Chapter 1224: Missed a Millennium

Chapter 1229: A Millennium Missed

What was once the Outer Heaven of Aurora was now the Azure Heaven.

Within it, countless vast universes and boundless starfields held innumerable stars.

They originally shone, each emitting starlight. But in this instant, the entire Outer Heaven, with its countless stars, collectively dimmed, as if all their light had been absorbed.

At the very center of this almost boundless Outer Heaven, in a region that even low-level cultivators, let alone mortals, could not traverse in a lifetime, a colossal black hole was present.

This black hole appeared silently! And above the black hole, a spiderweb was continuously expanding outwards!

White hair formed the threads of the web, and heads served as nodes. As it continued to expand, the aura of a true god surged powerfully within it.

Simultaneously, as the divine aura erupted, all the heads on the spiderweb opened their mouths and uttered murmuring calls.

"Bimoths!""Bimoths!""Bimoths!"

The voices were originally formless, but on this spiderweb, imbued with divine will, they transformed into wisps of divine authority and converged at the very center of the web.

There, a figure gradually revealed itself! Half-human, half-spider! Seventy percent of its body was golden!

As it appeared, the murmuring became more intense, and the aura of its return reached its peak. The might of a true god also filled the starfields at this moment.

On the spiderweb, within the starfields, Xu Qing's immortal embryo could be seen standing there, its face majestic, with a cold glint in its eyes.

Its right hand was raised, and above its head, a colossal immortal palace, radiating brilliant immortal light, majestically floated.

His gaze was directed precisely at the figure in the central area of the spiderweb!

The moment he looked, Xu Qing's right hand abruptly descended. The immortal palace rumbled. Working in conjunction with the black hole beneath the spiderweb, striking from above and below, it also drew upon the power of the entire Outer Heaven. Its purpose was to suppress!

At this moment, the half-human, half-spider figure also abruptly looked up, opened its golden eyes, and as it stared at Xu Qing, their gazes met in an unseen collision.

This was a fusion of gazes, a soul-level stare, and a contact at the very level of Source Material.

The moment their connection was established... everything before Xu Qing's eyes seemed to flicker. But in the next instant, it returned to normal. Nothing in his sight changed unnecessarily; the immortal palace descended as before, roaring as it pressed down on the spiderweb.

The half-human, half-spider figure struggled, but not having fully completed its return, it seemed powerless against the immense weight of the Outer Heaven.

But it was clearly unwilling to yield. Thus, both its divine authority and divine might surged simultaneously.

Xu Qing's body trembled, and blood spurted from him. His physical body and soul were being torn apart, but ultimately... what he was displaying was the power of the entire Outer Heaven, leveraged with himself as the fulcrum.

Therefore, after paying an enormous price, he succeeded.

He pushed the spiderweb, along with the half-human, half-spider figure upon it, amidst deafening roars, together into the colossal black hole below. Thus, the suppression concluded.

Profound exhaustion welled up within him at this moment. Naturally, Xu Qing chose to sit cross-legged atop the black hole that had suppressed the true god, absorbing the endless Source Material flowing from within it.

While recuperating, he also allowed his immortal embryo to continue growing. He seemed to forget the passage of time, and the mission of the Quartermaster, immersed in this cultivation.

And his gains were immense. His cultivation, starting from the early stage of Quasi-Immortal, steadily ascended until time swiftly passed...

Ten years passed. When Xu Qing opened his eyes, his cultivation had reached the peak of Quasi-Immortal Grand Completion.

That feeling of being at the peak, and the sense of seeming omnipotence, caused Xu Qing's eyes to lose focus for an instant. But he quickly recovered, and remembered the scene from ten years ago, recalling his experience as a Quartermaster. After all, for cultivators, especially one like him, ten years of cultivation was merely a brief period.

"There’s still enough time. One more step, and I can return to Wanggu!” Thinking this, anticipation gleamed in Xu Qing's eyes. He took a step out of the Outer Heaven where he was, and when he reappeared, he was already in the Heavenless Zone where the statue prison he had left behind was located.

With the statue lost and the prison vanished, the wardens, chief jailers, and other cultivators had already departed. However, Xing Huanzi and the others had not left; they were still waiting there. The moment they saw Xu Qing, their expressions all rippled with emotion.

Afterward, they left together and returned to the Quartermaster Bureau, submitting their mission gains. Then, through a series of other missions, their team's reputation gradually spread throughout the entire Nine Shores Outer Heaven.

Eventually, they were assigned to the battlefield. The battlefield was between the Fourth and Fifth Star Rings, and there, their team frequently achieved meritorious deeds, even capturing a divine maiden alive.

That was a direct descendant of a Divine Lord! With this achievement, Xu Qing's prestige also soared. Simultaneously, the fact that the Outer Heaven of Aurora belonged to him had already spread.

For a time, Xu Qing's name resounded in the ears of all cultivators.

In Xu Qing's experience, all of this felt incredibly slow, yet unconsciously, it had already passed, seemingly very quickly.

Eventually, on the battlefield, during a mission, he encountered a Divine Lord from the Fourth Star Ring! In that battle, even he, capable of contending with a Lower Immortal, was ultimately no match.

All cultivators in his team perished in battle. He himself was gravely wounded, barely escaping death, fleeing into space-time, yet still pursued. Ultimately, he could only choose to enter the Chaotic Sea of Time, concealing his tracks within its endless turmoil.

Although he narrowly avoided death, in the Chaotic Sea of Time, his injuries were too severe, and he became lost, carried away by the turbulent currents, until he sank into the depths of space-time.

After an unknown period, he finally awoke.

Then, he struggled to return. Relying on his luck and his understanding of space-time, after countless failures, he painstakingly searched for a way out.

Finally, one day, he found the nexus for return. He stepped out from it, back into the present world.

Upon his return, he saw that the war was still ongoing, but... a horrifying truth also entered his perception after he rejoined the cultivator ranks.

This truth made him tremble, rendering him incredulous. Because, the current time... was a millennium after his disappearance!

This truth made Xu Qing tremble, filling him with intense anxiety and dread. He chose to immediately leave the battlefield, using the same method he had used to reach the Fifth Star Ring to return to the Wanggu Continent.

On his way back, he dared not contemplate what Wanggu had become. A millennium... he had missed a millennium.

Until, he stood upon the sky of Wanggu. His eyes had lost their luster.

Wanggu was vastly different from when he had left. Gods were everywhere. Humanity had been annihilated. Empress Lixia's whereabouts were unknown.

He went to the former human lands, to the entrance of Huang Tian, which... had collapsed.

He went to Nanhuang State; it had sunk into the Boundless Sea. Huang Yan had perished.

Xu Qing silently perceived all of this. Until a sigh echoed in his ear.

The sigh was somewhat familiar. Xu Qing silently turned, looking at an old woman who had appeared beside him.

The old woman's appearance was vaguely familiar, and a withered butterfly fluttered around her.

"Before my teacher withered, she mentioned that you had once asked her for a way to leave, promising to return on time."

"But a millennium has passed; you are too late... Even if you have returned now... what is the point?”

The old woman spoke hoarsely. She was the disciple of the Palace Lord of the Summer Immortal Palace back then, that... little butterfly.