Chapter 368: Lingxin's Misunderstanding, the Secret of a Universe of Enemies!

In the deep, silent starry sky, a half-wrecked star still quietly radiated scorching energy, and a massive creature, curled up, drifted silently through this despairingly cold starry sky.

Drops of blood tinged with gold kept seeping out, floating alongside their owner in the silent starry sky; from time to time, threads of arc-like energy could be seen splashing up from within the blood, keeping it from freezing even in the cold starry sky, maintaining astonishing vitality.

The massive "corpse," as if it had lost every trace of life, drifted silently in the deep void. No one knew how long had passed.

Urgent calls kept sounding, one after another.

"My lord, my lord, wake up…"

Accompanying them were the voices of a group of Juanzhu from the inner world.

Baichuan, who had fainted during that violent planetary explosion for an unknown length of time, frowned slightly. His savage yet heavily damaged claws, carrying enough force to shatter continents, gently waved once in the air, seemingly bothered by the mosquito-like voices that kept buzzing in his ears.

After a moment, the claw waving in a swatting motion paused, and the tightly shut beast-eyes, as brilliant as stars, suddenly snapped open!

In an instant, a wisp of flame, as if eternally inextinguishable, rose within him. With the ignition of that wisp of flame, as if spreading, within just a few breaths the body that had seemed to have lost all signs of life abruptly "came alive"!

'Who is calling me? What's the situation?'

Baichuan opened his eyes in some bewilderment, looking at the extremely familiar scene before him, recalling what had happened before. Hadn't he been fighting the Lingneng Clan's "Ancestor," and ultimately drifted along in the world-destroying explosion to who-knows-where?

Why did the scene before him look so familiar… there's no mistaking it!

Baichuan turned his head to look at the familiar star beside him that he had gazed upon countless times—wasn't this exactly the stretch of starry sky where he had stayed when invading the Zhenyu of the Lingneng Clan?

Why was he still here?

He vaguely recalled that as the great explosion occurred and he drifted away, he saw countless splendid scenes—thriving, beautiful planets quietly drifting in the cold starry sky under the pull of stars. Some were occupied by humans, some by hideous ugly bugs, some by massive scaled and armored beasts, and there were also enormous star-sea fleets spanning several star systems, occupying countless life-bearing planets, along with terrifying beings fighting them…

All of this adorned the quiet, cold starry sky with extraordinary liveliness, utterly unlike the cold, dead, and despairing starry sky he now beheld!

There was full of life and bustle; here was full of cold and despair.

Could it be that everything he had seen before was merely a dream?

Baichuan was stunned. He stared at his damaged claws that still ached, and at the weakness transmitted from the deepest layer of his entire Xingqiu Jigan body—a powerlessness as if something had drained him dry—waves of it rising to his heart.

"No! None of that was a dream!"

Baichuan shook his head. He had truly experienced a terrifying, vicious battle!

He clenched his claws and looked at the countless new ability models that had appeared on the lit-up Ability Panel—all born from what his projected consciousness had seen and heard within the world of the Lingneng Clan's Zhenyu.

But, why had he returned here?

Where was his Daluuji Jixie Jigan body? And where had Jin Yun'er and the entire Extreme West Alliance gone?

Right, there was also Lingxin, and the gods and desolate gods under her command…

"My lord, thank heavens, you've finally awakened…"

Speak of the devil and he appears. Baichuan had just been wondering where Lingxin had gone when Lingxin's voice, sounding somewhat ethereal yet faintly relieved, came through.

Only then did Baichuan realize that the earlier calls had been Lingxin's voice.

Hearing this voice, Baichuan let out a sigh of relief—at least there was still one familiar person here.

He suppressed the countless doubts rising within him. Anyone who, after a great battle, woke from a coma to find such a scene before them would surely be filled with intense confusion. After pondering carefully for a moment and identifying several key questions, he said: "Lingxin, what's the situation?"

"Where are our subordinates?"

"Also, didn't I drift very far in that explosion? Why… am I back here now…"

"Why has my other body also disappeared?"

"What exactly happened after I passed out…"

Listening to Baichuan's barrage of questions fired like a machine gun, Lingxin's consciousness stalled. She had never expected that this dragon whelp of no mean status knew nothing of what was practically common knowledge—utterly unbefitting of his status, like an abandoned piece, or like some ignorant, backward creature from this Desolate Domain.

After a moment, Lingxin finally reacted.

Perhaps this dragon whelp had been abandoned…

Such situations were not uncommon. Star Beasts were a special kind of creature—born already in adult form, so powerful that almost no one could stand against them, and exceedingly mysterious and rare throughout the entire universe.

No creature knew where they truly came from, nor how they were born. Even when a Star Beast's offspring grew up, it did not necessarily become a true Star Beast.

Just as the height of a fountain will never exceed its source.

No matter how powerful a Star Beast was, if its offspring lacked opportunity, it could never reach the might of its bloodline's source.

After all, a Star Beast's offspring came in two types: one was forcibly infected, assimilated, and reproduced by a Star Beast using its own blood to infect all things; the other was conceived from the union of two rare Star Beasts, combining the power of both and nurtured from the heart's blood of one of them, or directly nurtured from its own heart's blood.

The latter two types—nurtured from heart's blood and born from within—were the offspring truly valued by the Star Beast. The former were merely smokescreens created to conceal the true offspring. One must understand that beneath the starry sky, creatures coveting the Star Beasts' power and stealing their offspring were hardly few.

Especially since Star Beasts generally seldom guarded their own offspring.

As for why they did not guard them, the secret seemed related to the Star Beasts' birth and their ghostly, abnormally rare nature.

She vaguely recalled that an elder in her clan had once speculated it might be related to this "Subspace."

Whether true or false, this was a secret that neither an ordinary elder of her clan nor she, a mere ordinary True Immortal, could comprehend.

Now, in Lingxin's view, Baichuan's situation was the former type—born from infection and assimilation by ordinary blood. Though a Star Beast's offspring, he was merely an ordinary, abandoned one.

This was the "truth" inferred by Lingxin, who had been cut off from her remnant Spirit by the Zishu through special means afterward and had not seen what happened later, based on currently known information.

Although there were some errors due to insufficient information, in some sense it seemed to have stepped on the right points?

At the thought, a feeling of pity welled up within Lingxin—pity for Baichuan as an abandoned lone beast, and anger toward the Star Beast that had abandoned him.

Such an outstanding offspring, and yet abandoned?

Were Star Beasts truly so heartless and domineering?

Perhaps no one could imagine just how much suffering the other had endured, with nothing to rely on, to reach where he was today…

As someone who had reached the True Immortal stage with the support of her clan and resources, she deeply felt that her own breakthroughs along the way had been exceptionally arduous. How much more so for this dragon whelp, who, though not yet a True Immortal, had been able to kill a newly ascended True Immortal and survive in the hands of this generation's Zishu?

A surge of maternal pity arose. Lingxin couldn't help softening her voice a little and said gently: "This is Subspace… a mysterious space related to the source of power for those above True Immortal… and also a cold world that is nearly dead and silent…"

"Some suspect this space is fundamentally different from the space of the starry sky we inhabit, standing in an inner-outer relationship with our space; others say it is the remnant left behind after the destruction of another universe different from ours; and still others say…"

"In short, this is a place shrouded in endless mystery, hiding countless secrets, a place where ordinary beings cannot stay for long. Countless powerful beings have sought to uncover its secrets, as if understanding them would grant the true realm of great freedom and eternity… unfortunately, through countless ages, none have ever succeeded…"

"This is the origin of the space we currently find ourselves in…"

"As for why we ended up here, it should be related to your battle with the Zishu. That world itself—when I was on the verge of perishing, I deliberately fled to the weakest point where Subspace meets our starry sky, hoping to leave a sliver of hope for my remnant Spirit. Later, the battle between you two should have torn through that fragile spatial barrier…"

"Now that you've awakened, we need to leave as soon as possible, otherwise everything on us will be devoured by this mysterious space..."

"Our subordinates were likely separated from us in the chaotic energy streams at the very last moment."

By the end of her words, a note of urgency had crept into Lingxin's voice, as though something extremely unpleasant would happen as Time went on.

Yet the speaker meant no harm, but the listener took it to heart.

As Lingxin spoke, Baichuan froze as if struck by lightning.

All his past experiences surfaced in his mind, and the subtle doubts he had never paid much attention to were instantly resolved; it seemed he understood something...

No wonder — ever since he first set foot upon the Xingkong, he had searched for a thousand years yet barely seen a few worlds with living planets... All along the way, what appeared before his eyes was mostly cold, dead, lifeless dead stars...

The only truly vibrant living planet he had encountered was Tianyuan Star, which had a mysterious passage connected to his original world. As for why that planet had appeared, it certainly wasn't a world that had existed in this special space from the very beginning — it must have had an inseparable connection to the mystery of the Ancient Bell...

No wonder it was so difficult for him to truly enter the Zhenyu where the Lingneng Clan resided. Not only were there layer upon layer of obstructions, but he had never even seen where any planet might be — there was only a water-ripple-like thing. He had assumed it was caused by some powerful prohibition laid down by the strong members of the Lingneng Clan.

But he never expected that he truly was an existence like an "Outer Realm Heavenly Demon." What he faced trying to enter that world was not any prohibition of the Lingneng Clan, but the enormous barrier between two fundamentally different spaces...

That he had succeeded was truly extraordinary luck...

He had thought that once he set foot upon the Xingkong and encountered existences like the Lingneng Clan, Lingxin, Jin Yun'er, and others, he would soon be able to connect with this bustling Xingkong... But he never expected that, from beginning to end, he had always been different from everyone else...

Different in the most fundamental way...

"So the Xingkong was never lonely — only we were..."

Baichuan, who had deeply understood the truth, felt an inexplicable emotion well up from nowhere, and could not help murmuring to himself.

"Hm? Sir, what did you say?"

Baichuan's sudden, barely audible murmur startled Lingxin, who had been eager to leave — his voice was too vague and unclear.

"It's nothing." Baichuan shook his head. With Lingxin's voice, he quickly pulled himself out of that inexplicable emotion and regained his composure. He had never been the sentimental sort; he had merely been momentarily shocked and stunned by the truth.

"Is that so~~" Lingxin remained a little suspicious. She seemed to sense that this pitiable dragon whelp before her carried a certain loneliness that was profoundly out of place in this world.

However, she was in a hurry to leave, and that feeling vanished in an instant, so she did not pay it much mind.

"Sir, please escort my remnant Spirit close to that half-broken star."

"Hm? Close to a star?"

Baichuan, who had only just calmed down, heard Lingxin's outrageous words — approach a blazingly hot star?

Is this something a person could come up with?

Not to mention his planet-body was currently in a weak, powerless state; even at his peak, without that kind of destructive energy from the battle in Zhenyu, how could he possibly get close with his bare head?

That endlessly violent heat — even if his Radiation Absorption were as greedy as could be, it still couldn't swallow it fast enough!

Hearing this, Lingxin's consciousness sent a soft laugh — perhaps Baichuan's stunned expression was simply too rare to see, or perhaps she wanted to tease him and make him forget that inexplicable emotion from before. "Don't rush, don't rush. I know your situation well. Please look at your own current condition first?"

Baichuan lowered his head as instructed, only to discover that his planet-body was, at some unknown point, wrapped in a layer of dim Light Membrane carrying a golden warmth. He asked in confusion: "This is?"

"A protective treasure bestowed upon me by my clan, and also the reason we are not being eroded in this Subspace... It is said to be connected to a certain Star Beast related to stars, and can prevent ordinary flames from touching the body."

No, we are different — I don't need this protection at all.

Listening to her words, Baichuan understood that she had mistaken him for not being a native of this space either, and couldn't help complaining inwardly.

Still, he accepted her good intentions.

He did not wish to reveal the fundamental difference between them for the time being.

Because according to Lingxin, the powerful beings of this universe seemed to value and be very curious about this Subspace, constantly exploring its secrets, yet unable to do so for some reason.

Once his identity was exposed, anyone interested in his situation — even a fool could figure it out — the number of beings across the entire universe was beyond counting.

Not to mention he was currently only being watched by the Rat of the Lingneng Clan; the moment he was exposed, there might not be a single place in the entire universe for him to hide. He would truly be the enemy of all, unable to take a single step.

But why did Lingxin want to approach that half-broken star?

(End of this chapter)