Chapter 1271: Chronicles of the Mother Star

Chapter 1271: Chronicles of the Primordial Homeworld

Upon the ebony glaciers within the spacetime rift, Xu Qing’s face darkened upon hearing the Star-Eyed Goddess’s choked cry. His right hand shot up, fingers clawing the air.

Instantly, the goddess materialized, seized by the throat and hauled before him. Xu Qing loosened his grip just enough for speech, his voice calm.

"Speak truthfully of what you know."

Confronted by Xu Qing’s icy gaze, the trauma of her capture, and the Mud Fox’s relentless methods, the Star-Eyed Goddess’s defenses lay utterly shattered.

She knew concealment would serve her nothing. After a brief silence, she whispered.

"All here matches a place from ancient lore… the Primordial Homeworld of the Fourth Stellar Ring."

"Continue."

Xu Qing’s expression remained impassive.

The goddess’s voice echoed.

"The Primordial Homeworld—legend claims it birthed the first deity within the Fourth Stellar Ring, long before recorded time."

"Before this Primordial Deity, no gods walked the Fourth Ring. Only through Its emergence did divinity arise."

A flicker of shadow passed through Xu Qing’s eyes.

The goddess shuddered beneath that gaze. Hesitating, she pressed on.

"This tale is ancient beyond reckoning. I learned fragments from my divine sire, yet even the Fourth Ring’s gods do not wholly accept it."

"Concerning divine origins, the Primordial Homeworld is but one theory."

She hurried to explain.

"Speak only of certainties!" Xu Qing’s voice turned glacial.

The goddess nodded frantically.

"One truth stands: gods in divine decay, sensing their bodies wither, feel the Homeworld’s summons. They drift through the void along fixed paths, like falling leaves returning to root."

"Yet this journey remains veiled, unknowable. For eons, few gods have known the Homeworld’s location."

"Only death brings them here."

Xu Qing interjected.

"Divine decay?"

The goddess hesitated, then revealed the gods’ secret.

"Below True Godhood, deities lack immortality. Only by claiming a True Name do they achieve permanence."

"Yet this permanence clings only to the True Name—not the body. All divine forms, True God or not, succumb to natural decay after eons."

"Until they wither…"

"And when drawn back to the Homeworld, nameless gods become nourishment. For those bearing True Names, the Homeworld acts as a womb, forging new divine bodies."

"To receive the True Name anew, as if reborn—resurrection."

"This process is slow. It is one law of True God revival."

Xu Qing frowned.

"This contradicts what I know of revival!"

The goddess hastened to clarify.

"Because revival takes three forms: one within the corpse of the slain, another by summons from a Divine Sovereign. Both restore only those who died violently—not from decay."

"Only the decayed are drawn to the Homeworld."

The Star-Eyed Goddess murmured softly.

Xu Qing pondered. He had never heard this before, yet all True God revivals he’d witnessed involved battle deaths. Still, doubt lingered. He silently queried the Mud Fox.

But the Mud Fox, a later-born deity without True Godhood and lacking the goddess’s exalted lineage, knew nothing of this. No answer came.

Xu Qing gestured downward with his left hand toward the black glaciers.

"What are those aberrations beneath the ice?"

"Source Blights…" the goddess answered swiftly.

"Source Blights are life unique to the Homeworld. They feed on divine corpses, part of the Homeworld itself. Born here, dying here, they assemble new divine bodies."

Xu Qing narrowed his eyes, then rumbled low.

"Can Source Blights leave the Homeworld?"

The goddess shook her head.

"Never have I heard of Source Blights departing. None exist beyond this place."

Xu Qing fell silent. After a long moment, he asked sharply.

"Does only the Fourth Stellar Ring possess a Primordial Homeworld? Or do all Thirty-Six Ascendant Rings?"

"All do," the goddess whispered.

She withheld nothing now, though such knowledge was divine secrecy—rarely known below True Godhood, sensed only dimly through bloodlines by those who attained it.

Her father, a Divine Emperor, had granted her fuller understanding.

"How then do we leave?" Xu Qing’s eyes sharpened, pinning her.

The goddess trembled violently, shaking her head fast.

"I do not know… Only that the living cannot come here…"

A thought remained unspoken: her utter bewilderment that Xu Qing had arrived at all.

Xu Qing frowned, preparing another question.

Then, a sight struck his spirit to its core.

Before him, the goddess’s skin, perhaps lingering too long in this place, began to age—cracking like ancient porcelain, rotting from within.

Simultaneously, the Mud Fox’s panicked cry echoed in Xu Qing’s mind.

"Master! My strength fades! My divine source vanishes!"

The goddess too sensed her change, terror flooding her eyes.

"The Primordial Homeworld… it absorbs and dissects all life that enters!"

Xu Qing scanned himself, finding no flaw. He glanced at the goddess’s terror-stricken face.

"Are you certain no path out exists?"

Her trembling worsened. She strained to recall, but found no answer.

Xu Qing swept his hand, banishing the goddess. He surveyed the desolate expanse, monitoring his own divine source while dissecting the gathered truths.

"Primordial Homeworld…"

"The suspected birthplace of the First Divine of the Fourth Stellar Ring."

"The final resting place for all decayed divinities…"

"The living may not come here… Then what purpose did the Immortal Venerable serve by sending me?"

"And those so-called Primordial Blights… they bear a striking resemblance to what lies within the Captain. If what dwells in him truly is a Primordial Blight…"

Xu Qing fell silent. He had long suspected the Captain’s secrets, yet even now, understanding remained scarce.

This was no time for such ruminations. Xu Qing lifted his gaze toward the heavens.

"Whatever the Immortal Venerable’s reason for bringing me here, my sole concern must be finding a way out!"

"That bronze gate within the temple—I tried it already. It offers no escape."

"Then perhaps the answer lies above, within the firmament itself."

With that thought, Xu Qing surged upward, streaking through the void with a thunderous roar.

Time passed.

Yet the sky here seemed boundless. No matter how high Xu Qing ascended, he remained suspended midair.

No end in sight.

Below, the black glaciers stretched endlessly, unchanged even as he climbed, as if truly infinite.

This sight chilled Xu Qing to his core.

"By my speed, I should have flown beyond a universe by now."

"Yet here, I remain trapped in the middle of nowhere!"

Xu Qing murmured inwardly, noticing the deepening weakness in Mud Fox and Star-Eyed Goddess. He ignored the goddess but channeled some of his own primordial essence toward Mud Fox, easing its decline.

He pondered.

"It is not height. The longer one lingers here, the stronger the decay."

Convinced, Xu Qing accelerated, hurtling upward once more.

But soon, his body jolted violently. His pupils contracted.

A wave of primal dread crashed over him, overwhelming and absolute. Simultaneously, a bone-deep cold surged through his limbs.

Every fiber of flesh, every thread of divine consciousness screamed of peril.

The source lay above—in that endless, sightless sky.

To ascend further would invite unimaginable horror.

"Must not proceed!"

Xu Qing’s mind raced. He plummeted downward until, at a certain altitude, the terror finally receded.

Yet his spirit found no respite, for a new crisis now gripped him.

Following the goddess and Mud Fox, Xu Qing’s own primordial essence began to vanish!

His expression darkened upon realizing this.

Though the loss was slow, and his reserves—bolstered by absorbing the black orb within the secret realm—remained ample,

this draining could not be halted, no matter how fiercely he sealed himself.

Mud Fox, sensing Xu Qing’s plight, grew frantic.

"Master, the drain quickens. If this continues…"

"I know."

Xu Qing replied, veering sharply toward the glaciers below. He shot downward at blinding speed, sonic booms shattering the silence.

His destination: the fallen divine corpse he had glimpsed earlier.

Soon, a colossal divine body, half-sunken into the earth, filled Xu Qing’s vision.

This was the same corpse he had seen—a massive form half-buried in ice, slowly sinking deeper.

The ice did not shatter under its weight; it absorbed the corpse like liquid, an eerie, seamless dissolution.

Beneath the surface, countless Primordial Blights writhed, feeding.

Without hesitation, Xu Qing reached out. Silver light blazed in his eyes.

Instantly, a faint trickle of primordial essence streamed from the corpse, replenishing his and Mud Fox’s dwindling reserves.

This was the Mystic Abyss Divine Refining Art!

"So it is true…"

Xu Qing whispered, silver light flickering in his gaze.