Chapter 840: This Road is Not a Dead End

The eyeball shattered into pieces, scattering towards the starry sky below.

Xu Qing's voice echoed in this starry sky, which was like a void, carrying coldness.

His expression didn't have much fluctuation from beginning to end. He just looked calmly at the Fei corpse that had lost its eyeball in the distance, the branches entangled on the Ming Fei, and the tree that was decaying and seemed to be on its last breath.

"Little Friend, what do you mean by this?"

The voice of vicissitudes from the Green Wood, carrying weakness and confusion, was transmitted.

Responding to it was a black long spear wrapped in a sea of fire, which turned into a fire mark in the starry sky and whistled towards that tree decisively.

The sound of rumbling rose accordingly. The battlefield where the Green Wood and the Ming Fei were located appeared to have a sense of overlap, as if... it was a bubble composed of illusions.

Under the piercing of the spear, the bubble continued to shatter.

The sense of decay and the aura of death spread in the starry sky the moment the bubble cracked.

At the same time, in the starry sky, the eyeball fragments that had been collapsed by Xu Qing's knife and scattered, changed their form abruptly. Actually, clusters of black mist bred from within, poison and filth permeated within, and finally gathered into the blurred figure of the Ming Fei.

Staring fixedly at Xu Qing.

"When did you discover it!"

The gloomy voice echoed with resentment.

Xu Qing was right. This was indeed a trick, and it was also a trick that the Ming Fei had no choice but to use!

It was really too weak. Under the God's Calamity back then, it was indeed born from the resentment of this Immortal World, and it was indeed at the critical moment that it entered the North Age World, trying to devour the Green Wood Heavenly Dao, thereby making itself obtain the power to inhabit.

But unlike what it told Xu Qing, the battle between the Green Wood Heavenly Dao and it did not continue to this day, but ended in the endless years ago.

The Green Wood, with its trump card of perishing together, severely damaged the Ming Fei, and itself perished.

And as the guardian of the North Age, the Green Wood could be appointed by the Immortal Emperor, naturally having its extraordinary aspects, so its trump card was truly astonishing. Even if it didn't achieve a real perishing together, it also brought about a heavy damage and seal to the Ming Fei here that was difficult to recover from.

Its damage could not be healed, only continuously worsened.

The seal isolated everything, making the Ming Fei like entering a prison, forever losing the possibility of leaving.

Subsequently, because the outside world became a Divine Domain, it was like a prison outside a prison, completely cutting off hope.

And in this dead world with no vitality, no outsiders coming, and no replenishment, the Ming Fei could only wait for death to approach weakly.

But it was unwilling. It wanted to leave, wanted to return to its peak, but in the passage of endless years, its weakness had spread throughout its body, and withering was the same.

Until its last bit of spiritual sense was about to dim, Xu Qing arrived here.

Xu Qing's appearance gave the Ming Fei hope. It took a fancy to Xu Qing's body, but now it was weak to the extreme and had no ability to forcibly seize it.

So, there was this trick.

The moment Xu Qing appeared, it created an illusion, letting Xu Qing see the battle scene it wanted him to see, and then led him into a world of withered leaves that were decaying.

There, it communicated with Xu Qing in the identity of the Green Wood, telling the half-true and half-false past.

Its purpose was to make Xu Qing believe all this.

As for the Ming Fei source body that Xu Qing killed in this illusion, although it was also fake, the poison contained within was real.

It wanted to let Xu Qing be invaded by its poison slowly in the repeated slaughters without knowing it.

Once it succeeded, it could seize Xu Qing's flesh through the poison, thereby escaping and obtaining freedom.

It just never expected that its poison could be resolved to a certain extent in front of the other party, and what made its heart tremble even more was that the other party was actually researching!

Especially, he even wanted to research its soul.

It was worried about exposure, so it could only risk everything, showing the Five Filths of the Gods, trying to seize the body with this method, but it miscalculated again.

The Five Filths of the Gods were also resolved.

However, its trick was not just these. It had a final strategy, which was to let Xu Qing

As long as Xu Qing merged with the eyeball, he would likewise be possessed by it.

It was just that... Xu Qing's clean and decisive strike had severed everything.

"You, when did you discover it!"

The voice of Ming Fei, laden with obsession, echoed once more.

Xu Qing did not speak; he raised his right hand and swung it forward. Instantly, the black long spear whistled, and all the flames contained within it erupted, rippling through the starry sky.

The next instant, the bubble-like illusion shattered completely.

It revealed the true scene of this place.

This place was not a starry sky, but a void.

A sphere like a star floated within the void. While astonishingly massive, one could see that this sphere was actually formed from withered, rotting tree branches that had been dead for who knows how many years.

Countless branches were intertwined, forming such a... wooden cage that looked like a star!

And inside this wooden cage was the true body of Ming Fei!

Its body was indeed pierced through by countless branches, shriveled and withered, like a dried corpse; even its head was the same.

The corpse armor originally on its body had turned into countless vengeful spirits, weaving in and out of its body, gnawing eternally...

Of the entire physical body, only that single eyeball remained relatively intact.

It was gazing at Xu Qing with bitterness and despair; there was no luster within it, and its spiritual sense was fading.

"How did you discover it..."

This had become its obsession.

"I never believed it!"

Xu Qing gazed at the eyeball, spoke in a deep voice, and stepped forward.

With one step, he had arrived before the wooden cage. Amidst the increasingly intense longing and roaring of the Poison Prohibition Divine Treasure within his body, he raised his right hand and pressed it toward the only remaining single eye.

With this press, the Poison Prohibition erupted fully, and the spiritual sense within the single eye dissipated completely.

The entire eyeball turned gray-white, rose from within the Ming Fei corpse, transformed into a gray mist, and merged into the Poison Prohibition Divine Treasure in Xu Qing's body.

The Poison Prohibition Divine Treasure stopped fluctuating. A moment later, the aura of the Heavenly Dao emanated from within it, and with the next tremor... the second hidden gate where it resided suddenly swung open!

A terrifying might erupted from this, and astonishing power rose up from within.

One could see that inside the hidden gate, a giant eyeball rose amidst the poison, its pupil constricting.

Six ancient seals circulated within, giving a sense of mystery and containing the power of divine loathing.

This eye was the Heavenly Dao.

This seal was the Six Filths of the Gods.

With the loss of the eyeball, the Ming Fei corpse turned into fly ash, and the star-like wooden cage where it resided also collapsed, dissipating into the void along with it, turning into a vortex.

That was the path to leave this place.

Thus, the fate between Qing Mu and Ming Fei was concluded, their karma fulfilled, and both body and spirit were annihilated.

In the void, only the lingering echo of the obsession remained, not dispersing for a long time.

"How did you discover it..."

This obsession landed in Xu Qing's heart, echoing within his Poison Prohibition Divine Treasure. Thus, the moment he walked into the exit vortex, Xu Qing whispered faintly.

"I have seen the sacrificial dance."

Compared to the divine sacrificial dance that could alter cognition, Fei's illusion technique really did not amount to much.

Xu Qing took a step, entered the vortex, and his figure disappeared.

The seventh path was not a dead end, but a path of life.

The Ancestral Emperor's tomb, or perhaps the Immortal Emperor's tomb, was not complex in structure.

The outer perimeter was the Immortal Knowledge Labyrinth, followed by the four or five choices of life and death, and the final destination was the Imperial Palace.

It was also the resting place of the Immortal Emperor's remains.

The Imperial Palace was vast and enormous, forming its own space, like a boundless great world.

It had a sky and an earth.

Existing in the sky were one hundred and eight imprisoned stars!

They paved the starry sky of the Imperial Palace.

And these stars were all eerie; facing the earth, they were forever the star-soil emitting starlight, but on their backs, they grew terrifying, giant human faces.

The sound of painful wailing spread throughout the sky of this Imperial Palace, like a funeral dirge.

As this dirge echoed, if one looked carefully, one could see that on the front of those one hundred and eight stars, there were actually some figures sitting upside down within the starlight.

Yan Yan Xuanzi, Tuo Shishan, Tian Tian Mozi, Fan Fan Shishuang... on different stars, they sat cross-legged upside down, their eyes filled with vigilance as they looked up at the Imperial Palace, seemingly waiting for the arrival of an opportunity.

Clearly, the families and forces behind them, supported by their foundations, had provided entry methods that allowed them all to arrive here.

And the Captain was naturally among them, only compared to the others, the Captain's expression was somewhat anxious, occasionally looking at the uninhabited stars around him, and occasionally gazing at the Imperial Palace beneath the stars.

Where they were looking, countless starlight fell and gathered, transforming into nine starlight dragons, lifelike and real, wandering between heaven and earth.

Besides this, there were two even more dazzling stars; those were the sun and moon imprisoned here, circulating along fixed trajectories in this place.

When the sun star arrived, it emitted golden solar power, incomparably scorching.

When the moon star arrived, it emitted silver lunar power, endlessly icy.

Beneath the sun and moon, above the earth, there also existed a rotating seven-colored umbrella canopy that covered half the earth!

This umbrella canopy was tied with multiple crystal bells, and as it rotated, it emitted a tinkling sound, crisp like immortal music, playing together with the wailing of the starry sky, eerie yet sacred.

Around it were also multiple banners, chime bells, and giant drums.

All were enormous, floating in mid-air.

Those were the objects of the sacrificial burial.

The nine star dragons were wandering around these sacrificial objects, seemingly guarding them.

And further below, one could see the earth.

This earth was not soil, but pieced together from countless skins; within it were the human race, the alien races, the skins of countless tribes, paving the land of the Imperial Palace, within which were mountain ranges and rivers.

Those mountain ranges were piled up from skeletons, and those rivers were gathered from fresh blood.

Besides this, there were rows upon rows of terracotta warriors wearing armor, emitting monstrous malevolent aura!

The quantity was boundless and endless.

And in the center of this terrifying earth, which was directly beneath the umbrella canopy, there actually existed a towering altar!

On the altar sat a purple-gold coffin!

Carved upon it were scenes of worship, depicting mountains and rivers, noble to the extreme; it was precisely the coffin of the Immortal Emperor.

It was also precisely at this moment that above the Imperial Palace, within the one hundred and eight stars, a fluctuation suddenly appeared on a previously uninhabited star, and the next instant... a figure appeared as if coming from the void, instantly becoming clear.

It was precisely Xu Qing.

The moment he appeared, Xu Qing saw the Imperial Palace, and even more so, he saw those familiar figures on the surrounding stars; all of this made him realize that he might have arrived late.

At the same time, gazes also gathered over, and everyone's expressions were different.

And as for the Captain, he was also the first to notice Xu Qing's appearance; the anxiety in his expression immediately vanished, and he beamed, waving at Xu Qing.

"Little Junior Brother, you've finally arrived. If you hadn't appeared, I would have really thought you were done for."