Chapter 296: A Shift in Mindset, the Gate of the Starship

Amid the spectacular explosion, a damaged wreck, seemingly struck by the violent shockwave of the blast, plummeted toward the Ice Plains below at the speed of lightning.

"Can't let you get away."

Seeing this, Baichuan's mind stirred and he immediately understood what was happening — it wasn't some case of Taiyang Tianzun coming back from the dead; whether the other was truly dead or not, the panel had long since told him.

Don't forget this is high in the sky. Now that Taiyang Tianzun is dead, he has naturally lost the power that kept him aloft, and under the pull of gravity he falls back to the ground.

Thinking this, he flew after the plummeting wreck.

Falling is always faster than climbing — in less than a quarter of an hour.

Baichuan and the wreck returned to the Ice Plains, one behind the other.

"Boom!"

Amid the heavy rumble, Baichuan landed near the wreck.

This was the first Tianzun he had encountered who, after death, did not reveal some strange, enormous true body.

'It seems this Taiyang Tianzun should be a person…'

'This… is…?'

Just as he was about to think that, Baichuan's sharp eyes suddenly caught sight of the exact condition inside Taiyang Tianzun's missing chest, and his heart gave a sudden jolt.

What appeared before his eyes was this: amid an incomparably precise circuit structure crackling with electric sparks, there was mingled flesh and blood — somewhat charred, yet still ceaselessly writhing.

It was an interweaving of flesh and machinery; the vitality of flesh and the cold texture of metal, joined by some ingenious, heaven-defying method into the peculiar state now before him, producing a subtle balance beyond words.

But now this wondrous balance had been broken by him.

What is this situation?

Is Taiyang Tianzun not actually a person? A cyborg, perhaps? Or what?

"You… have…… already passed…… verifi……"

"Autho…rity being…… granted……"

Before Baichuan could think further, he abruptly heard a halting, mechanical voice.

It came from the brain of the already-dead Taiyang Tianzun.

Immediately after, Baichuan saw Taiyang Tianzun's eyes — those miraculous, star-like orbs — light up once more. Only this time, what appeared within them was not the dazzling brilliance of a star, but a cascade of pale-green data streams pouring down like a waterfall. The mighty data streams fell from the opposite eyes at a speed that dazzled Baichuan.

A few breaths later, the data streams vanished, and a mysterious green light shot explosively from the other's eyes, trying to sweep across Baichuan.

Instinctively, Baichuan's dragon body shot backward while he released the original Star-Devouring Worm offshoot to shield him in front.

In an instant, Baichuan sensed, through the Star-Devouring Worm offshoot's mind, the information carried by that mysterious green light:

【Target does not match. Unable to transfer authority…】

Seeing this, Baichuan was briefly stunned — it didn't work?

He calmed his mood and began to ponder exactly what had happened.

As for being shocked — honestly, from the moment he saw that starship beneath the Ice Plains, he had already stopped being surprised by anything.

He then recalled the Star-Devouring Worm offshoot and sent over a newly born Light Point of energy instead.

The information that appeared before him was still exactly the same as before.

After several attempts, he stopped probing and began to consider the current situation in detail.

First, he had slain the Taiyang Tianzun before him, and the other had previously seemed to say something: one is forbidden to step out of Tianyuan Jie.

Tianyuan Jie presumably refers to this world. Coupled with the hints — subtle yet unmistakable — dropped by the powerful beings within the world, it seemed that some mysterious existence had been continuously erasing information on this matter.

This mysterious existence might well be Taiyang Zunzhe. Of course, given Taiyang Zunzhe's current state, there was no guarantee that a true master of this world did not still exist within it.

Or perhaps Taiyang Tianzun was created by that mysterious person in the first place?

From this, one could conclude that this mysterious person did not want the beings within the world to know that other worlds existed beyond it, nor did he want them to step out of this world.

As for the purpose, it remained unknown for now.

Perhaps it was for protection, because danger lay outside; or perhaps purely for his own desire for control?

No — that's not right!

Baichuan suddenly recalled the divine corpse Tianyuan Zunzhe from before. From the other's memories he had seen him step into a mysterious, dark, profound space — at the time he hadn't understood what that place was, but now it seemed it was the outside of the world.

Perhaps it was precisely because the world's strongest being, Tianyuan Zunzhe, had encountered an invasion of Star-Devouring Worms the moment he stepped outside the world, that he had only just stepped out before hurrying back inside, and in his final moments had reported his experience to that mysterious person — or to Taiyang Tianzun.

Which led the other to form a misunderstanding: believing the outside was extraordinarily dangerous, and so, to protect this world, no longer allowing other beings to learn of such information.

But if that were the case, how was one to explain the starship he had seen before?

If a starship existed, then the other should clearly know the situation outside — it must have come in from beyond.

So, was the blockade because the other was on the run?

If he was fleeing, then it would also explain why he didn't want other beings to go out.

But by what means could he be so confident of evading pursuit — merely by not letting the beings inside the world leave?

Not being able to leave from within doesn't mean those outside can't see in.

Such a large planet — if the pursuer were nearby, to say they couldn't find it would be nonsense.

Moreover, he had been in this world for no short Time, yet apart from the scene he had recently seen when flying up to the heavens — which strongly resembled the surface of a planetary world — he could not detect any connection between this world and a planetary world at all.

Not to mention the star that should exist near a living planet — that could be attributed to the star having already perished — but what of the other stars that represent the distant Xingkong?

There were none!

This world had neither stars nor a stellar sun; between heaven and earth there was only utter darkness and a dim, faded sky.

That dim, faded sky was what passed for daylight.

Were it not for the Solar Divine Chariot — Taiyang Tianzun, who served as the sun — within Dongfang Quyu, how could Dongfang Quyu have any proper division of day and night?

Then, was it because the other possessed some marvelous method?

Sigh — why does it feel like the more he reasons, the messier it gets? The more he knows, the more questions arise.

Baichuan, who had wanted to sort out the events, helplessly rubbed his dragon brow. He realized that the information he possessed was still far too little; no matter how much computing power he was given, he was still himself — he could not, from so few scraps of information, conjure up everything by sheer speculation.

So should he accept or reject the authority that this Solar Heavenly Sovereign wanted to transfer to him?

Baichuan, finding himself growing more and more confused the longer he thought about it, stopped deliberating and began weighing whether to accept this mysterious authority.

He was considering what exactly this authority was — was it the authority over the source of Spirit Qi between heaven and earth, or was it related to that starship?

He also didn't know whether anyone still existed inside the starship.

Baichuan scratched his head and began weighing the pros and cons.

This Solar Heavenly Sovereign before him was already dead, yet had still left him with a huge dilemma — not letting him use a clone to accept the authority, firmly locking onto his true body. Was it because his true body was the one who killed the other party?

"Beep beep beep…"

After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, while Baichuan still hadn't made his decision, a burst of urgent sounds arose, and the green light emanating from those wondrous eyes of the Solar Heavenly Sovereign in the distance actually began turning red and flashing continuously.

In an instant, Baichuan had a feeling inside — the other party was "out of power"!

Thinking about it, it made sense. The other party had been dead for so long, how could there still be so much energy to maintain this authority transfer for so long?

But this was also, in an invisible way, reminding him to hurry up and make a decision — give up or accept?

In this instant, Baichuan's mind was filled with countless thoughts, innumerable notions surfacing in his heart — some in agreement, some in refusal.

"Fear, fear, fear!"

"Fear this, fear that!"

"Caution is good, but being overly cautious is not!"

"Since when did I become so indecisive? Am I really that fragile?"

"If this continues, with the depths of Xingkong full of unknowns and countless dangers, if I enter the depths of the universe with this kind of mindset, how am I supposed to handle it?"

"Where did the decisiveness of the past, the willingness to seize opportunities by any means necessary for the sake of strength, go?"

The next moment, Baichuan closed his eyes, hardened his heart, reopened his eyes, slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air, his eyes filled with resolve.

In a few steps, he walked into the green light emanating from the Solar Heavenly Sovereign.

【Target detected, authority transfer in progress. Accept?】

"Accept."

A firm, powerful answer rang out.

In an instant, Baichuan felt a cool sensation flow through his mind.

Bits and pieces of information began surfacing, letting him absorb it at will.

He didn't know how long had passed, but when he came back to his senses, he found that he had gained an additional perception and some information.

That perception was somewhat similar to his previous Star-Devouring Worm clone, but far more advanced. It seemed the Star-Devouring Worm's authority was a subordinate tier of his own, and he could grant or revoke it at any time.

In other words, he could now act as a tyrant in this world, able to select any target at any time and grant them the position of Heavenly Sovereign.

Of course, whether the target could truly become a Heavenly Sovereign still depended on whether their own strength was solid enough, and on the passage of Time.

After all, this authority could at most remove all cultivation bottlenecks for them; the cultivation and accumulation of Spirit Qi still had to be done by themselves.

In other words, he seemed to have obtained this world's Spirit Qi system.

Gently raising his Dragon Claw, feeling the Spirit Qi that appeared out of nowhere from some place and lingered at his fingertips, Baichuan thought silently.

Of course, more questions still required him to enter that starship.

All the truths of this world, and even the information about Xingkong he wanted to know, were hidden within that massive starship.

And the authority he had obtained belonged to that starship!

So, it was time to understand everything.

With this thought, Baichuan, whose mindset seemed to have changed slightly, leaped up once more and headed toward the location the authority guided him to.

At this moment, on the Ice Plains where heavy snow was falling, a true dragon spiraled up into the sky and flew toward the distance.

Of course, when leaving, Baichuan did not forget the Solar Heavenly Sovereign's corpse.

……

Seven days later, when he had completely arrived near that starship, Baichuan finally scanned out the Solar Heavenly Sovereign's ability model.

But he wasn't in a hurry to examine it. What mattered most right now was still this starship, and the vast amount of information within it.

While lost in thought, on the distant Ice Plains, a towering snow mountain stretching for who knew how many li appeared before Baichuan's eyes.

The biting cold wind blew ceaselessly, and goose-feather snow fell in profusion toward the earth, making the distant snow mountain even more perilous.

This was a super snow mountain famous throughout this world, whether in the Dongfang Quyu or the Western Region —

Siwang Xueshan!

True to its name, anyone who stepped into the snow mountain would not only lose their perception of heaven and earth, unable to receive any replenishment of power, but also have to endure their strength being ceaselessly drained clean by this demon-like snow mountain.

And for a cultivator, once they lost their strength, how were they any different from an ordinary person? Even if their body was relatively sturdy, how could they resist this harsh, lifeless icy wilderness?

Even an ice dragon that could endure the cold, if it stayed in this magic-less, Spirit-less region for too long, would gradually lose all its supernatural qualities and become a dull-witted mundane beast, eventually dying.

If even the most powerful ice dragon was like this, how much better could other beasts possessing extraordinary power fare?

Over time, this place became a death zone for supernatural creatures.

But at this moment, Baichuan was well aware that all of this was merely deliberately arranged by the Solar Heavenly Sovereign or that mysterious person.

Everything was intended to drive those intelligent beings away, preventing them from approaching this place.

Because beneath this snow mountain lay the location of that starship!

Or rather, it was precisely this starship that had created this snow mountain, and the terrifying Spirit-forbidding death zone was also a standard function of the starship.

As Baichuan's brilliant dragon eyes lit up, a crystalline blue-green light flashed, and his dragon body was covered by a layer of authority.

In an instant, this Siwang Xueshan lost all its supernatural effect on Baichuan, no longer a ferocious beast madly draining Spirit Qi, but an ordinary, unremarkable snow mountain.

A dragon shadow flashed, and soon he arrived near a snow mountain gorge that looked like a gateway.

This was one of the entrances to the starship.

The next moment, following the information granted by the authority, he activated the starship's main gate.

"Buzz buzz buzz…"

In an instant, amid crisp humming activation sounds, a deafening roar like an avalanche thundered forth.

That was because the star ship's long-unopened great door had been activated, causing the snow mountain to begin an avalanche.

Endless accumulated snow surged like a sea, flowing under gravity toward the only canyon in this place.

Watching this magnificent catastrophe of heaven and earth, Baichuan didn't even blink.

Because he knew that a mere avalanche could not affect the opening of the star ship's door at all.

Sure enough, the next instant, at the center point above the canyon, a light suddenly blazed forth — a dazzlingly brilliant light.

Beneath the light, an invisible Membrane spread out in an instant, and the avalanche halted.

Then the Light Point slowly began to rotate, as if space itself were being twisted. Within the invisible ripples, a colossal metal gate a thousand meters tall and of unknown width appeared before Baichuan's eyes—

The star ship's gate has appeared!

"Boom boom boom…"

Accompanied by thunderous roars, the metal great gate slowly moved open, revealing the mysterious interior space that had not been opened for untold years.

……

(End of this chapter)