland!

To seize possession!

This fulfills the Ghost Realm's words: "Like a shadow following form, coexisting with the divine."

And as he ascended, the Ghost Realm's black mist dispersed more black shadows, continuously gathering toward the shadow face that Prince Ziqing had become, making that shadow mutilated face grow ever larger.

Ever more vast.

Until, in Xu Qing's gaze, the shadow face reached the end of the firmament, arrived beside the mutilated face of the Upper Wasteland, and then—directly joined with the mutilated face of the Upper Wasteland!

A complete face suddenly appeared upon the celestial canopy!

Except one half is shadow face, the other half is flesh and blood of Prince Ziqing, a reborn mutilated face, but wanting to dominate with its own will is nearly impossible, so he wanted to inscribe his name upon Xu Qing's gate, but now that the first plan has failed, he can only rely on the Ghost Realm, choosing to take the place of the mutilated face as a Ghost!

Becoming—equal to the divine, Ghost Light!

But the risk of this is immeasurably great; the moment this face of the Upper Wasteland is pieced together, the lingering will of the Upper Wasteland suddenly awakens, and the Ghost Realm's power fused with Prince Ziqing directly clashes in fierce repulsion!

Thus, the Upper Wasteland on the celestial canopy, its face instantly separates, then instantly re-adheres.

Falling into confusion and collapse!

And this occurs at the most critical moment!

Affecting the world, affecting Eastern Wanggu, affecting the Ninth Star Ring, and even affecting fate!

At the same time, it also presents outwardly an unprecedented opportunity!

"You will surely come!"

Xu Qing stood on the earth, gazing upon all this, narrowing his eyes.

Almost at the instant his words echoed in his heart, beyond Eastern Wanggu, the starry sky thundered!

A black tower symbolizing endless imprisonment and soul annihilation suddenly streaked through the starry sky, opening a path, breaking through time and space, entering Eastern Wanggu!

Appearing upon the firmament!

Suddenly descending toward the Upper Wasteland, which was at a critical moment!

Not only the black tower, but at the same time, a colossal beast radiating an incomparably terrifying aura, writhing like mountain ranges and emitting primordial hunger, and a gigantic paper effigy, seemingly cut from yellow spring paper money, came speeding through time and space.

The former, indifferent, headed toward the Upper Wasteland, vanishing then reappearing there!

The latter licked its lips, its body exploded outward, transforming into countless paper people, all lunging forward!

The four Divine Sovereigns of the Ninth Star Ring have arrived—three of them!

Their previous arrangements were all made to seize the mutilated face!

For this, they have waited very long, with utmost caution!

Now encountering this opportunity, how could they let it pass?

Naturally, they seized this chance, coming here to plunder!

It's just that, obviously, the four god-sovereigns of the Ninth Star Ring are not all like this—

Mother River hasn't come!

They seem to be watching.

Thus, in the next instant, the black tower, the giant beast, and the countless paper soldiers drifting through the sky with bizarre appearances tore through the void and lunged straight at the Wasteland!

Taking advantage of the deadly gap when the Wasteland and Prince Ziqing's strange realm were mutually grinding against each other, leaving them no time to attend to anything else, the three precisely landed around the remnants.

That black tower, like an inverted tombstone, slammed down with a boom onto the forehead of the Wasteland!

The tower's body flowed with dark light, emitting a mournful wail that froze the soul, and a sudden burst of invisible, greedily extreme sucking force erupted!

What he inscribed was the vast and ancient divine soul of the Wasteland!

The giant beast, meanwhile, crouched in the shadows behind, opening a maw that seemed capable of devouring the universe, with viscous, foul-smelling saliva dripping like a waterfall, each swallow accompanied by a grating sound of space being chewed apart.

He was frenziedly devouring the qi and blood of the Wasteland, which contained endless life!

And that dense, silent army of paper soldiers, like a sky-covering swarm of white maggots, instantly blanketed the entire face of the Wasteland!

Their delicate paper arms waved, countless nearly invisible threads emitting a moldy and rotten aura extending out, precisely parasitizing the nodes of the Wasteland's fate!

Greedily pulling and sucking at that profound and unfathomable divine authority of fate!

These three god-sovereigns, holding nothing back, had their statuses burst open with a boom!

The black tower's cold deathly stillness, the giant beast's savage thirst, the paper soldiers' bizarre theft—three kinds of utterly different yet equally terrifying supreme divine authorities spread like a plague, beginning their respective greedy and violent plunder!

And the timing of their descent and attack was treacherously cunning to the extreme—precisely the moment when the Wasteland was troubled inside and out, its strength being violently consumed by internal strife!

This made their plunder yield unprecedentedly rich returns!

But— the Wasteland's own half-step god-level terrifying might, combined with the strange power from the strange realm capable of corroding everything, meant this plunder was not without cost.

While plundering, these three god-sovereigns themselves suffered terrible corrosion, their forms continuously fading!

The giant beast's massive outline was visibly twisting and fading, as if being erased by an invisible hand.

The black tower's indestructible body also became shadowy and indistinct, like a reflection in water, possibly vanishing completely at any moment.

The seemingly most fragile paper soldiers had already seen a considerable portion of their edges ignite with bizarre pale-white flames, instantly turning into specks of ash carrying sparks, drifting soundlessly through the dead silence of the starry sky.

Witnessing this scene, the divine thoughts of these three god-sovereigns violently fluctuated; through this brief plunder and observation, they had preliminarily judged that the Wasteland seemed truly spent.

This was not a carefully laid trap!

Thus, in the next instant...

Boom!!

The starry sky trembled violently, the barriers of time and space shattering like fragile glass, the void violently torn open by three forces far vaster and more terrifying than before!

Three figures, condensed with their true bodies' will and emitting destructive pressure, descended with a boom!

Their forms remained those of the giant beast, the black tower, and the paper soldiers.

But now, their light blazed far more intensely than before, their divine might so thick it made the Eastern Wanggu continent wail and tremble, the vast starry sky boiling under this pressure!

This descent seemed to be their true selves!

Ignoring all barriers, coming from the depths of the void, they instantly pierced all dimensions, precisely merging into their respective earlier descent avatars.

Instant fusion!

Making the already terrifying aura surge like a volcanic eruption, the plunder of the dying Wasteland suddenly intensified!

In the roar, the Wasteland's massive face shuddered violently.

Deep, black cracks visible to the bone spread wildly across its surface, like shattered porcelain!

Its divine soul origin was likewise torn apart and devoured by the black tower to a greater extent, its flesh and blood essence similarly chewed violently and swallowed by the giant beast.

The entire face was visibly withering, drying, losing luster, emitting a strong stench of death and decay!

And behind it, in the giant beast's crimson giant eyes, the light of greed burned brighter, as if it had discovered a supreme delicacy.

The plunder of the countless paper soldiers similarly intensified, those invisible fate threads wrapping ever tighter, the plundered fate divine authority merging into their paper bodies,

causing those pallid paper figures to begin bizarrely wriggling, their surfaces revealing blurred features and skin textures,

even faintly, one could see threads of ominous aura, twisted like snakes, forming and extending within them—

They were transforming from "paper" into "living beings"!

It seemed they also sensed that continuing this way would bring great risk, so on the Wasteland's face, which was mutually repelling, the fissures between its inner shadow and flesh-and-blood rapidly widened.

They chose to temporarily separate.

But just then, from the depths of the void came a low, bone-chilling hum!

A river of thick, filthy dark-gold liquid gathered, silently cutting across the starry sky and descending onto the battlefield!

It was precisely the Mother River!

He had endured until now, finally confirmed it was safe, and at this moment showed himself without hesitation!

That filthy river water, like millions of greedy tentacles carrying a viscous sensation capable of corroding divinity, instantly wrapped around the Wasteland about to separate!

The separation momentum halted abruptly!

Immediately, the Mother River's turbid, viscous surface violently churned, a huge monstrous face formed from countless twisted, painful faces suddenly surfacing!

This face opened a maw as if connecting to endless depths, facing the Wasteland tightly bound—

And swallowed hard!

Vast amounts of strange divine light flashing, emitting a strong foul stench of divine blood, were forcibly torn from the Wasteland's withered face like a waterfall, pouring into the Mother River's filthy waters!

After absorbing the divine blood, the Mother River's waves instantly became even more turbulent and surging!

And the already withered Wasteland, under this fatal blow, weakened like a candle in the wind, the aura of death and decay already thick to the point of being inseparable!

Seeing the Mother River strike and take effect, the Wasteland's weakness could no longer be concealed; within the black tower, a cold, ancient, emotionless divine will suddenly boiled over!

Behind it, time and space were once again forcibly plowed open by an even more terrifying power!

A bronze ancient tower, its body covered in verdigris and hung with countless tiny, twisted, seemingly silently wailing divine shrines, slowly descended from the depths of that shattered time and space!

This is the true form of the Black Tower!

The previous descents were all probes!

At this moment, the instant its true form descended, the force pulling at the divine souls suddenly increased by a hundredfold, a thousandfold, and more!

As if it would drain the divine souls of the entire starry sky!

And seeing this, the giant beast's eyes flashed with feral light, it waited a moment, then violently raised its savage head and let out a terrifying roar capable of shattering stars!

Roar!

Then, the void behind it completely collapsed, and a towering beast's head, formed from countless writhing stars, shattered planes, and indescribable dark matter coalescing, suddenly manifested in the void!

The beast's head was so vast it seemed it could swallow a star system in one bite!

He carried the aura of destroying everything, his massive jaws split open, and he fiercely bit down toward the Upper Wasteland!

The last paper effigy, obviously the most cunning and cautious, even as the true forms of the other three divine venerables had already manifested, he remained motionless,

until the plundering of those three divine venerables reached a frenzied peak, the decay of the Upper Wasteland fully revealed its signs of utter ruin, and only then, deep within the countless hollow eye sockets of that paper effigy, did two points of ghastly, extreme pallor suddenly ignite!

One of the seemingly ordinary paper effigies tore open at the chest with no warning, and a miniature paper effigy, its entire body flowing with dizzying seven-colored evil light, exquisitely formed yet radiating an aura of utmost ill omen, shot out from within!

As soon as this seven-colored paper effigy appeared, the surrounding space silently rotted and disintegrated.

Then, without any hesitation, he transformed into a twisted beam of seven-colored evil light, ignoring all obstacles, carrying a strange power to seize fate and alter the ending, and silently and lethally shot toward the collapsing Upper Wasteland!

But just as the seven-colored evil light formed by that paper effigy was about to touch the remnant face of the Upper Wasteland, the Black Tower's soul-sucking, the giant beast's devouring, and the Mother River's entanglement all reached their frenzied peak at that instant!

The originally decaying, on the verge of collapse face of the Upper Wasteland, its tightly shut eyes resembling eternal slumber, suddenly flew open!

One pupil burned with endless karmic fire, scorching hot like the depths of a lava abyss!

The other pupil was an absolute void that devoured all light, capable of annihilating nothingness itself!

At the same time, a voice overlapping countless echoes, icy enough to freeze spacetime will, like the final death cry of billions of dying stars, suddenly exploded in the perception of all divine venerables!

"You—finally came."

The moment this voice rang out, anomalies surged!

Not a counterattack from that part of the Upper Wasteland's remnant face, but from Prince Ziqing, who had long been contending with the Upper Wasteland, eroding its flesh and blood!

It seemed he had been waiting for precisely this moment!

When the true wills of the four divine venerables fully manifested, greedily plundering the essence of the Upper Wasteland, linking themselves deeply with this battlefield and the Upper Wasteland's remnant form, Prince Ziqing completely released the Ghost Realm!

Thus, the mist formed from the ominous aura permeating the Ghost Realm suddenly expanded a hundred millionfold!

No longer illusory and ethereal, it instantly became viscous like the corrupted blood of a hundred million years, and at a speed beyond thought, it submerged the heavens!

The devouring began!

As the mist surged forward, the giant beast's head was instantly wrapped in the filthy mist, and his flesh and blood, formed from stars and planes, immediately emitted a piercing sizzling sound!

It began to dissolve and collapse!

The stars forming its shape dimmed and exploded one by one, spraying out foul-smelling fluid, greedily absorbed by the mist!

And in the Black Tower, similarly, the mournful god shrines hanging on its true form, at the instant the mist touched them, those distorted faces instantly froze, then, together with the bronze tower body, became covered in mold-like stains of filth!

The tower's soul-sucking wails turned into intermittent, terrified shrieks!

At the tower's base, the indestructible bronze began to melt!

As for the Mother River, it fared no better!

In the river water, the monstrous face formed from countless anguished visages let out a silent, mournful hiss, the water boiled violently, and was forcibly devoured by the mist, absorbed into itself!

Most strange of all was the paper effigy—all his avatars collapsed at this moment, scattering across the earth!

And his seven-colored true form, at this moment, violently flickered in the filthy mist, its colors rapidly fading!

A fierce sense of crisis made him violently retreat, trying to twist fate to escape, but those invisible threads connected to the Upper Wasteland's fate nodes had now become deadly shackles!

The mist flowed upstream along those threads, frenziedly polluting the source!

Causing his body to spasm and contort wildly in midair, colors continuing to fade, becoming like waste paper soaked in dirty water!

"Nutrients—greater nutrients!"

A low voice, carrying the greedy thought of billions of insects simultaneously rubbing their shells, echoed in the rumbling divine consciousness of these four venerables!

The plunderers instantly became prey!

Flee!

The giant beast roared, mixed with endless fear, frantically twisting to struggle free from its dissolving doom, shattered stars falling from its body!

The Black Tower's cries shook the heavens, its tower body erupting with unprecedented deathly gloomy light, trying to shake off the moldy filth clinging to it!

The Mother River surged, that enormous anguished face twisting and deforming, the dark gold water, as if alive, rolled backward, trying to sever its connection with the mist!

The seven-colored paper effigy directly severed all threads connecting to the Upper Wasteland's fate nodes, transforming into a dim, tattered gray shadow, and fled desperately into the starry sky without hesitation!

But it was too late!

That Upper Wasteland face, which had passively endured, its black hair, decayed like mountain ranges, now, in the churning mist, danced wildly without sound!

It grew frantically, extending without regard for spatial distance, and suddenly swept toward the four divine venerables!

Instantly entangled!

One could see the giant beast's massive body tightly bound and constricted, hair tips piercing into its flesh, emitting a scalp-numbing sucking sound as it writhed!

And the Black Tower, wrapped tightly in hair like a spiderweb, entangled around the tower's god shrines, those mournful faces pierced directly by the hair, the soul-sucking power instead being frenziedly drained by the hair!

And the Mother River, its polluted water now permeated, the anguished faces in the water entangled by the hair, transformed into pure divinity and sucked away!

As for that desperate fleeing paper effigy gray shadow, it too was instantly entangled by the hair and violently yanked!

Instantly, these four divine venerables were all dragged into the mist!

Their figures were obscured, only the mournful, indescribable roars rose and fell in the churning filthy mist, but were quickly drowned out by an even more bone-chilling sound!

Crack—ga—gurgle—.

That was the crisp sound of divine bones being crushed!

That was the muffled sound of the divine body being torn apart!

That was the sound of swallowing as the divine power's source was frantically devoured and chewed!

This sound continued for a moment within the mist.

Then, it gradually weakened, until finally— it fell into utter silence.

Only the mist itself remained, still churning silently and contentedly in the shattered heavens, as if alive.

Xu Qing gazed upon all this, his eyes deep.

He did not believe those gods had truly fallen.

Gods, after all, are gods— even if their true forms arrived, Xu Qing was certain they still had their own trump cards!

"But even so, this time we have paid an unprecedented price— whether we can maintain our divine status remains uncertain."

Xu Qing narrowed his eyes, shifting his gaze from the polluted mist above the heavens to his own palm.

There, a piece of paper!

Exactly one fragment from the many paper effigies that had collapsed earlier.

At the same time, within the Seventh Star Ring, in the vast star sea, an unremarkable earth-yellow star suddenly trembled,

its surface layer instantly shattering with a thunderous boom, collapsing outright to reveal an egg at the star's core!

This egg, too, was cracking.

Finally, a small beast crawled out from within.

Upon appearing, an aura of peak divine lord surged on its body, and then it suddenly turned its head, gazing toward the direction of the Ninth Star Ring.

"Indeed, there is deceit— but what I truly want is not your flesh and blood, but the memory of your divine umbilical cord!"

"So that's it— the divine umbilical cord is like this—"

At the same time, in the Thirteenth Star Ring, a divine spirit was ascending.

As a divine platform, having already reached the peak within its divine star, all of this relied on a supreme treasure obtained long ago.

It was a black bronze tower!

This treasure enables rapid growth and invincibility in battle.

Now, having reached the peak, he wishes to leave his divine star for a higher divine kingdom.

He is confident that, relying on this mysterious black tower, he can reach the true god level.

But— just as his figure was about to depart from his divine star, the black tower within his body suddenly shuddered, then violently sucked outward.

Before this divine platform could react, his body trembled and was instantly sucked dry, not a trace left.

This process took only an instant.

He didn't even realize—

Only the black tower floated in midair, then suddenly plunged downward, crashing onto the land of this divine star.

The next moment, the star thundered— all divine spirits upon it, all life, withered in an instant, turning to flying ash.

Everything surged into this black tower.

Finally, the tower emitted a low, divine tone.

"Divine Umbilical Cord"

The same scene also occurred in two other mysterious places— one was the paper effigies' hiding place, located in a special spacetime, within a scroll, resting and recuperating, wishing to quickly restore their realm.

The other, even more mysterious, was the Mother River's trump card, who had transformed into text, hidden within the world he inhabited.

That was the character for "water".

Truly, from hiding, one sees that the Mother River's trump card is most special.

But alas— in the Eastern Wanggu continent, there exists a being who does not wish the Mother River to remain hidden.

Thus, in the mist swirling above the Unparalleled City, the void rippled, and the wish-granting mask brought by Xu Qing suddenly appeared!

His sole purpose was to harm the Mother River!

At this moment, seeing the Mother River flee, the mask's expression instantly twisted, revealing a frenzy.

Upon appearing, it unleashed its aura without reserve, beginning to burn!

Using its mysterious connection with the Mother River, it guided the Upper Wasteland!

Thus, in the next instant, as it burned, the thunderous sound accompanied the void tearing open at its location, revealing a scene.

In the image, the Mother River's trump card's hiding place was clearly visible!

Then, in the next instant, a strand of hair suddenly descended from the heavenly mist, rushing straight toward that image and plunging into it!

Accompanied by the echo of a mournful sound, the hair returned.

And in that world, the character for "water" was erased.

At the moment of erasure, in the Mother River's hidden world, the sky rippled— a golden mask sealed in the Mother River's silt seemed to break open an ancient seal, finally gaining freedom.

"Mother River, years ago you used the wish as an excuse to seal me, plunder my divine authority, steal my divinity— today— cause and effect are settled, this is the price of the wish."

Eastern Wanggu continent, the spacetime where the Unparalleled City resides.

Above the heavens, the mist still churns, obscuring the face of the Upper Wasteland.

But spacetime— has begun to dissipate.

Xu Qing knows that the cause and effect between himself and Prince Ziqing has, in fact, reached its conclusion at this point.

As for whether Prince Ziqing will succeed, everything remains unknown,

and Xu Qing no longer pays attention.

He lowered his head, gazing at this spacetime as it dissipates, gradually restoring its flow—

blood rain began to fall.

The spacetime of that year, amidst this shattering, seems to have accelerated the description of the story.

Xu Qing saw his childhood self awakening in the blood rain.

He saw himself struggling to rise, dazed and leaving.

He saw in the wilderness, his seven-year-old self, being bullied and plundered.

He saw that helpless childhood.

Until finally, he saw his childhood self, amidst the ruins, pulling out an iron needle.

With his frail body, he pointed the tip of the iron needle at his own neck.

His gaze numb, carrying the intent of farewell, he closed his eyes.

He also saw his childhood self, at the moment about to choose to leave—

A little girl in tattered clothes walked over and handed him a candied hawthorn.

The little girl's eyes, in this foul world, were very bright.

And the candied hawthorn also stirred the ripples deep in the memory of his young self.

Xu Qing felt a bitter ache in his heart.

These scenes, he would not forget.

He saw his childhood self, as he gazed at the candied hawthorn, slowly releasing his grip on the iron needle, finally sitting slumped on the ground, and at last, bursting into tears.

This is childhood.

Xu Qing softly sighed, as time and space dissipated, as this moment was about to shatter, he gazed upon everything in the scene—

He saw himself grow strong.

He also saw a scene that still stirred his heart to this day.

In the scene, the little girl who had once given him the candied hawthorn lay in a pool of blood.

And the young him was thrusting the iron needle into a villain's throat.

Slowly pulling it out, letting the blood scatter across his body.

After a long while, the young Xu Qing slowly walked to the little girl's corpse, standing before it in silence for a long time.

Slowly bending down, he gently covered her open eyes.

"I have avenged you."

With these words, time and space shattered.

The time of No Twin City was torn apart, like a shattered mirror, becoming countless fragments that rent time and space, causing reality to return!

Thus, Heaven and Earth shed the mist of history.

The firmament returned to the mortal world.

The earth revealed the Swallow-Heaven Domain.

And Xu Qing still stood before the palace of Prince Ziqing's state.

But Prince Ziqing within the palace was no longer there.

Xu Qing silently raised his head.

Gazing at the firmament.

There was no longer any mist there.

The Upper Wasteland still hung high.

But it was no longer a broken face.

Rather, it was the complete face of the Upper Wasteland.

Half shadow, half flesh.

Looking closely, it seemed to be Prince Ziqing's face.

"There is still one matter that needs to be accomplished—"

Xu Qing withdrew his gaze, spoke softly, and looked toward his own palm.

That scrap of paper, he had brought back to the mortal world.

Gazing at the scrap in his palm, Xu Qing's eyes welled with killing intent, he clenched it fiercely, and instantly his constitutional law surged upward, locking onto a point in the starry sky.

"Deruozi, I have come to avenge the Sword Emperor's grudge against you!"

"No matter how many incarnations you have, no matter how many times and realms you hide in, you—cannot escape!"

Xu Qing took a step, walking toward the starry sky!