Chapter 348: Divine Gold News! Escaping by Faking Death! Waiting for the Emperor Rank to Leave the Mountain

Chapter 348: News of the Divine Metal! A Faked Death to Slip Away! Waiting for the Emperor to Emerge!

For a life form of Qin Feng’s caliber, three millennia is but a slightly extended period of seclusion, or a long journey undertaken toward a specific goal.

Ever since he defined his next course of action on the planet "Heart of Verdant," Qin Feng had once again become the most inconspicuous phantom in the universe.

He retracted every identifiable aura; the [Primordial Furnace] Dao seal compressed his life fluctuations to near-nothingness, and the profound arrays of his [Silver-White Body] allowed him to effortlessly simulate a variety of distinct energy signatures.

In those three thousand years, he was no longer the "Ultimate Marquis" who had shaken the firmament and topped the Marquis Ranking.

At times, he was a solitary mercenary struggling for survival in the frontier star sectors, taciturn and accepting only the most dangerous exploration missions, his footprints scattered across forgotten ancient ruins and shattered remnants of civilizations, all to seek a glimmer of a clue about the divine metals from surviving murals and archaic texts.

At other times, he was a refined intelligence merchant named "Mr. Wen" on interstellar trade routes, running an unremarkable information exchange, trading harmless secrets for ancient legends circulating in the dark corners of the universe.

He had witnessed too much greed, betrayal, and deceit, and from countless stories of dubious truth, he attempted to sift for that one thread that might lead to the truth.

He had even disguised himself as an aging peak Marquis with decaying vitality, mingling in secret auctions and exchanges where only the most ancient beings were qualified to participate.

He had seen countless rare treasures that would make even ordinary Kings green with envy, but the seventy-two primordial divine metals he sought remained like flowers in a mirror or the moon in the water, never truly appearing.

Three thousand years; he had crossed over a hundred cosmic nations, explored nearly a thousand desolate forbidden zones, and screened through massive amounts of data totaling tens of billions of terabytes.

Hope had ignited time and again, only to be proven a false legend or a hollow valley already plundered by others, eventually falling into silence.

This path was far more arduous than he had imagined.

The seventy-two divine metals are the cornerstones of the universe, their rarity even exceeding some of the lower-ranked [Primordial Fires].

They are not merely "matter," but the embodiment of certain fundamental laws of the universe.

The emergence of every piece of divine metal is inevitably accompanied by bloodshed, potentially even triggering wars at the Emperor level.

Had the waves of the Golden Age not begun to surge, causing the constraints of cosmic rules to loosen, he might not have heard a single shred of real news about the divine metals even in another three hundred thousand years.

Even with a Dao heart as firm as divine iron, Qin Feng could not help but feel a trace of exhaustion on this long, tedious, and endlessly disappointing path of pursuit.

Only seven thousand years remained until the Immortal Mountain opened once more.

Time was running out for him.

...

"Blood Axe" star sector, a lawless planet known for chaos, violence, and disorder among dozens of surrounding cosmic nations—"Bone-Crusher Star."

This was a gathering place for interstellar pirates, bounty hunters, defectors, and all manner of wanted criminals.

There was no unified law on the planet; the only rule was "power." Whoever had the biggest fist held the truth.

An establishment called the "Void Drifter Tavern" sat at the center of the "Rust City," the largest underground city on Bone-Crusher Star.

The tavern was fashioned from the skull of a colossal, unknown star-beast, its entrance the creature's dark, hideous maw.

Inside, the tavern was a motley mix of characters, the air thick with the pungent stench of cheap alcohol, alien body odors, and a faint metallic tang of blood.

Qin Feng sat alone in the darkest corner of the tavern.

At this moment, he was disguised as a weather-beaten human veteran with one arm missing, radiating the unstable aura of a newly ascended Marquis with a damaged origin.

This was a persona he had used recently—a loser who had lost everything on the battlefield and only wished to drink himself to death in a chaotic land.

Such characters were everywhere on Bone-Crusher Star, making them the safest of disguises.

Before him sat a glass of the murkiest energy ale, his gaze seemingly unfocused as he stared at the bubbles rising and falling in his cup, while his mental power, already refined to pure black quality, acted like an invisible tide, enveloping the entire tavern and capturing the conversation at every table with absolute clarity.

"Hahaha! Did you hear? That 'Black Widow' woman, she’s finished! She took her fleet to raid a 'Heavenly Treasure Chamber' transport ship, only to hit a wall—there were two peak Marquises guarding the ship, and her entire fleet was blasted into cosmic dust!"

"Serves her right! That woman is heartless; she cheated me out of thirty million in commission last time!"

"Things haven't been peaceful lately... I heard the fighting in the 'Kurgan Star Abyss' is getting crazier. Several long-famed Kings have already died in there."

"Kurgan Star Abyss? That hellhole, even dogs wouldn't go there! They say it's the burial ground of an ancient star-beast, the 'Star-Swallower.' The space inside is chaotic, the laws are broken—going in is a nine-in-ten chance of death."

Qin Feng’s hand, holding the glass, paused slightly.

Kurgan Star Abyss—a name he had heard more than once in his recent intelligence gathering.

It was a lawless zone on the edge of the "11123" war sector, notorious for its harsh environment and extreme danger.

He continued to listen, unmoved.

In the center of the tavern, a table of the rowdiest guests caught his attention.

It was a group of interstellar pirates led by a giant over five meters tall with the head of a wild bull, exuding the fierce aura of a peak Marquis.

He was Guga, the "Bull King," the notorious leader of the "Crimson Blood Axe" pirate group in this sector.

Currently, Guga was drinking until his face was flushed, one massive hoof planted on the table, spitting as he boasted to his subordinates.

"...hic! You idiots, you only know the Kurgan Star Abyss is dangerous, but you don't know that it... hides a heaven-sent opportunity!"

Guga let out a hiccup and said mysteriously.

One of his lieutenants, who had the head of a lizard, sneered: "Boss, drunk again, aren't you? That place is nothing but space storms and interdimensional rifts; what kind of opportunity could there be? Last time, 'Iron Hook' and his group didn't believe it, dove straight in, and didn't even leave a bubble before they were gone."

"What the hell do you know!"

Guga kicked the lieutenant to the ground with a hoof, drawing a burst of laughter.

He shook his massive bull head triumphantly and lowered his voice, though the volume was still loud enough for Qin Feng to hear clearly: "I'll tell you a secret—a secret I traded a top-tier Marquis-level treasure for, from the mouth of a dying madman!"

"That madman was the only survivor of the 'Grave-Digger' adventure group. Their entire group, over a hundred Marquises, all died in the Kurgan Star Abyss. Only he crawled out, dragging half a life behind him."

"He said... in the deepest part of the Abyss, at the heart of the Star-Swallower’s massive skeleton, they saw something!"

Greed and fanaticism flickered in Guga’s eyes.

"That thing... emitted a seven-colored divine light; just a sliver of the aura it leaked out caused the surrounding broken laws to stabilize! It was indestructible; even a full-force strike from a peak King couldn't leave a single mark on it!"

"The madman said he had seen a similar description in a tattered ancient book dug up from some deity’s ruins..."

Guga took a deep breath and, in a voice almost like a dream, uttered the word that made Qin Feng’s heart suddenly contract.

"That... is very likely one of the seventy-two divine metals, the legendary cornerstones of the universe!"

Boom!

The word exploded in Qin Feng’s mind like a bolt of creation-level lightning.

His calm, unruffled Dao heart surged with monstrous waves at this moment.

The seventy-two divine metals!

The ultimate goal he had pursued for three thousand years, exhausting endless effort to no avail, was actually... appearing in such a chaotic tavern, spoken from the mouth of an interstellar pirate?

For a fleeting moment, Qin Feng’s breathing stalled.

But he quickly forced himself to calm down.

He had experienced too many false leads and empty rumors, knowing well that the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment often was.

The other pirates in the tavern clearly shared similar thoughts.

"Divine metal? Boss, you aren't kidding, are you?"

"Exactly! How could that legendary stuff appear in a godforsaken place like the Kurgan Star Abyss?"

"I think that madman was just delirious before he died, rambling nonsense. Boss, you’ve been scammed!"

"That's right! The Kurgan Star Abyss is a bloodbath right now; several peak-race legions, along with countless adventurers and lone wolves, have swarmed there, fighting like crazy. If there really were divine metal, the news would have spread across the whole universe by now—would it ever be our turn?"

Faced with the skepticism of his subordinates, Guga flew into a towering rage.

"A pack of short-sighted fools!"

He roared, "It is precisely because the news is unconfirmed that this is our opportunity! Those heading there now are merely chasing rumors, thinking some common treasure has surfaced! Who could possibly guess that it is Divine Gold?"

"Before that madman died, he gave me a fragmented star map, marking the weak point in space where they first entered. If we can reach that place before anyone else..."

Greed spilled from Guga’s bovine eyes, "Then, forget about becoming a king—I might even have a chance at becoming an emperor!"

These words left the pirates glancing at one another, their breathing growing heavy and ragged.

Though reason told them this was likely a trap, the allure of "Divine Gold" was far too potent, enough to make any desperate soul gamble with their life.

Qin Feng lowered his head, draining the last of the ale in his cup.

He rose slowly, tossed a few worthless credit coins onto the table, and hunched his back, limping out of the tavern and vanishing into the dim, rusted alleyways of the city.

His heart, however, was far from as calm as his appearance suggested.

The intelligence was riddled with doubts.

First, the source was a dying "madman," whose mental state and veracity were highly questionable.

Second, Guga was a crude, alcoholic pirate captain, prone to exaggeration for the sake of vanity.

Finally, and most crucially, the Kurgan Star Abyss was now the eye of a storm, teeming with countless powerhouses. If Divine Gold truly existed, why had no authoritative channel confirmed it?

Yet...

A flicker of resolve flashed in Qin Feng's eyes.

Better to believe it true than to risk missing it.

For three thousand years, this was the only lead he had found with such specific direction.

True or false, he had to verify it!

But he would not act rashly.

Before setting out for the Kurgan Star Abyss, he needed one final, direct confirmation of the intelligence. ...

Three days later.

In the asteroid belt outside the Bone-Crusher Star, the flagship of the "Red Blood Axe" pirate fleet, the *Bull-Man*, hung in silent suspension.

Guga and his core lieutenants were on the bridge, arguing fiercely over the best route into the Kurgan Star Abyss while hunched over the fragmented star map.

They remained entirely unaware that a phantom, nearly indistinguishable from the cosmic dark, had silently pierced the *Bull-Man's* dozens of meters of energy shielding and alloy armor, descending into the ship like a ghost that did not exist.

Qin Feng’s figure emerged slowly in an empty maintenance corridor.

He alerted no one.

His pitch-black mental energy, like the most precise probe, followed the ship's power conduits and neural networks, instantly blanketing the entire flagship.

The position of every crew member, the angle of every surveillance camera, and the status of every defensive turret coalesced in his mind into a perfect three-dimensional map.

His target was clear—the pirate captain, Guga.

At this moment, Guga was in his private quarters, alone, grinning foolishly at the hide star map, fantasizing about his reign over the universe once he possessed the Divine Gold.

Qin Feng’s figure, like a phantom shifting between dimensions, flickered through the complex corridors until he stood outside Guga’s door.

The door was a physical bulkhead forged from multiple ultra-high-strength alloys, reinforced with a top-tier energy cipher lock.

To Qin Feng, it was as good as non-existent.

He pressed his palm gently against the cold metal.

There was no sound, no fluctuation of energy.

The microscopic particles composing the bulkhead began to shift and reorganize under his will. The solid alloy turned as fluid as water beneath his touch.

Qin Feng simply "walked" through, as if passing through a veil of water.

Behind him, the alloy bulkhead instantly restored itself, as if nothing had ever happened.

Inside the room, Guga remained lost in his daydream, completely unaware of the figure that had appeared behind him.

Qin Feng did not strike immediately.

He wanted more than just confirmation of the intelligence; he needed to know the true origin of the information.

He stood behind Guga, his pitch-black mental energy coalescing into an invisible needle, a billion times thinner than a hair, and silently pierced into Guga’s massive, alcohol-and-desire-addled bovine head.

"Soul-searching" was, for the current Qin Feng, a crude and primitive method.

What he employed was a superior secret technique derived from the *Nine Calamities War Code* and *Kill*—[Memory Reading].

It would cause no damage to the target’s soul, nor would it trigger any spiritual defense mechanisms.

It was like a guest with supreme access, quietly "browsing" the other's memories as if watching a holographic film.

*Hum...*

Guga’s body shuddered violently, a flicker of confusion crossing his eyes as if he had lost a second of time.

But he soon shook his head, attributing the anomaly to too much drink, and returned to grinning at the star map.

Behind him, Qin Feng had already closed his eyes.

Scenes from Guga’s life flashed through his mind like a fast-forwarded film.

Bloody raids, filthy deals, endless slaughter and betrayal...

Qin Feng had no interest in these; his mental energy locked precisely onto all memory fragments related to the "Kurgan Star Abyss" and "Divine Gold."

Soon, he found it.

It was a memory from six months ago.

In the scene, Guga was leading his pirate fleet in the sacking of a mining planet.

While tallying the spoils, they had discovered a dying human elder hiding in the depths of a mine.

The elder was indeed a member of the "Grave-Digger" adventure group Guga had mentioned.

His state was even more wretched than Guga had described.

His Dao Seal had completely shattered, his flame of life flickering like a candle in the wind, ready to extinguish at any moment.

His mind was indeed in a state of extreme, chaotic madness.

Under Guga’s threats and inducements, the crazed elder had wailed and laughed by turns, recounting a bone-chilling tale in fragmented gasps.

He told of how, deep within the Kurgan Star Abyss, they had discovered a stable space, isolated from the outside world, carved out by the supreme power of an ancient being.

At the core of that space floated the remains of a Star-Swallower, vast as a star system.

And there, in the heart of the skeletal remains, they had seen... light.

A seven-colored divine radiance.

The light possessed incredible power; all matter that approached it was decomposed, all laws assimilated.

Their entire adventure group, blinded by greed, had attempted to force their way toward that divine light, only to be wiped out in an instant by that terrifying force.

Only he, because he had been at the very rear of the formation and happened to trigger a one-time life-saving treasure, had narrowly escaped, though he suffered fatal Dao wounds and lost his sanity.

Having finished his tale, the old man pressed the fragmented star map into Guga’s hands, then dissolved into a cloud of fine ash amidst a gale of manic laughter.

Qin Feng scrutinized this memory, letting not a single detail escape his mental grasp.

He could clearly perceive the old man’s state of mind during the recounting—a raw, unfeigned terror entwined with a feverish, soul-deep fanaticism.

He was now certain that Guga had not lied.

What the man had relayed was indeed the entirety of what he had heard from the elder.

The memory playback concluded.

Qin Feng slowly opened his eyes, a flicker of complex emotion crossing his gaze.

"Hearsay..."

He was now entirely convinced that the intelligence Guga possessed was second-hand, sourced from a madman whose psyche had long since fractured.

The veracity of this information remained impossible to verify.

The old man might have been suffering from terminal hallucinations.

Or, perhaps, it was nothing more than a trap—a lethal lure cast by some unseen hand to draw in expendable pawns.

Yet...

Qin Feng revisited the scene in the memory where the old man described that "seven-colored divine light."

The power to suppress the laws of entropy, the indestructible nature of its essence...

From every perspective, it aligned perfectly with the descriptions of the "Seventy-Two Divine Metals" found in ancient texts.

Qin Feng’s figure vanished from the lounge as silently and soundlessly as it had appeared.

He departed the Bull, returning to the frigid, deathly silence of the cosmic void.

Suspended in the shadow of an asteroid belt, he gazed into the distance at the pirate ship preparing to set sail in pursuit of a nebulous dream, caught in the throes of a final decision.

To go, or not to go?

To go meant facing a slaughterhouse already drenched in blood, countless powerful enemies lurking in the shadows, and a glimmer of hope with less than a ten percent chance of being real.

He risked exposing his identity, falling into a siege far more perilous than the one outside the Seven Abysses.

To stay meant losing the only lead he had found in three thousand years.

He would be forced to continue wandering the vast universe like a headless fly, searching for a hope that grew ever more distant. And in seven thousand years, whether he was prepared or not, the Golden Emperor would arrive as scheduled.

His grand scheme of faked death would collapse, missing its most critical component.

Qin Feng’s gaze gradually hardened into resolve.

"The path of martial arts is, by nature, a high-stakes gamble."

"The mediocre fear risk, and thus live mediocre lives."

"But the strong, having seen all the risks clearly, still choose to tread the most arduous path—the one most likely to lead to the pinnacle."

He had never been a man to fear risk.

From his rise on the Morning Star to the bloody carnage of the Universal Genius Tournament, to his lone stand against an army on the Isle of Dead Meteors... every step he had taken was a dance on the edge of a blade, a life forged in the face of death.

This time would be no exception.

"Kurgan Star Abyss..."

Qin Feng whispered the name, his eyes devoid of the slightest hesitation, replaced instead by a blazing, incandescent will to fight that seemed capable of incinerating the stars themselves.

Even if the hope was but a sliver, he would use his own hands to forge it into reality.

He paid no further heed to the pirate ship, turning instead to streak away like a bolt of light, invisible to the naked eye, toward the deep reaches of the cosmos—toward the coordinates of a war zone marked as "Extremely Dangerous."