Chapter 348: Secret of the Arching Star, the Land of Endings

Chapter 348: The Secret of the Arch, the Land of Ending

“Is it possible that the laws changed and those loan companies went bankrupt?”

The canary discussed earnestly.

No matter what happened, she could always keep up with Qi Yuan’s train of thought.

Qi Yuan nodded in agreement: “You have a point. So... fortune or misfortune, it’s not caused by me—it might just be fate.”

“So, no matter what you do, it won’t be wrong.” In the canary’s beautiful eyes, it seemed as if stars were twinkling.

“You too.” Qi Yuan was also good at being a repeater.

He opened other chat apps.

On them were all sorts of useless, miscellaneous information, along with holiday greetings from acquaintances.

Among them, a classmate had sent a message seven months ago: “Hey, you there? A bit tight on cash, old pal.”

Then, late the next night, another message came:

“You’re really cold. I wasn’t actually trying to borrow—I just haven’t contacted an old classmate in a while, so I asked casually...”

After that, a string of long-winded rants.

Then, seven days later, late at night, another message arrived:

“Emergency! Need some cash for a fund turnover. For the sake of our old classmate friendship, lend me a bit—not much, just thirty thousand!”

Seeing these messages, Qi Yuan was speechless.

“What the hell is this?”

Muttering a complaint, Qi Yuan directly blocked and deleted that classmate.

He continued browsing his social apps.

Suddenly, a private message caught his attention.

“Canary, look—don’t you think this person has a crush on me?”

Qi Yuan handed his phone to the canary.

The canary’s eyes widened; she had been a bit sleepy, but now her spirits perked up: “Let me see, let me vet them for you!”

On Qi Yuan’s phone was a private message.

Judging by the timestamp, this message was received on the day Qi Yuan, the canary, and Xiao Jia got their marriage certificates.

Back then, Qi Yuan had shown off a bit and then ignored it.

But now, someone had sent a message.

The message was simple:

“Congratulations on your marriage and happiness.”

Just six words, yet Qi Yuan seemed to see through the phone screen someone on the other end, silently grieving and forcing a smile.

“She must have a crush on me—why else would she spend money to send me a private message wishing me a happy marriage?

Alas, having too much charm is a bad thing. No matter where I am, there are always little fangirls.” Qi Yuan’s expression was calm, even a bit annoyed.

After all, he had some social anxiety.

But his looks and charm couldn’t be hidden.

What if he became an internet celebrity? How annoying.

“Haha, he might not be a little fangirl—he might be a little fanboy.” The canary clicked on that person’s avatar, watched a video posted by the well-wisher, and made her judgment.

“A guy?” Qi Yuan was slightly stunned. “A scheming little cross-dresser? How terrifying. This isn’t even Shu, so why am I encountering this?”

Qi Yuan felt disgusted.

His sexual orientation had always been perfectly normal.

“Alright, enough of that. Canary, lend me some spiritual energy—I want to break through to the Divine Infant realm quickly.”

At this moment, Qi Yuan’s gaze fell on the canary’s moist lips.

For Qi Yuan, martial arts couldn’t lag behind, and neither could immortal cultivation.

He would improve his strength in all aspects—after all, it would all feed back into his original body.

That said, the immortal cultivation in this game hadn’t been carefully managed by Qi Yuan; it was rather sloppy. But raising his realm was still very helpful.

Although his Divine Infant wasn’t as powerful as the one in the Canglan Realm, which could instantly kill a Mythical being,

it could still easily slay a Zifu cultivator.

“Alright.” The canary looked at Qi Yuan, her white throat swallowing as she leaned toward him.

A sweet spiritual energy, like mountains and seas, accompanied her little fragrant tongue as it slipped into Qi Yuan’s mouth.

Qi Yuan closed his eyes, instinctively wrapping his arm around the canary’s waist.

“No wonder everyone loves immortal cultivation—how could anyone refuse such a taste?”

That night, Qi Yuan held the canary and formally stepped into the Divine Infant realm.

...

Two days later, Qi Yuan opened his eyes, a joyful expression in them.

“All the Divine Infants... have finally appeared.”

At this moment, he looked inward at his body, where over four thousand Divine Infants had formed.

These Divine Infants were all born in the Mortal Heart Realm.

“Pity, this game body of mine is too weak to unleash the power of these Divine Infants.”

Long ago, Qi Yuan had already discovered that his in-game self could be considered his “spirit.”

To put it in more understandable terms, it was his soul.

But this “soul” was somewhat unusual—no different from an ordinary person’s.

And every time he arrived in a new world, it was very weak.

Thus, Qi Yuan simply called it his spirit.

Divine Infants were different from Stellar Golden Cores.

Stellar Golden Cores hung in the universe; as long as there was enough spiritual energy in the body, their projections could be summoned at any time.

Divine Infants were different.

Their power was too great.

If summoned, his “spirit” couldn’t withstand it.

Therefore, these Divine Infants couldn’t be converted into his combat power in this world for now.

But then again...

A deep look emerged in Qi Yuan’s eyes: “This world... is truly a massive demon-raising farm!”

The former Wuqi, and the siblings Yaji found in the Kingdom of Wugui, both possessed unique bloodlines. Qi Yuan could send out the divine infants within him, in the form of old men and old women, to dwell within their bodies.

As they grew strong, Qi Yuan’s divine infants would gradually awaken fully, eventually returning to their original realm, or even advancing further.

It could be said that each of Qi Yuan’s 4,752 divine infants was terrifyingly profound, steeped in deep foundations, possessing… the potential of a Yang God.

Indeed, even an ordinary Yang God might only be their starting point.

For instance, that old codger, the Thunder Sovereign, once visualized the Heavenly Lord of Universal Thunder Sound, and later visualized the Southern Pole Longevity Emperor, one of the Six Imperial Lords.

Such a foundation could be said to tower over the heavens.

Moreover, such visualization was not without purpose.

What visualization consumed was the mysterious energy within the ruins of the Ancient Clan.

Those ruins had an astonishing origin.

Even a Yin Spirit Venerable could only be considered malnourished, requiring the Divine Domain Immortal Liquid—also known as the Robust and Gentle Oral Liquid—to barely develop normally, open a divine domain, and be counted as a normal child.

Well, though the Goldfinch possessed the strength of a Great Venerable, in that world, she was… hmm, underage? Or perhaps just come of age.

At this moment, Qi Yuan looked inward. The 4,752 divine infants floated within his inner world, utterly still.

They were like fragile infants, or embryos.

But Qi Yuan knew that any one of them, if released, could throw this Gongxing world into chaos.

“It seems I need to find them hosts, to nurture them,” Qi Yuan murmured.

If, in this world, every one of his divine infants could be nurtured and step into the Yang God realm—

How terrifying would that be?

Would he even need to fight himself?

He would simply sacrifice the divine infants, and four thousand Yang Gods would appear together.

So you are the Yang God of the Taihuang Palace? So you are the Great Calamity?

So you are the Yang God of the Mara Clan?

Qi Yuan held grudges. These three great enemies were all recorded in his little notebook.

“In the world of the Bloodline Ancestor, there are over a hundred… corpses.

Well, as the saying goes, fallen petals are not heartless things; they turn into spring mud to nourish flowers.

Your descendants transformed into demons and ambushed me.

Shouldn’t you atone for your descendants’ sins, and be used to nourish… my divine infants?”

Qi Yuan closed his eyes.

At that moment, in an unknown world, the bones and broken remains lying in every corner flickered with blood light.

Qi Yuan was locating them.

His blood, the remnant spirits of the Primordial Seed, all served as coordinates.

He intended to send his divine infants over.

Those remnant bones were great nourishment, perfect for cultivating divine souls.

Countless streams of spiritual power surged; even the sun in the sky seemed to flicker. Qi Yuan exerted all his strength to send the divine infants within him across.

This sending was like smuggling.

Yet even so, the resistance was immense, and Qi Yuan’s spiritual power drained endlessly.

“No good, the resistance is too great. My spiritual power is insufficient.”

Qi Yuan was rarely this serious.

At this moment, he had to seek help from his wife.

“Goldfinch, lend me some spiritual power!” At this moment, Qi Yuan was especially grateful that the Goldfinch was right beside him.

At the same time, he felt that eating soft rice was truly sweet.

Especially when eating from a beauty like the Goldfinch.

“Husband, your servant is here.” Ning Tao, dressed in a black gauze skirt, her delicate figure faintly visible, arrived.

She did not flirt or tease; her warm lips directly met Qi Yuan’s.

Vast spiritual power poured into him in that instant.

Qi Yuan felt invigorated, his kidneys no longer weak.

The surging spiritual power continuously dragged the divine infants, smuggling them into that special world.

“Finally… one succeeded. Again!”

Ning Tao’s eyes showed joy, as if being able to relieve Qi Yuan’s troubles was an immensely happy thing.

…

The black seawater stretched for who knows how many thousands of miles.

Here, all was dead silent.

Occasionally, one could see broken wooden fragments or tattered robes.

But such trash, even a garbage collector would probably not bother with it.

At this moment, ripples suddenly appeared on the black sea surface.

Following the ripples, a thousand meters away, a bronze ship was slowly sailing.

The shape of the bronze ship was quite peculiar.

At the bow, there was something resembling a cannon.

The muzzle was thick with green rust, weathered by countless ages.

On the bronze ship were five iron chairs, each with a fishing rod beside it.

But the fishermen had long since vanished.

The fishing lines still hung into the black sea.

Following the lines, looking through the surface, one would see… at the end of each line, five dried corpses were hooked!

No, not dried corpses—they were alive.

At this moment, one of the hooked dried corpses moved its lips.

“Spatial fluctuations grow more frequent. It seems the Dawn Chant has come early. I fear… in no more than three thousand years, everything… will reach its end.”

The speaker was a serpentine creature, its body withered, with a vertical pupil in the center of its head.

But that vertical pupil seemed to have been torn away.

“Only three thousand years left?” spoke a round, egg-like creature, its voice full of lament.

“The Eastern Lord has restarted time and again, granting the world a thread of life, yet still… can the Dawn Chant not be avoided?”

"Pity that the Eastern Lord's affection runs so deep, guarding this world of deathly stillness alone, yet unable to awaken that one."

"Endless delusion, endless illusion, all to construct a single truth."

In the deep sea, the five suspended by fishing lines spoke with a rather desolate tone.

"Enough, such matters are beyond the involvement of us minor Martial Lords. Let us instead speak of something interesting."

"Speaking of which, I know not why, but just now, I suddenly caught the scent of my archrival. Strange—it had vanished without a trace for thirty thousand years, so how has its aura suddenly reappeared?" The serpentine creature wondered, its words laced with suspicion.

"Oh? Just now, I too seemed to sense an unusual aura."

"Could it be that some upheaval is occurring?"

"I do not know." The unknown creature, round as an egg, shook its head; yet when it shook, its entire body seemed to tremble.

"Qianyu Martial Lord, I hear that in the Shanhai Scrolls, a somewhat talented offspring of yours has appeared?" The serpentine creature looked toward the egg-shaped being.

This realm is called the Origin Land by all Martial Lords.

The Origin Land is the source of all things.

All living beings, all civilizations, were born from the Origin Land.

But a great war destroyed the Origin Land.

All living beings fell.

The Origin Land became a place of utter desolation.

Severed and lost in the river of time, known to none.

All Martial Lords are trapped within, unable to break free, their true names unknown to any.

Legend has it that the one the Eastern Lord loved most also fell in that war.

To revive the Origin Land and to see his beloved again, the Eastern Lord used the Brush of Mountains and Rivers to create the Shanhai Scrolls, gathering the power of all Martial Lords in the world to evolve countless realms.

Moreover, in the Land of Termination, he summoned those fated, using the fringes of the Origin Land as their strongholds. These fated ones are called Bloodline Bearers.

These Bloodline Bearers enter the Shanhai Scrolls and complete various tasks.

All of this is to restore vitality to the Origin Land and set it on its proper course.

The Origin Land is the beginning, a land of deathly stillness, its end already fixed;

The Shanhai Scrolls are the past, history, yet also hold infinite futures;

The Land of Termination is the present, which is also the future, and represents death.

The Eastern Lord's purpose is to find a perfect timeline within the Shanhai Scrolls, to reshape the past, present, and future.

But the time left for them is not much. According to ancient records, when the Dawn Chime sounds again, the Origin Land, the Land of Termination, and the Shanhai Scrolls will collapse in an instant.

Of course, all of this is mere legend—truth or falsehood, who can say?

After all, matters of time and space are not for Martial Lords like them to ponder.

They need only follow the Eastern Lord's plan and carry it out.

In the battle of old, they, these Martial Lords, were merely on the periphery.

The egg-shaped being nodded: "Mm, his talent is not bad. He seems to have reached the Martial Spirit realm, which is quite rare."

"With some nurturing, he could become a Martial King. If the Dawn Chime is averted, you might use him for breeding and spread your lineage." The serpentine creature said enviously.

For them, as Bloodline Progenitors, aside from themselves, offspring and descendants are etched into their instincts.

The strength of a Bloodline Progenitor depends on themselves and on the prosperity of their descendants.

"The Martial King realm is merely average. If he could step into the Martial Lord realm, he would be qualified to become a Second Generation Progenitor.

However, for him to enter the Martial Lord realm, my own cultivation must advance and my bloodline must undergo a leap to aid him.

But as things stand, we can barely save ourselves—how could we break through? He has no chance for a bloodline leap to enter the Martial Lord realm." The egg-shaped being said regretfully.

(The chapter ends)