Chapter 1264: Escaped the Net

Chapter 1264: Escaping the Net

The family holding jurisdiction over this celestial body was named Zhenyi.

The word "Zhen," according to the tenets of the divine lineages of the Fourth Star Ring, was an honorific that could only be claimed by a clan that had once given rise to a True God.

In the cognitive memories of the butterfly deity, the domain governed by the Zhenyi Clan was not merely limited to this single planet, but extended to the vast, encompassing nebula of the outer world and several surrounding universes.

All of it belonged to this singular clan.

Originally, this arrangement should have been eternal. After all, even if a True God fell, they would eventually return. Thus, before a new True God emerged, their jurisdiction would remain immutable through the ages.

Yet, an unexpected misfortune had befallen this clan.

Their True God was suspected to have fallen countless years ago, and to this day, had failed to return.

As time ebbed away, the consequences of this absence gradually came to light. The Zhenyi Clan found themselves unable to forcefully suppress the myriad races within their domain.

This forced them to progressively contract their sphere of influence until now, when the only entities that still answered their summons were this planet and a few dozen neighboring stars.

Such an instance where a True God failed to return was uncommon within the divine system, yet it was not entirely unheard of.

Generally speaking, most were ambushed and obstructed during the process of their reclamation, leading to unforeseen disasters in their return.

Xu Qing had personally participated in a similar affair, and in the earliest days, he had even served as bait.

In those years, Yu Liuchen had intended to hook a True God who was on the verge of returning.

"So the secret of reclamation is not flawless after all. As the eras progress and more deities and cultivators explore it... some glories are merely left in the past."

The butterfly that Xu Qing had transformed into flitted across the vault of heaven, drawing closer and closer to the three hundred and sixty jade-green halos.

He could already perceive that within the thirty-sixth ring, a massive gathering of deities was converging.

That was the site of summons for the Zhenyi Clan, whose jurisdiction had now so severely diminished.

It was also the very place of chaotic and mingled auras that Xu Qing had chosen, intending to rely on the secret technique of the Mud Fox to slip inside undetected.

"May the Mud Fox's secret method prove effective."

Xu Qing narrowed his eyes, preparing himself in the depths of his heart to force his way through should he fail. Then, with a sudden surge, he traversed the void and materialized before the thirty-sixth jade-green halo.

The moment he arrived, the jade-green radiance enveloped him, accompanied by the descent of divine pressure. Yet Xu Qing did not pause in the slightest; with a sweep of his wings, he abruptly flew inward.

In the next breath, he entered the halo.

The interior was a boundless expanse of jade-green, like a dyed void, save for the very center where a colossal picture scroll had already unrolled, spreading out toward both sides.

As for the depiction upon the canvas, it was a dense, intricate contour of countless lines. One could not discern what was painted; it was highly abstract, and at first glance, it was exceedingly difficult to perceive its essence.

One could only vaguely see what appeared to be multiple forms.

Xu Qing narrowed his eyes. This painting gave him a peculiar sensation, prompting him to inspect it intently.

Very quickly, he discerned something amiss. While a sense of trance arose in his heart, he was also deeply stirred.

"This painting..."

In truth, this painting could not simply be described as abstract, for that term was only employed when one failed to understand.

In reality, with Xu Qing's state of mind and cultivation, this was visibly a map of heaven and earth, depicting an entire world.

It was just that every three-dimensional aspect of all living beings and myriad things within that world had been entirely drawn out, every single stroke set down upon this canvas.

Consequently, a casual glance naturally yielded dense complexity, bizarreness, distortion, and abstraction.

"This object is by no means something a Divine Platform could possess; it must be an artifact of the True God tier. The manifestation within... could this be the inner essence of how divine pressure causes the surroundings to distort?"

A strange sensation rose within Xu Qing's heart. Shifting his form, he was about to approach the painting.

But in an instant, stream after stream of divine sense abruptly swept out from the world inside the painting.

Manifesting alongside the divine senses were figures of deities, revealing themselves one by one from the ruptures within the painting.

They numbered a full hundred, among whom were both True Fire and Flawless entities, as well as several of the Divine Platform tier.

And there were a few specific figures that caught Xu Qing's attention.

One was a sinister, bronze-corroded eye.

The pupil of this eye was visibly a bronze chime-bell. Beyond the pupil, stellar sands flowed, and the periphery was thick with drifting tentacles, their tips split into suction cups shaped like Buddha-hands.

With every rise and fall of its breath, the pupil was drawn into contraction, striking the chime-bell within and scattering a divine sound that drove mortals to madness.

There was another, even more bizarre: a withered old crone, entirely naked, her skin covered in protrusions. Those were thirty-six thousand human-faced stars circulating beneath her flesh.

Her withered hair drifted, tethering tens of thousands of levitating ancient corpses in the void behind her, each corpse chanting a funerary scripture from a different epoch.

Yet another possessed an inherent cycle of flourishing and decaying. The left half of its body bloomed with begonia flowers that could glimpse past lives, while the right half sloughed off ashes like charred wood. Suspended within its thoracic cavity were nine bronze soul-lamps, their flames cradling drowning souls.

Time and space were disordered where its feet took root; its left foot trod upon an ice age, while its right foot was sunk into a scorching stellar core.

This was the figure that drew Xu Qing's gaze the most.

Upon its body, he sensed a divine authority akin to his own Charter.

This caused Xu Qing's mind to focus, and he simultaneously understood that most of these deities did not hail from this planet; what they manifested now were their divine aspects.

This was also the manner by which deities, much like cultivators clashing with Daoist intent, determined their respective standing amongst one another.

"This opportunity..."

Xu Qing's inner thoughts stirred slightly, and the Mud Fox understood his intent. At the same time, both availed themselves of this opening where divine aspects were displayed to execute the secret technique of blending into the outside world.

In the next instant, Xu Qing's body shifted, and his butterfly form instantly underwent an aberration as his wings violently unfurled.

Those unfurled butterfly wings seemed to spread out like a millstone of samsara. Each scaly wing was woven from the membranes of unknown creatures, and crimson light flowed within its body, drawing in the surrounding void.

Particularly on its forewings, each was visibly embedded with ninety-six thousand weeping-blood compound eyes. Every pupil reflected lightning, and as they flapped and vibrated now, they emitted the resonant wailing of sorrowful ghosts.

It answered the sweeping divine senses of all the assembled gods.

What was even more bizarre was that this butterfly Xu Qing had transformed into had its two antennae wrapped around crimson rivers, bifurcating at their tips to suspend floating, rust-laden ghostly lamps.

It flew straight toward the scroll.

The flapping of its wings seemed to silently harmonize with the rhythm of cosmic tribulations. One could see the left wing raising a tide of annihilation, while the right wing showered the sweet dew of the Absolute Beginning. As for the scale-powder scattered along its flight path, the silhouettes of tens of thousands of scaled oxen could be seen bowing in worship.

This was precisely the divine aspect of the butterfly Xu Qing had possessed!

Instantly, most of those whose divine senses had swept out manifested expressions of reverence, while those few deities Xu Qing had previously gazed upon slightly retracted their auras.

They permitted the butterfly Xu Qing had chosen to become to descend into the scroll, hovering over an empty position.

Simultaneously, a divine voice echoed.

"Nether-Butterfly of Eternal Tribulation!"

"Unseen for a century, you are no longer far from breaking through your current realm."

This divine voice emerged from the ruptures within the scroll. Accompanied by this sound, a colossal black lotus slowly rose.

Within the black lotus sat a dwarf. This dwarf's body was pitch-black, and his form was encircled by three hundred and sixty ancient sloughed-off remains, each emitting a formidable pressure.

At the center of his brow, a speck of golden sand was adorned—the congealed blood of a True God.

His twin pupils reflected the jade-green halos, and his hands toyed with a single scale. The voice that issued forth at this moment vibrated the entire scroll, causing the myriad gods within to lower their heads one after another.

This figure was none other than the deity of the Zhenyi Clan, sovereign over this star.

From the butterfly spirit’s memories, Xu Qing had glimpsed this very god before—knowing him to be the current heir of the Zhenyi bloodline and the one who had issued this summons.

Thus, Xu Qing lowered his head slightly, showing reverence.

The dwarf gave a faint nod, spoke no further, and closed his eyes, settling into meditation atop the black lotus.

Silence fell around them; all the gathered deities waited.

Xu Qing too withdrew his divine form, yet his presence now—aided by secret arts performed in tandem with the mud fox—had seamlessly merged with the surroundings.

Maintaining this state, Xu Qing waited as time flowed onward.

Soon, three days passed.

The appointed hour drew ever nearer. During these three days, dozens more deities arrived—most summoned from other stars, though a few, like Xu Qing’s butterfly spirit guise, belonged to this very star:

the lightning worshipped by humanoid tribes, the god born from burning fungal carpets.

Meanwhile, divine consciousnesses from beyond had swept over the area several times.

Once, three true gods’ wills joined forces in their probing.

Thanks to the mud fox’s method—and Xu Qing’s vigilance—their scans failed to detect his concealment.

As for the other deities present, they seemed long accustomed to such frequent inspections by true gods and paid them little heed.

“As long as no more than five true gods probe at once, this art can hide me. Just two more days… Once these deities depart, it’ll be my chance to leave!”

Xu Qing murmured inwardly.

Those final two days stretched longer in his waiting than any before, yet fortune held—though true gods did probe again, none exceeded the limits of his concealment.

And so, the appointed day arrived.

The instant the hour struck, every deity present released their aura in unison. The dwarf seated on the black lotus opened his eyes and raised a hand with a sweep.

Black stones scattered forth, one landing before each deity, swiftly claimed by their respective owners through varied means.

Xu Qing too reached out and grasped his stone. At the moment of contact, he sensed within it the imprint of a true god’s divine core—an object of little use to him, but invaluable to lesser deities seeking breakthroughs.

“Esteemed ones,” the dwarf declared, “these are the promised True God Stones.”

“And after this expedition into the secret realm, the remaining True God Stones have already been prepared.”

“Now… depart!”

Golden blood flared fiercely upon the dwarf’s brow, transforming into a beam of golden light that suffused the jade-green halo in his eyes, manifesting it visibly in the air and rippling with waves of teleportation.

Immediately, a deity shot forward, plunging into the halo and vanishing in an instant.

As the others followed one by one, Xu Qing readied the escape plan he’d long prepared—

but at that precise moment, a vision struck him with overwhelming dread.

Across the starry void, a vast tide of true divine consciousnesses roared like an ocean, sweeping through the nebula where the star lay. Within that tide dwelled the wills of more than ten true gods!

The moment Xu Qing sensed it, his pupils contracted sharply, and his heart sank like a stone.

He knew with chilling certainty: if swept by this scan, his concealment would surely shatter.

In that critical instant, without hesitation, he abandoned all thought of escape, blurred his form, and hurled himself straight toward the glowing halo—plunging inside.

He vanished in a flash.