Chapter 389: Return to the Shanhai Realm

The Divine Nation of Tian Guang, Tianwai Palace.

On the high platform, a black-haired woman in a silver-white long gown stood by the railing, surveying the palace complex; her face was veiled in a hazy mask, revealing only a pair of beautiful eyes as serene as the starry sky.

Tianwai Palace was the designated guest hall of the Divine Nation of Tian Guang, and every guest granted entry here was without exception a person of great stature.

That this woman had ascended to the top tier of Tianwai Palace clearly marked her as the highest-ranking guest.

“Lord Luo Shen.”

Lin Qing stepped into the hall and said: “I am Lin Qing, honored to meet you, Lord.”

Lord Luo Shen turned to look at Lin Qing, studied him briefly, then spoke softly: “Your talent is extraordinary, but do you truly believe the Feather Duke would destroy your homeland just to target you?”

“Lord, this is a future event that will indeed occur.”

Lin Qing said: “Perhaps it won’t happen now, but the future is uncertain—I cannot gamble my homeland on the enemy’s mercy.”

In truth, he understood.

The Feather Duke would not act now, but once the Divine Nation War began, if his role in the conflict grew too significant and tipped the balance in Tian Guang’s favor, disrupting the divine nations’ equilibrium, the Feather Duke might vent his fury.

“There is some sense to that.”

Lord Luo Shen nodded slightly and said: “I hear your talent for the Future Rule is astonishing—how is your cultivation of the Present Rule progressing?”

“Extremely difficult,” Lin Qing said.

“The most dangerous time will be when you reincarnate and re-cultivate,” Lord Luo Shen said. “If the Feather Duke intends to strike you, he is far more likely to wait until after your reincarnation. Are you certain you want me to guard your homeland so soon?”

“Certain.”

Lin Qing nodded slightly and handed Lord Luo Shen a storage treasure. “Lord Luo Shen may guard it for thirty-eight million years. This is the payment.”

Lord Luo Shen glanced at it, then casually put it away and said: “Let me be clear—I will help you for no more than two hundred million years. After that, I have other matters.”

“Understood.” Lin Qing nodded.

From now on, he would devote all his time to cultivating in Liunian Palace to conserve time; if all went well, two hundred million years would be enough for him to grow.

“Take me to your homeland,” Lord Luo Shen said.

……

To travel from the Realm of Kings to the Main Universe, one must pass through a Cosmic Passage, and only Ultimate Beings can construct such passages—and only with the Divine Nation Lord’s permission.

As the Ninth Prince of the Divine Nation of Tian Guang, Lin Qing could use the Cosmic Passage at will.

“Boom—”

Within the dim, hazy Cosmic Passage, the vast, surging Cosmic Origin could faintly be seen drying up at an astonishing rate, yet continuously regenerating.

Lin Qing gazed at the immense Cosmic Passage, then glanced at Lord Luo Shen beside him and asked: “Lord Luo Shen, have you ever been to the Main Universe?”

“I was born in the Main Universe,” Lord Luo Shen replied coolly. “But I was born shortly after the Star Abyss first began corrupting it, during the early phase of the New Universe era—and I died then. Later, a great being from Lin Yuan Realm fished me out from that history.”

Lin Qing understood.

He grasped what Lord Luo Shen meant.

Just as one transcends the Main Universe upon reaching the Realm of Kings, one exits its spacetime.

The Main Universe’s history over the past thirty billion years since the Realm of Kings’ emergence has been designated as territory by the Void Divine Clan for the Realm of Kings.

That thirty-billion-year history of the Main Universe is like countless archived versions; the Realm of Kings can observe them freely and select powerful beings from within, pulling them out of that timeline to manifest in the present.

In essence, this is akin to resurrection—reviving those who perished in time and bringing them back into the present.

Once manifested in the present, to the beings within that historical timeline, it is as if they have traveled into the future.

Yet spacetime possesses uniqueness.

Lin Qing himself lives in the present universe; he is alive and well in the present. Even if his past self existed in that timeline, his past self could not be pulled into the present—that is the uniqueness of spacetime.

When he entered the Realm of Kings Ruins via the King’s Seal, hundreds of geniuses from the Hundred Void Seas gathered there—but among those hundreds, only he and a few others were from the present; the rest had been deliberately selected from the past and pulled out.

Thus, hundreds of geniuses appeared simultaneously within the Realm of Kings Ruins.

Otherwise, how could such a coincidence occur?

The difference between him and those pulled from history lies in this—

He is a being of the present; after the trials end, he can return from the Realm of Kings Ruins to the present Main Universe.

But those already pulled from the past, if they fail the trials and lack the qualification to enter the Realm of Kings, will return to the River of Time—and cannot truly return to their original past.

Yet over the vast history of the Main Universe, countless beings have arisen, and some truly astonishing geniuses have emerged.

Lord Luo Shen is one such example.

“You lead the way—to your homeland.”

Lord Luo Shen clearly had no desire to chat further and urged him directly.

Lin Qing nodded slightly and immediately activated the Cosmic Passage, connecting it to his homeland in the Void Sea of the Main Universe.

Such a Cosmic Passage, capable of sustaining Eternal Beings, carried a substantial cost to stabilize.

Lin Qing immediately led Lord Luo Shen into the Cosmic Passage, traversing its colorful and bizarre corridors, sensing the aura of boundless chaos.

After all, the Realm of Kings is detached from the Main Universe, and the Cosmic Passage is exposed to chaos; though it blocks chaos’s corrosive power, the essence of chaos cannot be sealed out.

“Perfect—now there are no obstructions to calculation.”

Lin Qing’s mind stirred; his inner world began calculating along invisible threads of cause and effect.

After a while, he felt slightly relieved: “Mr. Hongnuo is still deep within the chaos. Good. The Divine Nation War is about to begin; I am not yet a match for the Feather Duke. Let Mr. Hongnuo remain hidden in the chaos, away from the Realm of Kings for now.”

He had previously used the Secret Art “No Cause, No Effect” to calculate Hongnuo’s condition.

But under the Realm of Kings’ isolation, his causal positioning was still hazy—so now, having left the Realm of Kings’ universe, he used the “No Cause, No Effect” Secret Art once more.

As long as he was safe.

With the Divine Nation War imminent, once it erupted, the collision of the three divine nations and the universe’s resistance would expel even the three Divine Nation Lords and all Ultimate Beings from the Realm of Kings. So even hiding within Tian Guang might not be safe—it’s safer to remain in boundless chaos.

Thus, Lin Qing had no intention of retrieving Hongnuo for now.

“We’ve arrived.”

After an indeterminate time, the dazzling, chaotic spacetime shifts and multicolored lights finally calmed.

Before Lin Qing stretched an endless, vast Void Sea.

Though not familiar, he remembered this place.

“Finally back…”