Chapter 1207: Divine Grain

In the starry sky, Xu Qing, like a streaking meteor, surged forward. Wherever he passed, he stirred up layers of ripples, distorting the starlight. This was a natural consequence of his cultivation, and also the inherent might of his immortal embryo. To some extent, it was already similar to a deity. This was the inevitable outcome of cultivation reaching a certain peak. Just as there are many ways for the weak to be fragile, the ultimate power of the strong often converges.

With his direction now set, Xu Qing didn't deliberately unleash his full speed. While sensing his immortal embryo, he also used this journey to perceive this universe and this Outer Heaven.

"Although everything that happened in the Immortal Fallen Land was a reflection of history, yet..."

"The recognition of mastery by the myriad armies extended into the present world, Li Mengtu's poisonous constitution also had partial origins... and as for the Mud Fox, the Hundred Flowers Palace had previously manifested outside the Ink Soil."

"All of this suggests that the experiences in the mirrored history did indeed alter the present world, but the traces are very subtle, and the impact is not profound."

"Yet, in that mirrored history, I had already obtained the authority of the Aurora Immortal Palace!"

"And for the Outer Heaven, the Immortal Palace is the central hub, and even the supreme authority. Therefore, what appeared in the Immortal Fallen Land was merely its descent during the spiritual tide. As for the Immortal Palace's true location, it is highly likely still within this Outer Heaven."

"So, with my Immortal Palace authority, within this Outer Heaven..."

A strange light gleamed in Xu Qing's eyes; this was what most piqued his curiosity at the moment. Thus, on his journey, he also attempted to project his divine consciousness and perceive. Unfortunately, perhaps because too much time had passed, or perhaps the Immortal Palace lay dormant, Xu Qing had no success.

After a long while, he sighed inwardly, temporarily gave up, and accelerated his speed. His target was Prison A-29. That was the largest deity prison in the entire Hun Tian universe, and also, on the surface, the mine with the most origin essence.

As the captain of the acquisition envoys, he could naturally take the prime pick first. As for his so-called subordinates, their fates were of no concern to Xu Qing. How they obtained origin essence within this Hun Tian universe—whether by collecting from other prisons or gathering from foreign races—Xu Qing paid no attention to these matters either. Even if those people encountered obstacles during collection, or had conflicts with the foreign races here, there would naturally be others to deal with it for the sake of obtaining more origin essence. Unless an extreme situation arose, Xu Qing had no intention of getting involved.

His objective was crystal clear.

"Absorb origin essence, elevate the immortal embryo!"

A sharp glint appeared in Xu Qing's eyes, his resolve was firm, and his speed increased. During this time, he also frequently utilized the teleportation arrays here. Finally, ten days later, he traversed over half of the Hun Tian universe and arrived at his destination!

This was a red starry sky! The red color didn't come from starlight, but emanated from an astonishingly massive, truly vast red seaweed. It had nineteen leaves! Each leaf was long enough to encircle a star. As for the junction of these nineteen leaves, which was the root of this massive seaweed, it was composed of countless fine filaments. These filaments entwined an extremely massive sun and extended deep into it, continuously absorbing and providing nourishment for its survival.

Gazing at the seaweed before him, Xu Qing's eyes glowed with a faint, dark light. "Such a celestial plant..." he mused, "I wonder if my divine vine will be able to grow to this extent in the future."

Xu Qing sensed his Star Pagoda; the divine vine fused with the pagoda was still dormant, but judging by its aura, it seemed not far from awakening. Subsequently, Xu Qing withdrew his perception and looked at the seaweed before him. He clearly saw that on the seaweed's nineteen leaves, there were spots of varying sizes.

"Each spot is a small world, and also a prison!"

"And the largest prison is within that sun."

Almost as Xu Qing observed, the seaweed glowed red momentarily, and then a terrifying divine sense abruptly spread out from within the seaweed, locking onto Xu Qing. Its terrifying extent made Xu Qing feel as if he were facing an immortal.

Xu Qing's eyes narrowed, knowing that this seaweed, besides being a prison itself, also bore a suppressing duty. So he took out his acquisition envoy token and his mission jade slip, and spoke in a low voice.

"By the order of Nine Shores Heaven, I have come to collect origin essence!"

The seaweed's divine sense instantly enveloped Xu Qing, sweeping over his identity token and mission jade slip. A moment later, seemingly having confirmed something, the divine sense lazily retracted and slowly lifted one of its leaves, lowering it in front of Xu Qing.

Xu Qing glanced at the leaf, then at the sun enveloped by the seaweed's roots, pondered for a moment, took a step forward, and headed straight for the leaf. He locked onto a spot within it and rapidly approached.

The spot grew larger and larger in Xu Qing's vision, eventually becoming a world. As for himself, he passed through nothingness, through barriers, and descended amidst echoing roars, landing on a vast black land.

This place reeked of decay, held death, and was boundless in Xu Qing's eyes. Moreover, there was no wind, no spiritual energy, and no abnormal essence around; everything was barren and deathly still.

He looked around, then down at the ground. Xu Qing's expression was calm as usual; he lifted his foot and stomped down hard, uttering a faint sound.

"Awaken!"

The moment his foot landed, the earth roared. Wind rose, spiritual energy emerged, abnormal essence appeared, and a storm was whipped up. This storm rose from the earth, swept across all directions, carrying black soil, surging across the sky, and instantly engulfing Xu Qing's figure.

If at this moment, one were not standing on the ground, nor within the storm, but observing the earth from a supreme position above, then one could clearly see... On the ground, a long mark appeared. Starting from this mark, the soil on the ground was overturned, churning like ocean waves and spreading in one direction. Subsequently, a massive single eye, veined with blood, abruptly appeared on the ground.

It opened its eye!

Within this black land, a closed eye was actually buried, and now, with Xu Qing's footfall, this dormant eye was forced to open. Thus the storm arose, and Xu Qing, motionless within the storm, stood precisely upon the pupil of this massive single eye!

It stared at Xu Qing, its gaze revealing indifference, devoid of joy or sorrow, as a divine voice echoed. "Lower race, slave."

Xu Qing's expression remained unchanged. This was the eye of an untainted deity. "So-called untainted," he mused, "is merely relative."

Xu Qing gazed at the deity's eye beneath his feet and spoke calmly. There was a time when Xu Qing, on the Ancient Vistas Continent, had also encountered similar deity eyes. And each time he saw one, his entire body would tremble, his mind would buzz, dense abnormal essence would proliferate on his body, and under its gaze, all his flesh and blood seemed to want to become independent and separate. That was caused by the disparity in life levels.

But now, he gazed calmly and remained unchanged. Yet the deity's eye he gazed upon gradually distorted, grew blurry, and became increasingly veined with blood. Let alone its current state, which was no longer its past self; even if it were to return to its peak now, facing Xu Qing as he was, it would still only be able to react this way.

Xu Qing raised his right hand, and the token representing his acquisition envoy status flew out. This token was both a qualification of identity and a special item for collecting origin essence. Holding this token, Xu Qing pressed down in mid-air. The deity's eye twisted even more intensely, and faint roars could be heard, rising to the heavens. Streaks of golden origin essence were slowly emanating from this eye, thread by thread. Each thread extracted caused the deity's eye immense pain.

After a while, when forty-nine threads had been extracted, the deity's eye turned gray, seemingly reaching its limit, and slowly began to close, falling into slumber. But Xu Qing frowned.

"The quantity is too small."

The origin essence before him was only the size of a baby's fist. And in terms of purity, it was far inferior to that produced in Ink Soil; therefore, if used for absorption, the required amount would naturally be greater.

Thinking of this, a cold glint flashed in Xu Qing's eyes. He did not withdraw his identity token, but from its suspended state, he pressed it down hard, directly onto the deity's eye that was about to close, pressing it firmly!

The next instant, the deity's eye suddenly opened wide, and for the first time, a different emotion flickered within its expression. That was the fear of death, possessed by all sentient beings!

However, this fear did not last long. As Xu Qing extracted at any cost, in an instant, even more golden threads burst forth from the eye. This was no longer extracting origin essence; this was extracting its life! So the roars turned into wails, and then the wails also abruptly ceased shortly after. What disappeared with them was this deity's eye, which turned to dust, body and soul destroyed.

And its death also contributed more origin essence.

Gazing at the origin essence before him, Xu Qing felt the Mud Fox's mark on his arm seemed to tremble. So Xu Qing dispersed some of the extracted origin essence and sent it to the mark.

"Want some?"

The Mud Fox's trembling paused. The next instant, the mark emitted a suction force, those origin essences instantly merged, and then a soft, sweet voice echoed in Xu Qing's mind. "Thank you, Young Master. Young Master is so good."

Xu Qing's expression remained unchanged; standing still, he began to absorb as well. As the origin essences merged into his body, his immortal embryo instantly shone brightly, and his aura continuously increased until a moment later, a sharp glint flashed in Xu Qing's eyes, and he licked his lips.

"Too little," he murmured, "I need more..."

As he spoke, his body flickered, and he sped towards the next small world imprisoning a deity, dashing away!

Just like that, time passed. Xu Qing's figure appeared in various small worlds where deities were imprisoned on this leaf. Each deity contributed origin essence with their demise. This made Xu Qing's immortal embryo shine with even more brilliant radiance.

For Xu Qing, keeping these deities alive for continuous extraction in the future was not the optimal choice. And the mission jade slip also did not stipulate that they must be kept alive. Consequently, his collection became increasingly thorough.

Meanwhile, the other ascended ones were also, by their own methods, in different places, collecting origin essence with all their might. A portion was for the mission, but more was for their own cultivation! Looking at it, if one's perspective were different, then seeing them, they would indeed resemble jackals.