Chapter 1225: Xu Qing's Great Anger

Chapter 1230: Xu Qing's Fury!

The wind across the Wanggu Continent carried the familiar humidity of memory. It emanated from the vast Endless Sea and also from the anomalous substance permeating this world, utterly distinct from the Fifth Star Ring.

Sensing all this, Xu Qing opened his mouth to speak, but after his lips moved, he remained silent. The world around him appeared somewhat blurry in his eyes, perhaps due to the anomalous substance distorting the void, or perhaps the deities of Wanggu influenced everything. Only the old woman before him, clad in a black robe and with a face weathered by time, stood exceptionally clear in Xu Qing's vision.

Each wrinkle, like a gully carved by time, seemed to carry the trials of wind and rain, and perhaps even fate. Xu Qing naturally still remembered the little butterfly from back then. In his memory, she had been a young girl, with whom he'd once had a conflict. Later, it was also she who first led him to the Xia Immortal Palace, where he first saw the old Human Palace Lord.

However, these fragmented memories, combined with what he now felt and saw, always gave Xu Qing a sense of unreality. "My teacher once said," the old woman began, "that those who haven't experienced extreme pain don't know what that feeling is like. It’s a reluctance to believe, an instinctive urge to deceive one's own perception, to pretend nothing happened. Because after extreme pain, there is only void."

The old woman let out a bitter laugh. "It was only after I personally witnessed the catastrophe, personally saw the loss... that I understood what my teacher meant and felt everything. For the thousand years since then, I haven't been able to move past it. Today, seeing you... I hope that in the future, you can find your way out."

With a bitter expression, the old woman slowly turned and walked away into the distance, her desolate figure imbued with endless loneliness.

Xu Qing slowly raised his head, gazing at the old woman's retreating back, and suddenly spoke. "Where is my Master... where is my Eldest Disciple Brother... Zixuan and Ling'er, and... and my friends, my fellow disciples, and... everyone else, how are they?"

The voice that emerged from his lips was so hoarse, as if countless grains of sand had rubbed against each other, that those familiar with him would barely recognize it.

It was a question Xu Qing dared not ask, yet he still uttered it, his hoarse voice trembling.

The old woman paused, her back still to Xu Qing, and remained silent for a long moment. Finally, her voice, like the flow of history, echoed from the flute of the ages.

"A thousand years ago, an Ancient Immortal descended upon this world, seeking something. He first went to the Human Race, saw the statue of the Sword-Wielding Great Emperor, and then with a raise of his hand, all of humanity was annihilated. Even the powerful Empress Lixia, before the Ancient Immortal, was ultimately merely a junior. Her divine consciousness was erased, and she became a divine slave by his side."

"Your Master did not intervene. To him, the Human Race held no importance; he only cared about those he could see around him. That Ancient Immortal never went to the Southern Phoenix Continent, seemingly due to a karmic link with your Master, intentionally sparing it. But ultimately, your Master emerged from seclusion and stood before that Ancient Immortal, obstructing his search, because... what the Ancient Immortal was looking for was your Eldest Disciple Brother!"

"Your Master fought for him, and your Eldest Disciple Brother also returned from Huangtian, displaying peak quasi-immortal cultivation, but the outcome remained unchanged. In that battle, your Master died in combat, and your Eldest Disciple Brother went mad, becoming a sacrificial offering for the Ancient Immortal's path. Subsequently, your sect was utterly destroyed, none of your other senior disciples were spared, and the Southern Phoenix Continent sank into the Endless Sea, becoming... the Corpse of Southern Phoenix."

"At that point, the Ancient Immortal departed. Afterward, Huangtian became turbulent, re-emerging, and the Ancient Spirit Emperor also seized the opportunity to rise, plunging all of Wanggu into chaos. As for the Zixuan you mentioned, I have some recollection of her. She perished amidst the displacement, becoming nourishment for a new god. And as for Ling'er, I also remember her. She was devoured by the Ancient Spirit Emperor, her destiny returning to him. And everyone else you knew largely perished during these thousand years."

Xu Qing lowered his head. The old woman fell silent. This was everyone's fate.

Wind blew from afar, carrying a whistling sound as it swept through the area. It stirred up dust and Xu Qing's long hair, but it could not disturb the stillness in his heart at that moment. This was everyone's fate.

The old woman's sigh merged with the wind, followed by a soft whisper. "If not for what you left behind in Wanggu, I would have thought you had died outside."

Having spoken, she silently shook her head, and with her own loneliness and desolation, walked away into the distance. It seemed that even though her teacher was gone, she still had to shoulder the mission of the Xia Immortal Palace, even if she didn't know if this mission still held any meaning. But this was her teacher's dying wish. And so, her figure slowly receded until it vanished amidst the world's distortion.

Time passed. Xu Qing stood there, unsure of his current state. He only knew that at this moment, his thoughts seemed to have solidified, and everything within him seemed to have been suspended, including his soul. Only the sound of the wind in his ears continued.

As he listened, the whistling seemed to turn into a whimper. Then, an endless tide of pain, sudden and overwhelming, engulfed him. Everything before his eyes turned blood-red. It was blood staining his vision.

He opened his mouth, wanting to murmur, but blood ceaselessly overflowed from his lips. All he could do was stagger backward.

"So, when pain reaches its extreme, it is void..." He couldn't shed tears, as if he had lost everything. The emptiness within him, like a black hole, engulfed everything. He sank into the black hole, without beginning or end.

Xu Qing felt this sensation should be familiar to him, similar to his experience in the chaotic sea of time, yet he couldn't quite recall his state then. In his mind, only the old woman's voice before she left echoed repeatedly.

Gradually, certain words from those voices became sparks, slowly gathering in his eyes. "Your Eldest Disciple Brother went mad, becoming a sacrificial offering for the Ancient Immortal's path." "As for the Ling'er you mentioned, she was devoured by the Ancient Spirit Emperor, her destiny returning to him." "Empress Lixia, her divine consciousness was eventually erased, and she became a divine slave by his side." "If not for what you left behind in Wanggu..."

These sparks, though small, began to coalesce. Xu Qing's head shifted slightly. "Eldest Disciple Brother, perhaps he isn't dead. Ling'er, perhaps she can still be separated. Empress Lixia, there might still be hope for her. Zixuan, perhaps there is still a next life..."

"I still have many paths to walk... Moreover, all of this is merely what others have said, and it may not be entirely true!" At that instant, flames ignited in Xu Qing's eyes. "And here, I have left something behind."

Xu Qing suddenly looked up, his gaze seemingly piercing through infinity, his divine sense perceiving all directions. Looking at the ruins, at the world both familiar and strange, at the gods scattered everywhere... his heart was calling out, and his soul was in turmoil.

After a long while, a faint response, almost flickering out, came from the direction of the Endless Sea. The next instant, Xu Qing's body abruptly vanished.

Beneath the Endless Sea, in a deep expanse of sludge, grotesque sea snakes writhed. Intense divinity pulsed on their bodies, and upon closer inspection, one could see that each of these sea snakes had grown a monstrous, eerie ghost face. And deep within the sludge, a skeleton was buried.

Only half of this skeleton remained; everything below the waist was gone. The remaining upper body was riddled with holes, with little flesh, appearing no different from a corpse. It seemed to be sealed here. Even as a remnant, one could feel the fluctuations of divine magic within it, and under the effect of this divine magic, its body continuously degenerated from a divine state. Now, it seemed not far from becoming a mortal body.

The surrounding sea snakes occasionally came here to devour its remaining flesh and blood. Originally, had there been no unforeseen circumstances, everything here would likely have continued indefinitely, and this skeleton would eventually have completely disintegrated. But at this moment, the calm, black seabed suddenly rippled. It was as if space itself was shattering!

Whether it was the anomalous substance or the oppressive aura of the place, at this instant, they were as if directly erased, vanishing abruptly. Following this, a figure appeared, walking out of thin air! It was Xu Qing.

He walked step by step, and everywhere he passed, all things on the seabed trembled. Even the gods present chose silence. He continued until he reached the sea snake sludge. The moment he looked, all the sea snakes trembled, and the sludge itself churned, revealing the buried skeleton from its depths.

The moment he gazed at the skeleton, a turmoil rose in Xu Qing's heart. This skeleton was precisely his divine clone. However, the soul remaining in this body was now a flickering candle in the wind, threatening to extinguish at any moment. Yet, from the injuries on this skeleton, Xu Qing could discern that this divine body of his had suffered immense damage back then, which also indicated that his divine body had experienced the catastrophe of that year.

"If I integrate this divine body into mine, using the method of shared origin, I can perceive everything that happened to this clone and verify everything!" A strong impulse surged within Xu Qing. His body swayed, and he approached the remnant, raising his right hand, about to integrate it into himself.

But just as his hand was about to fall, Xu Qing suddenly froze. Looking at the divine remnant before him, his expression suddenly turned strange. "My divine body originates from the Mutilated Face... even if the soul can be extinguished, how could the flesh be shattered to this extent, and how could it be so easily sealed by divine magic!"

Xu Qing's pupils contracted. He abruptly looked up, gazing into the distance, his eyes piercing through the Endless Sea to the firmament. There... there was no Mutilated Face! And before, he had not felt any doubt about this.

At the same time, recalling his various past experiences, whether on the battlefield or encountering a God Lord, he could only remember the general events but lacked details. Even the Wanggu Continent appeared blurry. As these thoughts, like a series of mirrors, flashed through Xu Qing's mind in an instant, he suddenly spoke.

"Aurora Immortal Palace, Heaven Beyond Heaven!""Suppress!"

As his voice rang out, the heavens and earth changed color, the Endless Sea roared, the Wanggu Continent trembled, and the entire world shook. Cracking sounds rose up to the sky! It was as if an Immortal Palace was descending from outside to suppress!

Until the next instant, everything before Xu Qing's eyes, like a squeezed bubble, shattered with a bang! Everything was pulverizing, rolling back, replaced by the starry sky, illuminated by starlight, and the might of the Immortal Palace erupted at that moment. The illusion was erased, revealing the truth! The world changed drastically!

Xu Qing saw everything clearly. This was not the Wanggu Continent at all; it was clearly still within the Heaven Beyond Heaven! And the skeleton before him was not his divine body; it was clearly... the True God, half-human, half-spider! This True God intended for Xu Qing to willingly merge with it, thereby transferring its vessel and returning through a borrowed shell! Xu Qing, awakened!

His awakening, to the True God in the process of returning, caused a powerful backlash, especially with the Immortal Palace's suppression and the Heaven Beyond Heaven's blessing at that moment. This caused the True God's expression to contort, golden blood to profusely overflow from its body, and agonizing wails to echo in all directions. "How did you awaken!"

But Xu Qing, facing the True God, now had extreme fury burning fiercely in his eyes. Never in his life had his rage reached such a peak!