Chapter 1272: Coming? Coming!

Chapter 1272 Here They Come? Here They Are!

The Mystic Dark Soul-Refining Art, a technique of unbridled tyranny, can forcefully refine the source substance of true gods.

Xu Qing lifted his head and gazed into the distance, the fog within his mind shifting like mist before a sudden wind, clearing away a fraction.

He then put away the divine technique and attempted to use standard gathering methods on the divine corpse to make a final confirmation.

The outcome matched his judgment perfectly, resulting in absolute nothingness.

As expected, it is just as I thought.

To gather from a true god, one must either rely on the suppressing might of the Aurora Sky Beyond Skies, or the god in question must have fallen into a severely diminished realm, much like the Goddess.

Furthermore, of those two, one was only partially returned and incomplete, while the other had been gravely wounded in the past, her cultivation realm impossible to fully restore.

As for this divine corpse before me, its source substance grew dim after death, devoured by the source abominations, absorbed by the primordial mother planet... Therefore, ordinary gathering methods cannot extract even a shred, and only the Mystic Dark Soul-Refining Art, through its sheer tyranny, can wrench away a meager portion.

With this technique, I can counteract the manner in which this place siphons my own source substance, granting me the qualification to remain here much longer.

However, the Celestial Venerable's purpose cannot possibly be just to have me absorb divine corpses here to elevate my own cultivation and realm.

Xu Qing narrowed his eyes, concluding that the Celestial Venerable's layered arrangements must be plotting something incredibly deep.

In all probability, I am merely a single link in his grand design, or perhaps a supporting piece.

And staying here is the foundation...

Which means I do not need to overthink the Celestial Venerable's ultimate plan; I only need to walk forward, and perhaps in some unforeseen turn of events, his objective will reveal itself before me.

Yet this sensation is deeply distasteful.

Xu Qing fell silent, inherently disliking the feeling of his destiny being manipulated, even if the one pulling the strings was the Celestial Venerable.

Still, asking himself honestly, ever since coming to the Fifth Star Ring from the Wanggu Continent, although everything was indeed achieved through his own struggles, it was undeniable that the unseen gaze of the Celestial Venerable from the shadows had spared him an immense amount of trouble.

These things, Xu Qing could feel them clearly as he walked his path.

Thus, he let out a soft sigh and diverted a portion of the absorbed source substance into the Mud Fox, ensuring both sides could counteract the local erosion, before sitting cross-legged to absorb the rest with full concentration.

A few days later, as the divine corpse completely sank beneath the glacier under the blue, unblinking gazes of those source abominations, Xu Qing's form blurred, and he soared into the sky.

He sped through the midair of the primordial mother planet.

The refined source substance is enough to ensure the Mud Fox and I remain unharmed for the next few days...

Next, it would not hurt to explore this place a bit more.

If I can find a way out, that would naturally be best.

As for the Celestial Venerable's plan... I will treat this as paying back a debt.

But until that plan manifests, my main priority must still be my cultivation.

Xu Qing made his decision, and during his rapid flight, he also sent a portion of the source substance into the Goddess's body.

The Goddess... cannot die just yet.

Because dying here would render Her utterly valueless.

In Xu Qing's view, even if She were to die, She would have to provide sufficient benefits to him for it to be considered a worthy death.

In this manner, time flowed onward, and half a month slipped away.

Since the primordial mother planet possessed no distinction between day and night, bathed perpetually in an eerie green moonlight, Xu Qing calculated the passage of time according to the metrics of the Wanggu Continent.

Over these two weeks, he witnessed divine corpses plunging from the firmament on multiple occasions, though most disintegrated on their own mid-flight, dissolving into dust, and only a few that had reached the Divine Platform stage remained partially intact, falling onto the glaciers as wreckage and slowly sinking into the depths.

It seems the Goddess did not lie in this regard... gods below the rank of true gods will also return to this place after their divine decay, becoming nutrients.

Only true gods can have their corpses fall whole.

So rather than calling this place a primordial mother planet, it is more accurate to call it a corpse star, much like the Netherworld.

Xu Qing murmured in his heart as he watched a god of divine fire turn to flying ash across the canopy of heaven.

Behind him lay a collapsed expanse of the glacier, beneath which countless source abominations could be seen staring fixately up at him.

Through the shifting mass of those abominations, a divine temple could be discerned at the lowest depths of the glacier, appearing faint and ephemeral under the moonlight filtering through the shattered ice.

After a long while, Xu Qing withdrew his gaze and looked toward the glacier, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.

During these two weeks, he had explored not only the surface of the ice but also beneath it, discovering the locations of three divine temples.

Without exception, every single one was surrounded by endless skeletal remains and countless source beasts.

Xu Qing had spared no expense of his source substance, erupting with full combat power to force his way inside, and within all three temples, he had beheld bronze gates.

Regrettably, no matter how he tried to activate them, those three bronze gates remained utterly unresponsive, exactly like the one he had first encountered upon his arrival.

It appears that although the gates of the temples are the paths into this place, they are not the exits leading out.

Xu Qing reached a firm conclusion, his gaze sweeping over the source beasts as another deduction formed in his mind.

There must exist some sort of connection between the temples and the source beasts.

This was a question Xu Qing currently had no answer for, so after a moment of contemplation, his body shifted, and he took to the sky once more, heading into the distance.

He needed to search for more fallen divine corpses to replenish the source substance lost by himself and the Mud Fox, thereby buying more time.

This was how he had spent the past half-month.

Though he had not seen another intact true god corpse like the first one during these two weeks, fragments and wreckage still drifted down.

Even if these remnants could not provide the abundant source substance of a true god corpse to sustain him for days at a time, absorbing them in large quantities allowed for a makeshift replenishment.

This enabled him to continuously explore the realm.

Thus, days trickled by one after another, and the scope of Xu Qing's exploration across this primordial mother planet grew wider and wider as he maintained his source substance supply, yet above the glaciers, nothing changed in the slightest.

It remained black, and it remained boundless.

Aside from the source abominations beneath the ice and the occasional fragments falling from the sky, there was nothing else.

The entire world seemed to contain only him as a normal living being, flying eternally between heaven and earth.

Until... on a day when Xu Qing's perception had grown somewhat numb from this unrelenting monotony, as he was speeding through the firmament, his body suddenly jolted to a halt, and he cast his gaze far into the distance.

In that exact instant, a sharp, brilliant light flared in his eyes.

That is...

At the very edge of his vision, upon this black glacier, a colossal rift had abruptly manifested!

It resembled a canyon, striking and terrifying to behold.

This was the very first time in an entire month that Xu Qing had laid eyes on a different topographical feature!

This discovery jolted his spirits, and accelerating his pace, he transformed into a meteor-like streak of rainbow light across the sky, instantly traversing the void to appear directly above the canyon!

Peering down, the canyon was so immense it looked like a scar carved into the earth, its length stretching far beyond the limits of Xu Qing's perception, and its depth doing the same.

What was even more startling, sending a profound shockwave through Xu Qing's mind...

Was that within the canyon, upon the icy walls of both flanks, from the highest ridge to the lowest depths, there existed an uncountable number of bronze gates.

Some gates were sealed deep within the ice, others were half-exposed to the open air, and a few were completely revealed.

If it were only this, it would not have been enough to stir such waves in Xu Qing's soul; what truly caused his pupils to contract sharply was that outside those completely revealed bronze gates, distinct and unique source abominations were actually sitting cross-legged!

These Origin Abominations were not merely blue-armed; their entire bodies were sheathed in azure ice, bearing an uncanny resemblance—nearly identical—to the one sealed within Senior Brother’s body.

“No… The one inside Senior Brother is deep blue, but these… are pale!”

The moment Xu Qing laid eyes upon them, his wariness surged to its utmost. He had clashed with these Origin Beasts more than once and knew well their nature and tenacity. Yet never before had he encountered so many of them, all uniformly cloaked in this pale blue.

Almost as soon as Xu Qing fixed his gaze upon them, several of the beasts seated cross-legged before the bronze gates lifted their heads, their icy blue eyes locking onto him with chilling intensity.

Xu Qing made no rash move. Neither did the beasts—they simply watched him.

After a long silence, Xu Qing slowly stepped backward. Some of the beasts then lowered their gazes.

“They can’t get out…”

Drawing from past experience, Xu Qing formed a clear judgment in his mind—and understood that if he entered this gorge, peril beyond measure awaited him.

“But why are they all sitting outside those fully manifested bronze gates?”

Frowning deeply, Xu Qing eventually settled into a cross-legged position midair, facing off against the beasts while observing them in silence.

Several days later, a strange transformation within the gorge finally unraveled the mystery for Xu Qing.

One of the many bronze gates below began to open slowly.

As it did, a divine whisper echoed from within:

“Kan Shan… Kan Shan…”

It was the voice of a god, imbued with the power of stellar rings. The moment it sounded, it drew in foreign essences from all directions, weaving them into ethereal, interlaced divine sigils that drifted forth from the gate—

Straight toward the Origin Abomination seated before it!

The sigil radiated unfathomable antiquity and inscrutable mystery. Merely glancing at it sent tremors through Xu Qing’s spirit, forcing him to retreat hastily.

As for the Origin Abomination, its eyes blazed with intense blue light, unleashing a deafening roar—a sound that shook heaven and earth.

To it, this sigil was an inescapable tribulation. Howling madly, it charged straight at the sigil.

Before Xu Qing’s very eyes, the Abomination and the sigil collided instantly.

Golden radiance erupted from the sigil; azure brilliance exploded from the beast. They seemed to devour each other.

Yet clearly, the azure glow stood no chance against the golden light—like snowflakes cast into boiling water. No matter how fiercely it flared, the blue light could not withstand the onslaught and was ultimately swallowed whole by the golden radiance, erased without a trace.

Then… as though absorbing everything from the slain Abomination, skeletal structures sprouted from the sigil’s core, followed by veins, flesh—until at last, a divine body took form!

Brimming with boundless vitality!

A newborn god!

An aura of true divinity emanated from the form—but before it could awaken, the nearby bronze gate suddenly sucked it in.

And vanished.

Xu Qing witnessed every detail. His heart churned with rising waves of revelation.

“This… is the process by which gods here are reforged!”

“So reforging requires an Origin Abomination entirely encased in blue ice as its vessel—and what drifts out when the gate opens… must be a True Name!”

“A True Name imprinted, transmuting into a new god—this process leaves the Abomination utterly powerless, as if bound by fate itself!”

His heartbeat quickened.

“Then… since I also entered through a bronze gate—was I brought in via a True Name as well?”

He hesitated slightly, then gazed down at the rows of Abominations and bronze gates below—and inevitably thought of Senior Brother.

“In that case, Senior Brother is truly extraordinary!

“Each time he unleashes his power, an Origin Abomination emerges from his chest—and it appears as though that Abomination was always part of him!”

“Moreover, Senior Brother himself carries an air of deathlessness, of indestructibility!”

Xu Qing’s thoughts raced, recalling every past encounter with Senior Brother—when suddenly, far across the sky, a god’s corpse, having traversed an endless journey, finally arrived.

It appeared against the firmament—

And began plummeting toward the earth!

Unlike others, it did not disintegrate mid-fall.

It was the corpse of a True God!

At the sight of it, Xu Qing immediately stilled his swirling thoughts, his eyes alight with sharp intent.

Absorbing remnants yielded only limited Source Essence.

But a True God’s corpse? That was incomparably richer!

In a flash, Xu Qing shot forward like a starving wolf, racing toward where the corpse would land.

Meanwhile, within the falling divine remains, Lingfeng Immortaless opened her eyes.

“My lord, we’ve arrived.”

Beside her, the Young Lord of Aurora opened his eyes as well, his expression calm—about to speak—when suddenly, his placid demeanor twisted into something strange.

“Hm?”