Chapter 1365: I Surname Xu! I Surname Wang!

The void is boundless, deathly still as a tomb.

Here, it is still the Ninth Star Ring.

Only now, the Ninth Star Ring, aside from the Upper Wilds, has no other god venerables left.

The places where the Black Tower, the giant beasts, and the paper people and Mother River once were have now become a void.

Sensing these, Xu Qing walks through the starry sky, walks into time, walks into the gaps between shattered dimensions.

Following the guidance of the torn paper in his palm, he steps forward one by one.

With each step he takes, countless worlds burst into rosy light.

Moreover, waves of killing intent arise, turning into endless icy cold, following his advance, drop by drop in spacetime, causing the places he steps to freeze even the minutest spatial ripples.

And his gaze, calm yet containing the black and white that can temper billions of stars, in this advance, pierces through layer upon layer of spacetime turbulence……

Finally, it lodges at a coordinate extremely obscure, almost assimilated with the void.

"Found it."

Xu Qing's gaze pauses, he speaks lightly.

There, is a mundane world.

Within the world, in a town, in a school, many scrolls are piled up.

And Xu Qing's gaze, looking across spacetime, is on that lowest scroll!

This scroll is ancient and simple, its material ordinary, completely commonplace, with nothing extraordinary about it, as if it were truly just a mundane object, perfectly blended into the background world.

Even if not for Xu Qing having the fragment in his palm and his own constitution being extraordinary, he would not be able to detect its existence.

"Hidden deep enough, Deruozi."

Xu Qing's voice is low, devoid of any emotion, he takes a step forward, his figure directly tearing through myriad realms, directly descending into that world.

Appearing in the school, standing before the scroll.

The moment he manifests, he hesitates not at all, his right hand's five fingers spread, he grabs toward the scroll!

This grab is not ordinary contact in meaning, but directly acts upon the "realm" concept carried by the scroll!

At the instant it falls, a terrifying roar like the fetal membrane of heaven and earth being forcibly torn apart booms forth, echoing in this world.

It shakes the heavens and earth, causing all beings and things in this world to instantly lose consciousness and become dazed.

And that scroll floats up, suddenly opening!

Revealing a painting!

In the painting, are continuous undulating, carved beams and painted pillars of an immortal's palace!

Jade towers and jade halls float above the sea of clouds, rosy light in myriad zhang, auspicious qi in a thousand threads, immortal cranes soaring and gathering, goddesses dancing gracefully.

A scene of ultimate bliss.

Yet, this bliss seems dusty, shrouded by an unshakeable layer of deathly ash gray.

Under this hue's tint, all colors become dim and eerie, as if washed by the passage of time; within, the immortal cranes' eyeballs are hollow, the goddesses' dance poses stiff as marionettes on strings, exuding a suffocating falseness and deathly stillness.

The entire painted world seems to permeate with a carefully polished, deep-to-the-bone rotten aura.

And at the center of that painted world, upon the solidified radiant sea of clouds above, sits enthroned a colossal figure!

It is a paper person!

It is Deruozi!

He is no longer a thin sheet of paper, but clad in luxurious, intricate yet equally deathly still imperial robes, wearing a pearl crown, like an inflated, ludicrous yet terrifying emperor.

Countless fine, half-transparent fate threads like spider silk extend from every living being, every tile and rubble, every wisp of cloud and rosy light in the painting, densely connecting to him, as if providing him nourishment.

Almost the instant Xu Qing's gaze falls upon him, this colossal paper person suddenly opens his eyes.

His eyes flash with scarlet light, locking gazes with Xu Qing across the painting!

"Xu Qing!"

Deruozi's expression sinks, his mind and spirit shaken intensely.

He knows the cause and effect between himself and Xu Qing, but according to his omniscience, he did not believe Xu Qing could find him.

His concealment, unless the Upper Wilds truly awaken, otherwise he has confidence no one can detect him!

Even if he himself has paper scraps fallen outside, it has no meaning; all his avatars and his main body have long since severed causality at the causal level.

"This is not right!"

Deruozi's mind and spirit churn, and what makes him feel uneasy is his current state.

This is the most unfavorable moment!

Yet, as long as he is given enough time, he is confident in restoring his god venerable status, and after obtaining the memories of the divine umbilical cord, he has gained much more confidence in his future path of walking the divine umbilical cord as a god.

But…… everything, everything, in this instant Xu Qing found him, has deviated!

"You indeed have fallen in status, no longer a god venerable."

As Deruozi's expression changes, Xu Qing speaks slowly, taking a step into the painting.

The moment he enters, this false splendid world, like a dead water mirror struck by a huge boulder, violently trembles!

That layer of deathly gray light membrane violently undulates, trying to repel Xu Qing out; countless stiff goddesses, immortal cranes, and spirit beasts, like activated mechanism puppets, with stiff eerie smiles, swarm toward Xu Qing here to slaughter!

They are not physical entities, but curses and resentments formed by the painting's rules; touching them will erode the divine soul and pollute the origin.

Xu Qing's face expressionless, his constitution's threads turn into black and white silk, instantly encircling his body, then spreading outward in layers.

Like a world-ending tide, sweeping all directions, wherever it passes, the oncoming painting puppets are like paper scraps torn by a wild wind, not even having time to utter a miserable cry before directly shattering into pieces!

That layer of deathly gray light membrane, under the black and white storm, emits a soul-piercing wail, violently twisting and deforming, being forcibly rendered, causing the entire painted world's colors to rapidly fade!

Xu Qing ignores all obstacles, takes a step down, crosses the solidified sea of clouds, appearing when, lo and behold, before the swollen paper emperor Deruozi!

Right hand raised, a fist falls down!

The storm formed of black and white comes entwining, with the force to destroy the rotten and pull the decayed, toward Deruozi's swollen, distorted chest clad in imperial robes, and crashes forth!

Wherever the storm reached, space was no longer shattered—it was conceptually annihilated!

Time, color, form, rules—all the elements that composed this false world within the painting—collapsed and returned to oblivion beneath this storm!

Then, it slammed hard onto Deruozi's paper-thin imperial robe!

No earth-shattering explosion—only a quiet annihilation of all things returning to stillness!

Centered on Xu Qing's fist, Deruozi's swollen imperial form, like a sandcastle tossed into a black hole, collapsed inwardly and outwardly with a thunderous crash!

The splendid imperial robe turned to flying ash inch by inch; the jeweled crown shattered into nothingness, and the divine power filling it instantly volatilized.

Its body shattered countless times, turning into innumerable paper money, scattering backward in a spray.

But its counterattack also manifested at once.

The countless paper money formed from its body suddenly converged mid-scatter, abruptly forming a colossal paper humanoid skull that opened its maw wide toward Xu Qing, lunging to devour him!

Moreover, countless threads of fate streamed from this paper skull, forming a River of Fate that coiled around Xu Qing.

The power of the Divine Lord's peak erupted at this moment with a thunderous boom!

Yet Xu Qing remained expressionless, his raised fist unmoving; behind him, ripples in the void revealed a second him stepping out from the nothingness!

After devouring the primordial mother star, Xu Qing's cultivation had reached the peak of the Divine Lord, and… he possessed two true bodies!

Like twin stars!

The second true body, born of the Black Star, suddenly manifested now, likewise throwing a punch!

It collided violently with the approaching paper humanoid skull!

A fluctuation capable of annihilating everything erupted in that instant, sky-high and overwhelming!

The booming sounds carried exterminating power, sweeping across the eight directions!

The entire painted world suddenly collapsed!

The jade halls and palaces of the immortal realm turned to grayish-white powder drifting away; the solidified seas of clouds evaporated; those stiff immortal maidens and cranes, like faded murals, peeled off in flakes!

The dead radiance completely dissolved into a rapidly expanding, void-like blankness!

As for Deruozi, his body trembled violently, then scattered again, collapsing into recoiling paper money!

As for the countless fate threads coiled around Xu Qing, they too, under this punch, shattered like a destroyed spiderweb—breaking apart and dissipating!

Next, the White Star Xu Qing stepped forward to replace the Black Star, his right fist falling without hesitation, suddenly striking again!

But just then, an anomaly arose abruptly!

At the moment this painted world completely collapsed, it formed a drop of ink so thick it could not be dissolved, carrying utter decay and resentment!

This ink was not aimed at Xu Qing, but, as if alive, instantly wrapped around one of the scattered paper fragments of Deruozi!

Seizing the final thread of chaotic fissure born from the painted world's total annihilation and rule collapse, it employed a bizarre escape art—burning its origin, heedless of cost—to pierce through the void and flee into emptiness!

Its speed surpassed perception!

Xu Qing's punch struck empty air.

He narrowed his eyes, standing upon the wreckage of the painted realm now reduced to utter void, his gaze icy, fixed on the direction where the ink droplet vanished.

There, only a trace remained—extremely faint, mingling decayed paper pulp with a venomous ink stench.

Then, he slowly lowered his fist.

Yet the killing intent in his pupils grew more refined, more profound.

"You—how far can you still run?"

Xu Qing spoke calmly, his voice echoing in the void, icy and piercing to the bone.

Then he stepped forward, directly treading upon the wreckage of the annihilated painted realm; his form merged once more into the boundless void, silently tracking that nearly dissipated thread of decaying resentment he had locked onto, pursuing without sound.

This pursuit—like a bone-deep maggot, relentless and endless.

……

Time, in the hunt and chase between Xu Qing and Deruozi, became meaningless.

Whether Xu Qing or Deruozi, both could shuttle through time, entering different moments across different planes—indeed, not only moving forward…

But backward, too, remained the same.

Even in the end, as Xu Qing repeatedly caught up and struck, Deruozi, in this extreme peril, chose to diverge!

It diverged into millions, even more, of avatars, entering different times and spaces.

This was its life-preserving method!

Its near-countless avatars—each could become a true body, as long as one survived, it would not die.

And given enough time, any avatar could recover to the rank of Divine Venerable.

Once recovered, the other avatars would turn to flying ash, making it the sole one.

But this method has a flaw: its avatars may gain advantage in number and range, but their realm falls short of the true body's.

At its current realm, employing this method, its avatars are no longer at the Divine Lord level, but have fallen to True God.

Still, for Deruozi, this is now its only means of delay!

Facing this divine art, Xu Qing's corresponding path is also divergence!

His Constitution's Continuum, originally unified, now needs only to re-scatter.

But, like the flaw in Deruozi's art, the scattered avatars cannot possess the true body's realm—all are… Xia Xian!

Thus, this pursuit is no longer merely one-on-one across different times and planes—it is… infinite versus infinite!

……

The Roaring Realm.

The air reeked of a mixture of iron rust, coal ash, and poor-quality oil.

In the distance, massive steam pipes lay like coiled iron pythons between towering, cloud-piercing buildings, hissing and spewing scalding white vapor.

The sound of meshing gears was deafening, forming a perpetual, roaring lament.

This is a small world, without cultivators.

And at this moment, a figure stands within the steel city of this world, in the shadow of a suspended iron bridge.

Black long hair, purple long hair, and the surrounding oily filth are very discordant.

It is Xu Qing.

His gaze penetrates the pervasive steam and rotating massive flywheel, falling into the depths of an enormous difference engine.

There, billions of tiny copper gears mesh and spin wildly, calculating every breath of this steel metropolis.

At the edge of one gear, an extremely fine layer of white trace, as thin as dust, covers it.

It operates with abnormal smoothness, carrying a kind of eerie, lively agility beyond machinery.

Staring at that white trace, Xu Qing's eyes flash with cold light, like a weightless ghost, moving silently down the iron bridge in a way invisible to this world's patrol guards.

Landing on the massive outer casing of that precision difference engine, his fingers lightly brush over the cold, smooth metal surface, corroding a hole just large enough for a finger to pass through.

Then, he takes out a drop of black oil formed from his constitution law, and, along the hole, drops it down with extreme precision.

"Zi!"

An extremely faint yet sharp sound, capable of piercing the steel city's roar, comes.

The gear covered by the white trace suddenly stutters!

The "dust" layer covering it violently trembles, trying to escape.

But the black oil, like a bone-eating worm, instantly envelops and penetrates it.

The white trace struggles and writhes in the dense black, like a fly trapped in resin, continuously spreading and penetrating, while the gear's rotation becomes sluggish and stuck, emitting painful clicking sounds.

Until finally, the struggling ripples completely subside, the gear stops turning, and no trace of white remains visible on its surface.

Only an extremely faint divine wail remains, utterly drowned in the roar of machine oil and steam.

Outside, Xu Qing withdraws his finger, and the metal at the hole's edge automatically heals as before.

He turns and sinks into the pervasive steam, leaving behind only the roar of the difference engine restarting.

……

Bottom of the abyss, silent graveyard.

Absolute darkness and endless sea water envelop everything.

Here is an abandoned abyss between the upper and lower passages.

Xu Qing hovers in the icy, bone-piercing seawater, his feet resting on the rotting remains of a vast ancient ship.

Like the skeleton of a beast that sank, it lies asleep on the seabed.

Time here seems frozen; only the occasional flicker of cold blue light from deep-sea creatures occasionally sweeps across, illuminating the twisted, deformed carved wood decorations and scattered utensils inside the cabin.

Xu Qing sweeps his gaze over and enters the wreckage.

His target is in the captain's cabin.

It is a piece of forgotten sheepskin nautical chart, half-rolled, in the corner of an oak table.

Its color is yellowed, edges tattered, appearing as ancient and lifeless as this sunken ship.

But in this dim cabin, the ink marks on the sheepskin representing reefs and sea lanes wriggle eerily, like the blood vessels of a living thing.

Until the moment Xu Qing's figure approaches, the sheepskin suddenly stops moving.

Then it violently melts, as if trying to escape!

But too late—Xu Qing's right hand suddenly shoots up, he flicks it hard!

An iron needle shoots out instantly, like a blunt weapon stabbing into rotten wood, with the force of a thousand jun, fiercely piercing that half-rolled sheepskin nautical chart, nailing it dead to the thick oak planks of the cabin wall!

The distorted human face formed by the ink marks instantly protrudes on the paper surface, its mouth silently gaping to the limit, the lines forming its visage wildly twisting and trembling, showing extreme pain and terror.

And the seawater, carrying Xu Qing's unique constitution law, seeps in thread by thread through the pierced opening and the rusted gaps of the needle tip into the interior of the sheepskin.

The human face formed by the ink marks convulses violently; the ink dots forming islands blur and spread, while the lines representing sea lanes twist and break like water-soaked earthworms.

Finally, only a chaotic, filthy ink stain remains, slowly diffusing in the icy seawater, merging with this eternal darkness.

Xu Qing's face expressionless, he turns and walks out of this silent coffin, leaving behind only the eternal silence of the deep sea.

……

Yunhai Xianshan, spiritual energy sparse and elusive.

A solitary peak floating above tens of thousands of zhang of cloud sea, year-round enveloped in gauze-like, mist-like spiritual energy.

Immortal cranes cry clearly, strange flowers spit buds, jade palaces and crystal towers appear and disappear within the clouds and mist.

This is a pure cultivation ground, a blessed land of a cave heaven that countless cultivators dream of, located in the lower stellar ring.

At this moment, under clear skies, amidst the heavenly wind, Xu Qing stands atop the solitary peak.

Black long robe, hunting in the wind, purple long hair fluttering, as if wanting to envelop this bright scenery, utterly out of place with the surrounding immortal aura.

Like a demon.

And his gaze, piercing through the elusive clouds and mist below with icy coldness, falls upon a Daoist temple within this blessed land.

Deep within that temple, in a secluded cultivation chamber filled with restrictions, three Xu Tian Protective Law True Talismans, their treasure light flowing and runes densely covered, are enshrined.

The talisman paper is neither gold nor jade, faintly emitting spiritual light.

In the corner of one talisman, an extremely minute rune, its stroke edges bearing a trace of faint gray trace.

Xu Qing's gaze falls precisely upon this talisman.

"Getting better at hiding, actually hiding within the rules—cannot be destroyed except by the rules of this realm."

At the moment of locking on, Xu Qing steps out from the peak; beneath him, the cloud sea automatically surges and condenses, supporting him as if walking on flat ground, instantly crossing space to land outside the tightly shut jade stone gate of the temple's secret chamber.

Ignoring the flowing complex restrictions on the gate, he walks straight through the door, as if passing through a water curtain.

Inside the secret chamber, sandalwood smoke curls, spiritual energy so dense it almost liquefies.

And Xu Qing hesitates not at all; he raises his right index finger, fingertip a flicker of dark light jumping, tiny as a needle tip, yet containing a destructive aura that causes the entire chamber's spiritual energy to become disordered and yield.

In an instant, it was not the attack talisman itself that acted, but rather it instantly disturbed the invisible spiritual field above the secret chamber, like a pebble tossed into a calm lake, stirring the rules of summoning lightning.

"Boom—crack!"

Without warning!

A bolt of blazing white lightning, thick as a heavenly pillar, tore through the observatory's dome, ignoring all defensive wards, carrying the furious heavenly might of the heavens above, and struck with unerring precision upon the guardian true talisman enshrined at the highest point!

To be precise, it struck the talisman bearing the pallid, anomalous rune.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment.

The next instant, the talisman blazing with precious light erupted in a blinding white light!

Instantly charred, carbonized, and disintegrated!

Countless burning scraps of paper, like startled fire moths, scattered wildly from the exploding center!

In the cramped space of the secret chamber, they fluttered and collided desperately, trying to escape this annihilating yang fire of utmost purity and rigidity.

Within the rising smoke, Deluozi's face flickered in and out of view, twisted in agony, as he let out a hoarse roar toward Xu Qing.

"Xu Qing, I curse you!"

Xu Qing stared coldly, watching the face dissipate, until finally all the rune fragments turned into black ash speckled with embers, drifting down to settle upon the cold floor.

The rich sandalwood scent in the secret chamber was utterly replaced by a thick, burnt odor, leaving only the deathly silence and utter ruin after the thunderfire.

Xu Qing withdrew his finger; the faint light at his fingertip extinguished.

Without even glancing at the layer of black ash on the ground, he turned and vanished into the distorted air of the secret chamber.

At this moment, the disturbed formations of the observatory finally surged in panic, breaking the tranquility of the Immortal Mountain.

……

One slaughter after another, one annihilation after another.

In some worlds there was turmoil, in others there was peace.

But death was their sole common point.

Deluozi's division did not buy Him time; instead, it became the conclusion of His ultimate fate.

This was greatly related to His own disadvantageous state, and also closely tied to Xu Qing's constitution law.

To a certain extent, Xu Qing's constitution law was actually…… the greatest restraint upon Deluozi's divine authority!

Thus, when the three months of the mortal world passed, in this endless starry expanse, the final scrap of paper hidden in a desolate small world, within the cold shadow of a weathered rock, was ignited by Xu Qing's black-and-white fire flicked from his fingers.

As this scrap burned, silently curling, blackening, and finally dissolving into a wisp of insignificant blue smoke……

Across all heavens and myriad worlds, every dimension ever stained by the paper's white mark seemed to echo in the void with a millionfold repetition of the ultimate, soul-core-originated lament!

This lament contained the agonizing shatter of the Roaring Nations, the viscous despair pierced in the seabed abyss, the terror of blessed grottoes obliterated by thunder……

And all the varied suffering and dread endured during eradication in every other world!

Forming an execution by slow slicing of unimaginable scale!

And now, Xu Qing stood in the void where the opponent's final incarnation had been annihilated, his feet upon that insignificant desolate rock, beside him nine burning purple-fire lanterns.

These were not formed from his earliest divine sovereign's eye, but were kindled during the pursuit of Deluozi, using the opponent's incarnations to forge the fire of tracing the source.

In the firelight, Xu Qing's expression showed not the slightest change, as if his strike had merely brushed a speck of dust from his sleeve.

He merely lifted his eyelids slightly, but in those unfathomable purple pupils, the icy killing intent had not faded—it had only condensed further.

He clearly "saw" that, at the source of the millionfold superimposed lament, in the depths of the endless dimensional turbulence……

A being whose every incarnation had been slain, whose core consciousness had suffered devastating trauma, and could thus no longer perfectly conceal its hidden passage, now revealed itself!

"Interesting……"

Xu Qing murmured, raising his hand, and a bronze lantern appeared before him as he took a step forward.

……

It was a hidden passage.

Weak to the point of exhaustion, having reached the end of His own path, Deluozi had become a vast face, now racing madly through this passage.

He was afraid.

As His realm plummeted, the turmoil brought by life and death also made Him feel the approach of death.

"There is still hope!"

"This passage is what I left behind years ago to scheme against Eastern Wanggu; its end leads to the future of the Houtu Star Ring. From there, I still have hope of gaining enough time!"

Deluozi increased his speed, and with His current true god realm, in an instant He arrived at the passage's end.

There, a seal like a mirror surface stood.

Through the seal, He could see the outside world—a pallid-faced fat man.

Paying no heed to this, Deluozi's eyes flashed with golden light, and the vast face lunged suddenly toward the mirror seal.

At the moment of approach, the mirror seal seemed unable to bear it—light flared, and numerous cracks appeared directly.

And viewed from the other end, one could clearly see that on the mirror seal, at this moment, a vast face was rapidly bulging upward from below!

The mirror seal seemed like a membrane, and that bulging face, as if representing endless evil, sought to burst forth from the seal.

"Hope is right before my eyes!"

Within the passage, Deluozi growled low, straining forward with all his strength.

To Him, this seal was like papier-mâché—easily broken through—so what He needed to prepare was to concentrate His power, and at the instant of breaking out, to flee with all His might.

But just as He was about to touch the seal…… outside the seal, before that pallid-faced fat man, a starlight vortex suddenly appeared.

And within the vortex, a finger forged of starlight suddenly shot out!

It fell directly onto the seal!

As it descended, an aura belonging to Xia Xian seemed to replace the heavenly will of that world, crashing down with a thunderous boom.

It pressed upon the brow of the face!

Deruozi trembled all over, his howl turning into a wail, his aura collapsing directly at this moment.

"Xia Xian! How could Xia Xian be here! And this person is no ordinary immortal..."

Deruozi spat out divine blood, his face instantly withering and drying up, wanting to struggle, but with his realm, everything was futile under those fingers!

He only held on for three breaths before he crashed down in a heap, blocked before the seal.

Just as he was about to charge forward again with renewed vigor, in the next instant... a chill that froze his entire body and made his very soul tremble silently approached from behind.

It became a hand, a hand... that grabbed his head!

"Found you."

Deruozi's soul roared, being directly eroded by the Constitution's Mantle, shrouding the seal.

And Xu Qing's figure appeared within the passage.

He held Deruozi in one hand, nine purple fire lanterns floating outside his body, gazing toward the mirror seal Deruozi had just tried to rush toward.

This mirror seal, at this moment, had visible cracks healing under the starlight's power from the outside world, discernible to the naked eye.

Gazing at this mirror seal, Xu Qing narrowed his eyes and stepped forward.

As he drew near, the mirror seal trembled violently, stirring up intense undulations, as if Xu Qing's mere slow approach had already pushed it to its limit.

And outside the seal, the fingers stretching out from the vortex, which had been slowly fading, seemed to signal that everything was about to end.

But in the next instant, the starlight within the vortex suddenly paused, an unprecedented sense of heaviness condensed within, then transformed into a pair of icy eyes.

"Halt!"

A faint voice, emanating from within the vortex, transmitted into the seal.

Upon hearing this, Xu Qing paused at the edge of the seal, raised his head, and looked outward through the seal.

His gaze first swept over that fat man, then turned to the starlight eyes before the man.

In that glance, he saw a white-haired cultivator, his entire body radiating heaven-slaying killing intent, his cultivation having reached Xia Xian!

"Interesting, I have hunted Deruozi for three months, slain his millions of avatars, yet never imagined his true self had actually laid a passage to the outer realms here at some unknown time!"

"More interestingly, here... I have actually encountered someone who makes me feel, as if a fellow Daoist of my kind!"

Xu Qing spoke calmly, then turned around, holding Deruozi in his hand, walking away step by step, he did not force his way in, for that place was not his world.

However, after several steps, his voice rang out.

"My surname is Xu."

"My surname is Wang."

At the mirror seal, a voice from the outside world transmitted.