Chapter 462: I Saw What…

The future exists in imagination, while the past resides in memory.

What if all traces of a person are erased from this world, their friends and family choose to forget them, and they are as if they never existed in anyone's life?

It's like a blank space.

At that moment, did they truly exist?

Perhaps they still did, but no one knew, no one remembered; everyone had forgotten.

But perhaps, over time, they truly dissipated into nothingness, with no name, no past, no future, nothing at all.

This is another one of a deity's abilities: the power over the past.

Forgetting.

At this moment, as Chu Tianqun once again expended his primordial energy to unleash this power, the ancient world fragment of the Yanmiao clan seemed to halt all its operations, becoming utterly still.

Along with it, Chu Tianqun's physical body and the descending silhouette of Ghost Emperor Mountain above his head were also brought to a standstill.

The entire world became silent, everything congealed, except for Chu Tianqun's divine soul, enveloped in divine light, which flew out from his glabella, becoming the only mobile entity in this world.

He raised his head, gazed around, and a look of awe appeared on his face.

“So this is the blank space?”

Chu Tianqun murmured. This was the first time in his life he had unleashed such an extreme divine art. In his perception, this realm was different from reality.

The sky was absent, the earth was absent, and almost everything around him was absent, including Ghost Emperor Mountain; all was void.

It was as if everything his physical body had previously perceived was an illusion.

Only a wisp of mist floated in the void, where Xu Qing had been.

Gazing at the mist, Chu Tianqun knew that was where he needed to go. If he could only close the "doors of memory" of everyone who remembered Xu Qing within that mist, then this divine art, "Blank Space," would succeed.

Without hesitation, Chu Tianqun's divine soul flickered, heading straight for the mist, instantly entering and delving deep within it.

Within this endless mist, countless doors appeared before Chu Tianqun. These doors varied in size, shape (round or square), and appearance; some were new, others ancient, and their materials differed.

They were densely packed, forming a pathway.

“This is it!” Chu Tianqun raised both hands and suddenly waved them. Instantly, divine light erupted from his soul, forming seals that swiftly imprinted themselves onto the doors before him.

Soon, many doors grew dim under these seals, becoming blurry. Even some doors that resisted being sealed, quickly regaining clarity from their blurred state, eventually had no choice but to dim under the power of the divine.

Each door represented a life's memory of Xu Qing.

Amidst this continuous blurring, Chu Tianqun's divine soul moved rapidly, continually surging forward along the pathway. The divine light spread further, and the surrounding doors were sealed one after another.

Seeing everything proceed smoothly, excitement appeared in Chu Tianqun's eyes.

However, at that very moment, among the multitude of doors, a circular one, instead of blurring in response to Chu Tianqun's divine light seal, silently opened upon contact with the light.

A bloody eye suddenly appeared behind the door, staring intently at Chu Tianqun.

With a single glance, the entire pathway twisted. An immense divine power instantly erupted, and Chu Tianqun's divine soul let out a scream. In a moment of crisis, his divine soul's right arm directly exploded, forming brilliant divine light to block, then swiftly flying out of the area.

Once in a safe spot, a lingering fear remained in his eyes.

He knew that eye belonged to a deity.

This was, in fact, also the reason he refrained from unleashing this "Blank Space" divine art until the very last moment.

This art's scope was vast. Some might easily choose to forget, but others would be unwilling, and they would become obstacles for Chu Tianqun.

It could also easily draw outside attention, causing significant upheaval in this entrapment.

Furthermore, it could potentially invite earth-shattering disaster. After all, his understanding of Xu Qing wasn't thorough, and encountering any terrifying entities within could lead to severe backlash for Chu Tianqun.

He could only hope that with his own divine essence, even if terrifying beings remembered Xu Qing, he could still temporarily influence them through divine power.

What he needed wasn't eternal forgetting; he only needed no one in this frozen world to remember Xu Qing for this single instant.

In this instant, he could truly finish off Xu Qing here.

“Xu Qing possesses divine arts after all, so it's understandable that some doors of memory have deities. Fortunately, my own deity can help me offset some of this.”

“And I don't need to seal all the doors. As long as no more than ten fail, I can still heavily wound him once my divine art is complete.” With a resolute expression, Chu Tianqun flickered and surged forth again, dispersing divine light to seal the surrounding doors. This time, he had sealed less than thirty doors when another door suddenly burst open with a boom.

A chewing sound suddenly emanated from within.

This sound was like a nightmare; those who heard it would be driven to madness, as if their own bodies were being devoured. Chu Tianqun immediately let out a scream, instantly detonating one of his legs, which transformed into divine light to block and allow him to escape.

“It's fine, he has two divine authority powers, so it's normal for there to be two deity doors of memory!”

Chu Tianqun's body trembled slightly, but he ultimately broke free. After fifty more doors, a blood-colored door burst open.

Endless red erupted from within this door.

“How can there be more?!” Chu Tianqun was horrified, and his other leg exploded as well. His mind was in turmoil. As he hesitated whether to continue forward, in an instant, a fissure above him, like a door, directly opened.

The moment a breathing sound emanated from the fissure, Chu Tianqun's divine soul thundered. His eyes widened as he saw an unimaginably colossal humanoid figure within the fissure. The pressure emanating from it made him scream again, forcing him to detonate his last arm to block it.

“Heavenly Dao!” At this moment, Chu Tianqun's divine soul was left with only half a body and no limbs. In his terror, he glanced at the pathway. He had only traversed less than a tenth of its length so far.

Behind him, the endless pathway continued.

He couldn't see clearly, only vaguely discerning a massive chair in the deepest reaches.

“Why would there be a chair?!”

Chu Tianqun trembled; he dared not proceed further.

“This Xu Qing is not right, he has problems!!” Just as Chu Tianqun's mind was swept by turbulent waves, a door ahead of him unexpectedly opened by itself. A large, bloody, distorted, and blurry hand reached out from within.

Chu Tianqun screamed and continued to detonate parts of his body to evade, leaving him utterly horrified. A scene that unleashed a tempest in his mind unfolded.

At this moment, booming sounds erupted from countless doors within the pathway ahead of him – the sounds of terrifying entities inside striking the doors!

It was as if the terrifying beings behind those doors had all smelled something sweet, and one by one, they went mad, desperate to break through the doors and appear.

Chu Tianqun's divine soul shuddered, and he abruptly turned to flee.

But it was too late; countless doors simultaneously burst open with a roar.

A horrifying scream emanated from Chu Tianqun's divine soul, which instantly detonated!

The next instant, Chu Tianqun returned to reality. As a horrifying scream escaped his lips, half of his body directly collapsed, even divine light couldn't stop it, and he was instantly reduced to just a head, which fell to the ground.

His expression was one of terror, horror, and disbelief, continuing to collapse even amidst the scream.

And the power of stillness, which had been active before, now dissipated with his return.

Xu Qing's body, suspended mid-air, trembled and also recovered. His face instantly darkened. He didn't know what had happened, but now, seeing Chu Tianqun, who was reduced to only a head amidst his screams, a cold light flashed in Xu Qing's eyes. He controlled Ghost Emperor Mountain to accelerate its suppression towards Chu Tianqun. Amidst the roar, as Ghost Emperor Mountain descended, Chu Tianqun let out a bitter laugh.

He knew he had lost. He had lost his ability to revive, his vitality, everything. Under the backlash, the doors previously sealed by the "Blank Space" divine art were also restored, and he hadn't shaken them in the slightest.

“Can't resist, can't win?” Chu Tianqun's vision was already blurring amidst his bitter laugh. He suddenly spoke loudly.

“Xu Qing, do you know? I am merely a vessel. He is about to appear, and you will die too.”

Xu Qing's eyes narrowed. Ghost Emperor Mountain rumbled, about to descend, but at that moment, Chu Tianqun's withered head suddenly tore open at the glabella, and a translucent hand, not his own, slowly emerged.

This hand was snow-white, completely devoid of hair, as if carved from white jade. It was filled with both sacredness and eeriness, and these two sensations intertwined, causing the heavens and earth to change color and the world to tremble.

It gently waved three times towards Xu Qing, stirring up three wisps of wind.

“Divine Art: This Life, Long-Cherished Wish!” A calm, unfamiliar voice, carrying supreme power, echoed from Chu Tianqun's glabella. After these three waves, the hand turned into ashes and dissipated.

Chu Tianqun's head immediately slumped, and he lay dying.

And those three waves of the hand now unleashed an indescribable heaven-destroying power!

The first wisp of wind silently touched Xu Qing's Ghost Emperor Mountain.

Ghost Emperor Mountain roared, and the energy consumed for its transformation became incredibly intense at that instant. In just a breath, the power of the demonic transformation runes completely dissipated, and it vanished in a blur, revealing Xu Qing meditating cross-legged within.

The second wisp of wind swept directly towards him.

Xu Qing's body trembled. The poison curse and Purple Moon within him instantly slowed down, and as this breath permeated, his body lost all color, becoming black and white.

Not only he, but the entire area around him also faded to black and white in that instant, stripped of all color.

As if it had become — a painting.

Even Xu Qing's body, at that moment, merged into the painting, becoming a figure within it.

An intense life-or-death crisis erupted in Xu Qing's mind. The heart-pounding sensation made him clearly feel the advent of death.

After becoming a figure in the painting, his body rapidly withered. In the blink of an eye, he became skin and bones, and his vitality began to extinguish.

At this moment, Ghost Emperor Mountain was difficult to form, the poison curse and Purple Moon were delayed, and his life lamp and all his other abilities became part of this painting. Only the Heavenly Dao Canglong anxiously roared in the sky, barely managing to transform into — a descending blade.

But it was still young after all, lacking sufficient power, and it screamed, retreating.

And the third wisp of wind landed directly on the painting formed by Xu Qing, striking his body.

Like water poured onto a painting, it gradually bled, transforming into an inky spread, slowly blurring.

Xu Qing's body stiffened, his mind became sluggish at that moment. As he slowly lowered his head, he saw his body dissolve under the touch and spread of the third wisp of wind.

The life-substituting jade slip given by his master years ago shattered and broke, but it still couldn't prevent his body from becoming bled ink. The sensation of death enveloped Xu Qing's mind.

Xu Qing remained silent.

He had exhausted all his methods. This battle might not have appeared tragic, but in reality, the power of divine arts was fully displayed, and life and death were incredibly fragile under such profound abilities.

The fact that he had managed to contend until now, pushing the opponent to mutual destruction, already demonstrated Xu Qing's deep reserves.

“Am I going to die?”

Xu Qing murmured inwardly, his consciousness gradually blurring. But just as his painted body largely blurred and swiftly dissipated, a golden light suddenly emanated from his right wrist within the black-and-white painting.

This golden light continuously shone, growing ever more intense.

It wouldn't have been so brilliant normally, as it was deeply concealed. But now, in this black-and-white painting, its color was distinctly highlighted, becoming the third hue.

Upon its appearance, the entire painting instantly trembled. This golden light rapidly spread from Xu Qing's right hand, covering his entire body in the blink of an eye, helping him withstand the third wisp of wind, unleashed by the dissipating hand, at this most critical moment.

With a boom, the golden light dimmed, and the painting where Xu Qing resided shattered at that moment. His thin figure stumbled and fell, returning from the painting, spitting out blood.

The dimmed golden light also dissipated from his body at that instant, returning to his right wrist.

Its color was extremely dim, as if it could vanish at any moment. And upon closer inspection, countless dense cracks could be seen on the golden threads.

Xu Qing's breathing was ragged. Even though he was severely injured and extremely weak, he still abruptly lowered his head to look at his right wrist. A thunderous wave surged through his mind, and his expression was filled with profound bewilderment and incomprehension.

After a long moment, his expression turned cold, and he looked up to stare at Chu Tianqun.

At this moment, Chu Tianqun was at his last gasp, his life force utterly depleted. As death approached, he barely managed to open his eyes, gazing at Xu Qing.

“You're not dead yet?”

Xu Qing walked step by step towards Chu Tianqun until he stood before the head. He could sense that the opponent had lost the ability to revive infinitely. A cold glint appeared in his tired eyes, and he raised his foot, bringing it down!