Chapter 617: Human Nature, Animal Nature, Divinity

In the Bitterlife Mountain Range, no wind blew, no sand stirred. Everything was silent, all beings hushed. Only the crimson sky, like light and blood, continuously churned and spread, as if the heavens were wounded, bleeding across all directions.

On the rooftop, the Prince's voice echoed in this dead silent world, speaking of karmic links concerning deities.

"I am not a deity, nor do I possess a divine source," he said. "But I, too, hold authority, though it differs from that of gods. It doesn't stem from the ignition of divine fire, but rather from the blessing of the Wanggu Heavenly Dao. Therefore, I cannot help you in mastering your own divine source. I can only offer you one direction: hunger."

The Prince gazed at Xu Qing.

"Hunger?" Xu Qing pondered, then glanced at the Captain a moment later. He recalled that the Captain always appeared incredibly hungry whenever he saw divine flesh and blood. The Captain blinked, saying nothing. Xu Qing grew pensive.

"Xu Qing, we don't have much time left," the Prince said softly from the rooftop, his gaze now fixed on the spreading crimson across the horizon, before stepping forward. The next instant, his figure vanished from the world, and with him, Xu Qing. The Captain wasn't surprised by their departure; he stretched, opened his storage bag, and began rummaging inside.

A moment later, he found an iron box. "The Prince is too impatient..." the Captain muttered to himself, biting his tongue until blood spurted out. He then waved his hand, pressing the blood down into the iron box.

"No choice, I have to use this," he sighed. "But seriously, how could the old man predict things so perfectly? He actually gave me this just as I was leaving Fenghai County. He said at the time, 'This is Fourth Bro's anchor... It can only be opened with my blood, and when Fourth Bro is lost, it must be delivered to him.'"

The Captain glanced at the iron box. He was tempted to open it early, but knowing its importance, he suppressed his curiosity.

Meanwhile, deep within the Pure Sand Desert, the figures of the Prince and Xu Qing emerged from the void. As soon as they arrived, Xu Qing immediately sensed his surroundings. The distant sand dunes were motionless, the absence of wind rendering the desert silent. For some unknown reason, the green sand beneath his feet had turned an ashen white, giving off a sense of death. Xu Qing had been here before and knew it was a desolate place, several months' journey from the Bitterlife Mountain Range.

"This spot will do," the Prince said calmly, looking at Xu Qing. "One last question: are you sure?"

Xu Qing looked up at the crimson sky, feeling the restless Purple Moon power within him. It was an impulse, as if it wanted to escape his body and return to the heavens. Xu Qing didn't want to give up the Purple Moon, so he knew he didn't truly need to choose. He looked at the Prince and nodded.

"Very well!"

The Prince's gaze was profound. He raised his right hand and made a grabbing motion towards Xu Qing. With this grab, no aura emanated, no cultivation fluctuations were seen, no imposing presence erupted. Yet, with this simple grab, Xu Qing's body trembled violently. He clearly felt his life force instantly dim. The vitality within his body seemed to gain its own will, becoming an individual entity, transforming into mist. White mist continuously seeped out rapidly from his body surface—from his pores, his seven orifices, every part of his being—and flowed directly towards the Prince's right hand.

During this process, Xu Qing's body began to wither. Waves of weakness spread throughout his body, growing more and more intense. A moment later, a white mass of mist gathered in the Prince's right hand.

He lowered his hand.

Xu Qing stumbled back a few steps, gasping for breath. At this moment, he no longer appeared to be twenty years old; he looked more like an old man on the verge of death. Most of his hair had fallen out, and what remained had turned grey. His body was emaciated, his cultivation weakened, and even his teeth were loose. His eyes were incredibly dim, a result of ninety percent of his life force being drawn out.

A sense of emptiness filled Xu Qing's perception, turning into a chilling cold, which then evolved into a feeling of hunger. Yet, Xu Qing felt this sensation was still insufficient. So he looked at the Prince and spoke hoarsely.

"Senior, I know you have your own intentions, and I understand you wish my Purple Moon power to become stronger. I can even guess that this relates to rescuing your siblings." Hearing this, the Prince did not conceal the truth, speaking in a low voice, "Xu Qing, I do indeed have my own intentions. I hope your Purple Moon power can grow further, strengthen more, and be truly mastered by you..."

"Then, please continue," Xu Qing said with a weak smile, "because I also want to master the Purple Moon power, and I want even more to see the true appearance of this world."

The Prince fell silent. A moment later, he formed a hand seal with his left hand and pointed. Instantly, a divine-imbued seal landed on Xu Qing.

"I will strip away your vitality, hollowing out your life. I will strip away your cultivation, drying up your spiritual power. I will strip away your recovery, preventing you from reversing your state. Finally, I will strip away your possibility of life, leaving you unable to move or resist, only to await the arrival of death."

Xu Qing's mind buzzed, a blank at that moment. He didn't know when his body lost its balance, and he fell heavily, lying in the desert.

The Prince sighed softly, taking a deep look at Xu Qing. He turned and walked towards the sky, step by step, gradually fading into the distance. He left behind only the silent desert and the solitary figure lying there.

Xu Qing liked quiet, because quiet helped him think, and he enjoyed thinking. Yet, at this moment, within these silent heavens and earth, he barely possessed the ability to think. He felt extreme weakness; he couldn't even move a finger. He also felt the cold, which he detested the most.

"It's been so long... so long..." Xu Qing weakly murmured to himself. It had been a very long time since he had experienced such childhood coldness.

The cold in his body invaded his soul. The ice, from inside out, made his body tremble uncontrollably. His consciousness was somewhat blurry. Dimly, Xu Qing seemed to see many images. In them, a dirty young boy crawled out from countless corpses, struggling to move forward, solely to survive.

"Actually, I've had feelings like this before, many times, when I was a child," Xu Qing murmured.

Innumerous times he was on the verge of death from hunger, innumerable times despair from cold filled his heart. To survive, he had eaten everything imaginable before. Tree bark was already a luxury; when hunger was extreme, even dirt could fill his stomach.

"Therefore, the Prince was actually wrong. He should have left me some strength, so I could experience hunger more deeply." Xu Qing forced a smile, then tremblingly raised his withered arm, making an effort to bring it before him, close to his mouth.

A slow madness emerged in his eyes. His eyeballs gradually became bloodshot, and veins bulged on his forehead. Gathering all his remaining strength, he suddenly opened his mouth wide and bit his own arm with all his might.

Blood spilled from Xu Qing's lips and teeth, flowing in trickles. But before it could even drip, Xu Qing inhaled, swallowing every single drop. Along with it, he swallowed a piece of flesh he had bitten off his own arm.

Without needing much chewing, Xu Qing's throat convulsed, and he swallowed it fiercely.

As the flesh slid down his throat and entered his stomach, infinite contractions and gastric juices rushed forth, like parched earth welcoming sweet dew. Xu Qing, his mouth full of blood, felt his stomach churn. This familiar sensation made him smile.

"This is more like it. To truly feel hunger, you need at least some strength." But this smile was somewhat terrifying. As he smiled, Xu Qing's eyes became even more crimson, and his breathing quickened as a little strength returned. The hunger brought on by the icy cold and emptiness grew even more intense.

Xu Qing's body trembled, and the bloodshot in his eyes deepened. He felt as if an endless void had appeared within him, and the suction emanating from it distorted the world before his eyes.

However, Xu Qing had extensive experience with this. He looked at the sky and suddenly began to curse. "That bastardized, scarred face!"

When he was young, whenever he was this hungry, he would curse like this, and he did so now.

As he cursed, Xu Qing's thoughts slowly returned, and the madness within him was finally suppressed a little.

This hunger that could be suppressed was clearly not enough. "This is bodily hunger, not the divine hunger the Prince spoke of. As for the feeling of hunger, I've had other experiences too."

Xu Qing thought of when he devoured the cultivators of the Red Moon Temple. At that time, a strong impulse arose within him, like an addiction, wanting to devour more. He still remembered that feeling. "Although I restrained myself then," he mused, "if I had continued devouring, perhaps I would have been unable to stop..."

And there was the hunger of Senior Brother, and the hunger of the Ancient Spirit Emperor! And the hunger of Zhang Siyun, the Red Mother's clone in the Immortal Forbidden Land! Their hunger was both similar to and different from his own.

Xu Qing murmured.

So, what if I don't restrain myself?

Xu Qing fell silent. A moment later, he gave up on restraint. He instinctively lowered his head, breathing rapidly, as the feeling of hunger overwhelmed his reason, replacing everything else.

He suddenly opened his mouth and bit his arm again, as if it weren't his own flesh and blood. Bite after bite, he tore at it fiercely. His reason slowly faded, and the instinct for survival gradually drove everything. At this moment, he was like a wild beast.

As blood spread, some fell onto the sand. Xu Qing instinctively prostrated himself, greedily swallowing the blood-stained sand.

But even so, the feeling of hunger did not diminish in the slightest.

"Hunger... hunger..." Xu Qing trembled, crawling forward with effort, wanting to eat more.

But his surroundings were desolate, and there wasn't a single fierce beast. After crawling a few yards, Xu Qing lay there, swallowed by darkness and drowned in madness.

As weakness and death spread more intensely throughout his body, Xu Qing's mind had a moment of clarity.

"The Prince said that was the overlap of humanity and divinity," he thought. "But what I have now is bestiality. The fact that I can still remain lucid indicates a fusion of humanity and bestiality. It also means my method is incorrect. So, what is humanity? What is divinity?" Xu Qing weakly murmured.

Time flowed, and three days passed.

While Xu Qing experienced this hunger in the Pure Sand Desert, the appearance of the Red Moon's light on the horizon plunged all races and beings in the entire Sacrificial Moon Grand Territory into despair.

And chaos is the companion of despair. The entire Sacrificial Moon Grand Territory began to riot, and madness became the prevailing theme. Since the ultimate fate was destined to be death, then in this final glimmer of life, anything could happen.

Burning, killing, humiliation, rape, and plunder could be seen everywhere in this grand territory. They were ubiquitous. The inherent evil of life played out endlessly at this moment, wantonly vented and actively unleashed. All restraints ceased to exist; all self-control turned to dust.

Wailing and suffering transformed into a storm, sweeping through everything in its path. Humanity was collapsing. Kindness was dimming. Bestiality was spreading. Madness was erupting.

The cultivators of the Pure Sand Desert were no exception.