Chapter 418: Decayed Roots of the World Tree

Chapter 418: The Rotting Roots of the World Tree

At the edge of the cosmos, in the zone of heat death.

This is the graveyard of physical laws.

There is no light, no heat, no motion. Every atom has ceased its vibration; time itself seems to have lost all meaning here.

Qin Feng, utilizing the ethereal phasing of his Void God Pulse, weaves through the absolute darkness.

The Indestructible Red Copper Heart within his chest beats violently, circulating a ceaseless flow of crimson divine power to combat the absolute zero that seeks to assimilate all things.

"If not for this heart, the environment alone would freeze the soul of an ordinary Venerable into shards of ice."

Qin Feng exhales a breath of heat, which instantly crystallizes and falls away the moment it leaves his lips.

He activates the Eye of Guixu to its full capacity.

Thirty million kilometers ahead, in the void, he spots his moving target.

It is a... Ghost Ark.

Ten thousand miles long, crafted from the bones of unknown behemoths, it exudes an aura of grey, decaying death.

Trailing from the stern are thousands of black chains. At the other end of these chains is bound an irregular, black metallic mass, a thousand meters in diameter.

The space surrounding this metal exists in a bizarre state of "stasis." Even quantum fluctuations have been smoothed away.

This is the [Nirvana: Cold Abyss Iron Mother].

Standing upon the deck of the ark is a gaunt figure draped in tattered grey robes, clutching a scythe.

He possesses no flesh; his entire being appears to be composed of ash.

Competitor Intelligence:

Name: Undertaker Gray.

Realm: Cosmic Venerable (Limit), Master of the Law of Entropy.

Identity: A thrall of the Evil God "Nurgle," tasked with collecting necrotic matter at the end of the universe.

Gray seems to sense the presence of the living.

He turns his head slowly; beneath his hood, there is no face, only a swirling vortex of pitch black.

"A living soul... why tread upon this graveyard?"

His voice is devoid of inflection, yet hearing it fills one with a despair that renders all hope meaningless.

"Have you come to seek your death?"

Qin Feng takes a single step, landing directly upon the ark's deck.

The skeletal planks beneath his feet groan under the unbearable weight.

"I am here to collect the cargo."

Qin Feng gestures toward the Cold Abyss Iron Mother trailing behind.

"I want this. You may crawl away, or die."

Gray taps his scythe against the deck.

"It is an offering for my Master."

"Since you have come, you shall remain here as well. Your vitality... it is quite potent; it will serve perfectly to neutralize the chill of the Iron Mother."

"Divine Art: End of All Things."

Gray wastes no further words, launching his assault.

He swings his scythe.

There is no energy fluctuation, no blinding light.

Only a grey wind blows toward Qin Feng.

Wherever this wind passes, the bones on the deck instantly weather into dust. The structure of space begins to collapse, and even the chains of natural law snap asunder.

This is entropy. It turns order into chaos, existence into nothingness.

Qin Feng’s eyes narrow.

Against such an attack, conventional physical defenses and energy shields are useless. The shields themselves are "ordered structures" that would be instantly dismantled.

"Playing with laws?"

Qin Feng sneers.

"In this universe, only one thing can counter entropy."

"And that is—infinite energy!"

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The Indestructible Red Copper Heart in Qin Feng’s chest beats frantically, its frequency surging to ten thousand times per second.

BOOM—!!!

A crimson, materialized storm of thermal energy erupts from within him.

Divine Ability: Radiant Sun—Entropy Reversal.

The red heat and the grey wind of death collide in the center of the deck.

This is not merely a clash of cold and heat; it is a struggle between the laws of life and death.

Sizzle—

The grey wind of death is forced back by the endless torrent of thermal energy.

Gray’s previously motionless form finally begins to tremble.

"Infinite energy? That is impossible... even stars have a day when they fade. Why is your energy inexhaustible?"

"Because my heart never stops burning."

Qin Feng shatters the deck with a step, his form moving like lightning as he breaks through the blockade of the death-wind and appears before Gray.

"Your scythe is too light."

Qin Feng throws a punch.

The strike carries the billion-fold gravity of his Prison-Suppressing God Bones.

Gray raises his scythe to parry.

CRACK!

The scythe of death, which has harvested countless star-souls, snaps like a withered branch against the absolute mass of the blow.

Qin Feng’s fist drives forward, slamming into Gray’s chest.

"Wither away!"

In his final moment, Gray attempts to detonate his internal entropy core to drag his opponent down with him.

A chill of ultimate intensity spreads along Qin Feng’s arm, seeking to freeze his blood and his soul.

But Qin Feng only grinned.

"Freeze me?"

"I am burning up with heat!"

Boom!

The scorching divine blood pumped from his heart surged through his arms, instantly repelling the encroaching chill.

Simultaneously, Qin Feng exerted force with his palm, triggering a gravitational wave.

"Shatter!"

Bang—

The body of Gray the Undertaker exploded into a cloud of gray mist.

The mist attempted to coalesce, but was vaporized entirely by the intense heat radiating from Qin Feng.

A scion of an evil god had fallen.

Having dealt with Gray, Qin Feng flew toward the stern of the Ark.

The [Nirvana: Abyssal Iron Mother] floated there in silence.

Even with his Indestructible Red Copper armor, Qin Feng felt his thoughts begin to slow as he approached.

This was a divine object capable of freezing even "consciousness" itself.

"Good stuff."

"With the Heart of Red Copper, my body is like a massive furnace; while my power is infinite, it is prone to 'overheating,' leading to a deviation of my cultivation."

"This Iron Mother is the perfect cooling system."

"And the most suitable place for it is... the brain."

Qin Feng did not hesitate.

He wrapped his arms around the black metal, which spanned a kilometer in diameter.

"Chaos Core, devour!"

Compressed by the power of chaos, the massive metal rapidly shrank, eventually transforming into a stream of pitch-black, freezing cold.

Qin Feng took a deep breath and drew the cold current into his brow.

Boom!

His mind went instantly blank.

The soul within his sea of consciousness was frozen for a thousandth of a second before being shielded by the Chaos Core.

The cold current spiraled within his skull, slowly permeating every brain cell and merging with his sea of consciousness.

[Nirvana: Abyssal Iron Mother]—Refinement complete.

Qin Feng opened his eyes.

His left eye remained a scorching gold, but his right had turned a deep, icy blue.

An unprecedented sense of absolute rationality flooded his thoughts.

The slight violent impulses born from his skyrocketing power were instantly suppressed.

His computational power and logical processing speed increased ten-thousandfold in that moment.

Even as his body engaged in world-shattering combat, his brain could now analyze the situation with the cold precision of a supercomputer.

"Ice and fire share a source; yin and yang are balanced."

Qin Feng clenched his fist, feeling better than he ever had.

"Skeleton, meridians, heart, brain."

"Now, this body lacks only one final thing."

"Flesh and blood."

Though Qin Feng appeared to have flesh and blood, it was merely an imitation of energy. True flesh required the properties of "infinite regeneration" and "endless vitality" to withstand the tearing force of a cosmic explosion.

The star map in his mind lit up once more.

A fifth red dot flickered in the distant Seventh Star Sector.

It was a forbidden zone of life, yet also a cradle of life.

The fifth Primordial Divine Metal—[Genesis: Azure Wood Divine Metal].

At the intersection of the Elven and Zerg battlefields—the roots of the rotting World Tree.

"Depart."

With a thought, Qin Feng manipulated the laws of space and vanished from the Heat Death Zone.

Seventh Star Sector, Planet S-77.

It was a massive green planet. But not the green of vibrant life; it was a sickly, pallid green.

This had once been the holy land of the Elves, home to a World Tree that reached the heavens. Three thousand years ago, the Zerg swarm descended, turning it into a meat grinder.

Now, the World Tree had withered, its trunk draped in insect eggs and slime.

Qin Feng’s figure appeared high in the sky.

The air was thick with toxic spore mist. On the ground, countless mutated Zerg and infected Treants slaughtered one another.

"The [Azure Wood Divine Metal] is beneath the roots."

Qin Feng’s right eye flickered, instantly parsing the energy distribution below.

"There lies a source of energy—immensely vast, yet profoundly twisted."

He made no attempt to hide, plummeting like a meteor toward the roots of the World Tree.

Boom!

The shockwave from his landing crushed a circle of encroaching Zerglings.

Qin Feng walked toward a massive hollow in the tree.

This was the entrance to the roots deep underground.

But blocking the entrance stood a behemoth.

It was a thirty-meter-tall monster. It possessed the upper body of an Elf, handsome yet pallid, while its lower half was a bloated, hideous Zerg abdomen, with twelve pairs of rotting wings sprouting from its back.

Countless green tentacles extended from its body, digging deep into the soil as if draining something from the earth.

Competitor Intel:

Name: King of Decay, Malorne.

Realm: Cosmic Venerable (Peak).

Race: Fallen Elf/Zerg Hybrid.

Traits: Immortal Body, Infinite Proliferation.

Malorne opened eyes filled with compound lenses, staring down at Qin Feng.

"A human? Such fresh, succulent flesh..."

Its voice sounded like the friction of a thousand insects.

"Begone, or become nourishment for my ascent."

"I am merging with the Divine Gold... just a final fragment remains, and I shall become the new God of Life!"

The tentacles behind it writhed, each tip fused to a metal shard radiating emerald light—the Genesis Green-Wood Divine Gold.

Half of this divine metal had already been tainted by its touch, turning a murky, bruised green.

"You have soiled it."

Qin Feng frowned, gazing at the slime-slicked metal.

"That is my flesh; how dare you lay your hands upon it?"

"Yours?"

Malorne let out a shrill laugh. "Here, I am the master of all life!"

Whoosh—

With a wave of its hand, countless gargantuan man-eating vines erupted from the ground, each bristling with barbs and serrated teeth, surging toward Qin Feng in a frenzied tide.

Simultaneously, the wounds upon its body began to knit together at a visible rate.

This was the power granted by the Green-Wood Divine Gold—Absolute Regeneration.

Qin Feng was swallowed by the thicket of vines.

He did not move.

A surge of internal energy erupted from his body, shattering the vines into dust.

But in the next heartbeat, more vines sprouted, having already evolved a resistance to his force.

"It is futile!" Malorne shrieked with laughter. "With the Divine Gold, my vitality is infinite! You cannot kill me; I shall simply wear you down until you wither!"

It was brimming with confidence, having once withstood the siege of three Venerables in the Great War, only to drain their energy and consume them in the end.

But it had encountered Qin Feng.

A freak of nature possessing both the Heart of Immortality and the Brain of the Cold Abyss.

"Cannot kill you?"

The icy blue light in Qin Feng’s right eye flared with blinding intensity.

"That is only because you have never met the true Reaper."

Qin Feng flickered, weaving through the sky of tentacles, and lunged directly before Malorne.

Malorne dismissed him with a sneer, thrusting its chest forward to take the blow. No matter how many times it was shredded, it could restore itself in an instant.

Qin Feng pressed a palm against Malorne’s chest.

This time, he used neither gravity nor thermal energy.

Instead, he channeled that singular force from the center of his brow—the Death Qi of the Cold Abyss.

"Law Stripping: Entropy Increase—Necrosis."

Hum—

A stream of absolute, gray frigidity poured into Malorne’s body.

The cells that were preparing to regenerate suddenly... ceased.

They were "frozen" in a state of death.

Not a physical freezing, but a cessation of change at the level of fundamental law.

If you desire regeneration, then I shall strip you of the right to change.

"Wh-what?!"

Malorne realized with horror that its vaunted regenerative ability had failed.

The wounds did not heal; instead, they began to gray and rot.

The cold current coursed through its meridians, sealing off the connection to the Green-Wood Divine Gold.

"No! My vitality!"

Malorne let out a wretched cry.

Qin Feng clamped his left hand onto its skull.

"Now, it ends."

His right fist clenched, and the blazing fire of the Great Sun erupted.

Stripped of its regeneration, Malorne’s flesh was no tougher than that of an ordinary Venerable.

Boom!

The inferno devoured the hideous amalgamation.

There was no rebirth, only ash.

This immortal monster, which had entrenched itself in the Seventh Sector for millennia, died a final death under the "Ice-Fire Restraint" of Qin Feng.

Qin Feng cleared away the remaining debris.

He approached the Genesis Green-Wood Divine Gold, now freed from the tangled roots.

It was an irregular piece of green metal, its surface flowing with liquid like molten emerald, radiating a life force that intoxicated the soul.

The pollution caused by Malorne had already been purged by the metal’s own purifying nature.

"Come."

Qin Feng opened his arms.

"Become my flesh."

He did not consume it.

Instead, he pressed the Divine Gold directly into his lower dantian.

That was the wellspring of human life.

Hum—!!!

A green radiance exploded, dyeing the entire planet in emerald hues.

The Divine Gold transformed into countless green filaments, instantly diffusing throughout Qin Feng’s entire body.

In that moment, Qin Feng felt a comfort he had never known.

His body, which had been stretched to the breaking point by the fusion of the Prison-Suppressing Divine Bone and the Immortal Red Copper, found total release.

His muscles began to reorganize.

Every fiber became crystalline and translucent, brimming with explosive power and resilience.

His skin grew as warm and lustrous as jade, yet possessed a resilience far surpassing the sturdiest alloys.

Even were his arm to be severed now, it would regenerate within a single heartbeat.

Indeed, should but a solitary cell remain, he could reconstruct his entire being from a drop of blood, provided the energy sufficed.

[Creation: Azure Wood Divine Metal]—Refinement complete.

Acquired Constitution: Immortal Divine Body (Primary).

Qin Feng clenched his fist.

The sheer fullness of power surging within him compelled him to let out a thunderous roar.

His bones were indestructible, his meridians flowed without obstruction, his heart beat in perpetual motion, his mind remained in absolute serenity, and his flesh was eternal and undying.

Now, by the strength of his physical form alone, he had already transcended the so-called "Peak Venerables."

He felt as though he could shatter the very barriers of this universe with a single strike.

"Yet, it is not enough."

Qin Feng calmed his racing heart.

"Though the flesh is perfected, one element remains to 'govern' it all."

"That is—Causality."

"A body without causality is but a powerful, hollow shell. Only by mastering causality can one remain 'singular' across the past, the present, and the future."

Even as Qin Feng pondered,

as his five divine metals—gold, wood, water, fire, and earth—reached their culmination, his perception underwent a qualitative leap.

The world before his eyes transformed.

It was no longer a three-dimensional space.

He beheld a river.

A vast, surging, ceaseless river, without source or end.

It flowed through the void, behind the veil of matter, weaving through the birth, aging, sickness, and death of every living soul.

The River of Time.

Downstream, at a blurred node,

a piece of brass-colored metal drifted in the currents.

It appeared mundane, no different from a rusted scrap of copper.

Yet, all the waters of the river parted automatically as they flowed past it.

It touched no causality, stained by no passage of years.

That was the sixth Primal Divine Metal—[Causality: Mysterious Yellow Copper].

"Found you."

Qin Feng’s gaze pierced through the barriers of dimensions.

But suddenly, his brows furrowed.

For beside the Mysterious Yellow Copper, there stood no Venerable-level guardian.

There was only one person.

An ordinary-looking old man, clad in ancient Daoist robes, sitting with a fishing rod in hand.

The old man seemed to sense Qin Feng’s intrusion.

He turned his head and, across the endless expanse of space and time, offered Qin Feng a faint smile.

That smile held within it vicissitudes, profound wisdom, and a trace of... anticipation?

"Who is that?"

Alarm bells rang in Qin Feng’s heart.

Not even when facing the Peak Venerables had he felt such a sensation.

The old man gave him the impression that he... did not belong to this era.

Or rather, he did not belong to the "present."

"Whoever you may be."

Qin Feng withdrew his gaze, his eyes resolute.

"That is the key to enlightenment. Even a god at the end of time shall not bar my path."

Qin Feng’s figure flickered as his Taixu Divine Veins surged at full capacity.

With a flash of silver light,

he vanished from the spot.

Target: Downstream of the River of Time, the Causality Node.

(End of Chapter)