Chapter 1273: Bro, Take You to Do Big Things

Chapter 1273: Big Brother’s Taking You to Do Something Grand

On the black glacier, Xu Qing raced through the air at full speed.

Truly like a ravenous wolf!

Indeed, during this time on the primal Mother Star, he had yet to find any way out. Though his own reserves of Source Essence were sufficient, the constant absorption by the star itself still left him uneasy.

After all, it wasn’t just himself who needed it—Mud Fox did too. As for the Divine Maiden… in recent days, Xu Qing had even begun contemplating whether to abandon her altogether.

The Source Essence harvested from those scattered remains barely covered their needs. And as time passed, the rate at which the star siphoned away essence only increased.

Thus, throughout this past month, while searching for an exit, he’d also been hunting for intact divine corpses!

But complete corpses belonged only to True Gods—rare by nature—and after crashing down, they sank into the glacier within mere days. Finding one was like searching for a needle in an ocean.

And celestial falls? Those relied purely on luck.

In the entire month, he’d witnessed only two: one at the very beginning, and now this second.

That was precisely why his heart pounded with excitement now.

“This time, fortune favors me—the crash site is close. If I act immediately, before the star drains too much Source Essence from the corpse, I can refine it using the Profound Abyss Soul Refining Scripture and ease our shortage considerably.”

As these thoughts flashed through his mind, Xu Qing accelerated further.

Half an hour later…

A massive corpse, its entire body tinged blue and studded with black crystalline growths across its skin, came into view.

Even in death, it radiated lingering divine might, distorting the space around it.

Beneath the glacier, countless Source Aberrations had already gathered, waiting—waiting for the corpse to sink.

Xu Qing paused midair, swept his gaze over the scene, confirmed the being was truly dead, and without hesitation plunged through the warped void onto the divine corpse.

He landed squarely on its chest.

From his prior experience refining fragments and whole corpses alike, he knew well that the chest usually retained the richest concentration of Source Essence.

The moment his feet touched down, he wasted no time activating the Profound Abyss Soul Refining Scripture. Raising his right hand, he pressed it firmly against the corpse’s skin.

Direct contact refined essence far more efficiently!

His eyes gleamed sharply as he began the process with full force.

Immediately, thin strands of Source Essence rose from the corpse’s chest and flowed into Xu Qing’s body.

His eyes lit up.

“Good—I arrived in time! The star hasn’t siphoned off too much yet!”

Heartened, Xu Qing refined at maximum speed, remembering to share some with Mud Fox, who let out a soft, delighted chirp of satisfaction.

Below the ice, the Source Aberrations grew restless. Though their cries couldn’t reach the surface, their instinct to compete for food drove them into frenzy—they slammed repeatedly against the ice layer.

Xu Qing ignored them completely, wholly immersed in refining, drawing strand after strand of essence into himself.

Under his touch, the skin of the divine corpse gradually lost its bluish hue, turning pale and even sinking inward slightly.

Seeing this, Xu Qing prepared to shift position to continue refining elsewhere.

But at that exact moment—disaster struck!

A hand, appearing as if from nowhere, shot out from beneath the now-pallid, sunken skin of the corpse—so sudden, so stealthy, that Xu Qing neither sensed nor evaded it in time.

It seized his wrist just as he was about to lift his hand!

Xu Qing’s pupils contracted violently. He’d meticulously inspected the corpse before beginning—confirmed its death, confirmed it posed no threat.

Yet now, such a shocking turn!

Instantly, his Immortal Embryo roared into manifestation behind him, and all his cultivation erupted in a cataclysmic burst. Even Mud Fox, terrified, readied to sacrifice everything to aid him.

But in the next heartbeat—gentle Source Essence flowed from that very hand into Xu Qing’s body… and then it released him willingly.

Xu Qing recoiled instinctively, suspicion flashing in his eyes.

Then, a familiar voice echoed around him.

“How long has it been since you last ate properly?”

The voice stunned Xu Qing. Looking down, he saw the divine corpse’s skin collapsing over a wide area, revealing two familiar figures within—

a man and a woman.

The female cultivator smiled warmly, her oval face glowing with a pearlescent sheen. Her eyes, slightly upturned yet softened by delicate under-eye curves, shimmered with gentle affection and unmistakable fondness.

Beside her stood the male cultivator, clad in a dark robe embroidered with subtle silver threads. Tall and straight as a pine, the corners of his lips curled in a faint, teasing smile as he regarded Xu Qing with amusement.

Staring at them, Xu Qing froze—his expression one rarely seen on his usually composed face.

He never imagined he’d meet these two here—of all times, while refining a corpse!

“You two…”

Seeing Xu Qing’s stunned look, Spirit Phoenix Immortal Lady shot a reproachful glance at Aurora Young Master.

“Why did you suddenly grab Little Friend Xu’s hand just now?”

Aurora Young Master laughed heartily.

“Must’ve been overjoyed seeing an old friend! Xu Qing, you weren’t frightened, were you?”

Xu Qing took a deep breath—and suddenly, his eyes blazed with realization. This must be why the Immortal Sovereign had sent him here!

He quickly clasped his fists respectfully.

“I pay my respects to both seniors!”

“What’s this? After the Aurora Immortal Palace gifted you, and Heaven Beyond Heaven gifted you too—you still call us ‘seniors’? So formal between us?” Aurora Young Master raised an eyebrow, and for a fleeting moment, that mischievous, cheeky little figure from the Aurora Immortal Palace reappeared in his demeanor.

Beside him, Spirit Phoenix smiled softly. Ever since entering the Fourth Star Ring, she’d mostly seen her husband grave and solemn—rarely this relaxed.

She understood—it was because of Xu Qing’s presence.

Smiling, she teased, “Oh? Are you really so eager for Little Xu to call you ‘big brother’?”

Aurora Young Master gave a knowing half-smile.

Xu Qing blinked, memories of the Aurora Immortal Palace flooding back—and smoothly complied.

“Big brother.”

Aurora Young Master burst into laughter. Without asking why Xu Qing was here, he merely flicked his sleeve. Instantly, the divine corpse beneath him thundered and visibly dissolved, transforming into countless crystalline clusters of condensed Source Essence that flew toward Xu Qing.

“Come,” he declared, “Big brother’s taking you to do something grand.”

With that, Aurora Young Master moved, joining Spirit Phoenix Immortal Lady as they carried Xu Qing straight toward the heavens—heading directly for… that canyon.

Hearing those familiar words, gazing at Aurora Young Master before him, Xu Qing’s heart churned with emotion—and in that turbulence rose a sudden, poignant longing for another person who’d often spoken those very same words to him.

“I wonder how Senior Brother is faring now…”

Xu Qing drew a deep breath, suppressing the surge of longing within him, and followed the Young Lord of Aurora and his wife into the distance.

The three figures cleaved through the eerie emerald sky, their silhouettes blending seamlessly with the moonlight.

Yet that ghostly green glow soon dissolved into the black, biting wind sweeping across heaven and earth.

That same wind, laden with ice crystals dyed in spectral hues, swept across the firmament until it reached a colossal canyon—where it paused. The trio’s forms emerged once more.

“This is the place,” murmured the Young Lord of Aurora, gazing downward.

This canyon snaked down from the farthest north, carving a path clean through the Primordial Mother Star—a sight both horrifying and haunting, like an ancient, festering scar laid bare to bone.

Within the chasm, countless bronze gates Xu Qing had glimpsed earlier now trembled faintly beneath the Young Lord’s gaze. Before those gates, the Azure Ice Origin Fiends lifted their heads.

Their eyes locked unblinkingly onto the Young Lord and his companions.

But unlike Xu Qing’s earlier encounter…

These fiends now bore expressions of terror—and profound dread—their throats rumbling with low, guttural growls, like beasts cornered under overwhelming pressure.

Watching this, Xu Qing felt an unexpected sense of safety bloom within him as he looked toward the Young Lord ahead.

Hovering midair, the Young Lord stood unmoved, his dark robes utterly still despite the howling gale.

After a long silence, his fingers brushed the wine flask hanging at his waist. He lifted it to his lips, took a single sip, then flung its contents outward.

The spilled wine shimmered—and within its droplets flickered the collapsing echoes of countless dying stars!

“The Immortal Sovereign once said,” the Young Lord spoke calmly, his voice resonating through the void, “that this rift upon the Primordial Mother Star was left behind by the birth of the First Deity of the Fourth Stellar Ring. It is the will of cosmic law—and the secret origin of divinity itself.”

As he spoke, he raised his pale right hand and pressed it toward one side of the glacial wall lining the canyon—without touching it.

The glacier shuddered violently, as though gripped by an invisible force, cracks already beginning to spiderweb across its surface.

“But in my view,” the Young Lord continued, “if we regard this star as the mother of that deity, then what truly happened was this: the child tore open its own mother’s womb from within—and clawed its way out. This wound… is all that remains.”

The moment those words left his lips, his left hand shot up—and he thrust it toward the opposite, endless expanse of ice on the canyon’s far rim.

Then—he wrenched outward with brutal force!

Heaven and earth trembled as if struck by a quake.

From deep within the ice came a grating, teeth-chilling sound of fracturing stone. The glaciers flanking the entire rift began to writhe slowly, as though an old, crusted scab were being peeled away.

Every bronze gate embedded in the ice roared in unison.

Thick, ink-black mist erupted violently from the widening fissures. And before those gates, the Origin Fiends bellowed fiercely—as if driven by primal instinct—launching themselves upward on torrents of that very mist, bursting out of the canyon!

They shrieked as they hurtled toward the Young Lord of Aurora.

“Mere vessels—dare you prattle so?”

A crimson vertical eye blazed open upon the Young Lord’s brow. An overwhelming aura of divine wrath exploded outward.

With a thunderous crash, the surging black mist disintegrated into nothingness. The Origin Fiends wailed in agony under that pressure, plummeting helplessly—one after another—even some reduced instantly to dust.

Xu Qing’s heart churned at the sight.

He’d known the Young Lord must be formidable—after all, he was grandson of the Immortal Sovereign, son of the Aurora Immortal Lord, born extraordinary, gifted beyond measure. Though sealed away for ages within the Immortal Palace, even there he had shaped its tides and storms.

The layered worlds born of his machinations had become opportunities for Xia Xian himself.

And though the Aurora Immortal Lord had perished, he had left nothing undone for his son.

Now, newly unsealed, the Young Lord had come here—and considering the Immortal Sovereign’s hidden designs behind all this…

“Peak of Xia Xian!”

Xu Qing’s eyes gleamed with sudden understanding.

“Before your brother arrived,” Linghuang Immortal Lady spoke softly, “we concealed ourselves near the edge of the Fourth Stellar Ring’s battlefield for some time. Then, when the moment was ripe—he struck down the Right Wing Commander of the Fourth Ring.”

Her words struck Xu Qing like a gale—sweeping away mists that had long clouded his mind since the Fifth Ring’s warfront.

Back then, Xu Qing had deduced that the Flesh-and-Blood Grinding Mill on the Fifth Ring’s Left Wing served as a beacon—designed to draw every eye. He’d suspected something monumental must be unfolding elsewhere in secret.

And indeed—it had come to pass: the Right Wing Commander of the Fourth Ring had been assassinated by an unknown hand!

It was precisely this act that summoned the Divine Maiden herself, who sought to hasten the fallen commander’s revival through her bloodline gifts.

Thus followed the rumors Xu Qing later heard—of Ling Ke’s return through borrowed form… and the Divine Maiden’s grievous injury…

Which led directly to her being hunted—and ultimately captured by Xu Qing!

Each thread intertwined perfectly with the next!

“And yet—all this was merely the first phase of the Fifth Ring’s grand scheme!”

“Using chaos on the Left Wing to forge a Flesh-and-Blood Beacon—to lure attention, draw in legions of deities—and thereby grant the Young Lord of Aurora his chance to strike. That was the first objective.”

“Using the death of the divine commander to summon Ling Ke—and entice the Divine Maiden. That was the second.”

“On the surface, Lord Zhanlu orchestrated all this in pursuit of the secrets hidden within Li Zhu God-Emperor’s divine core—making the Divine Maiden appear to be the ultimate prize…”

“Meanwhile, Li Zhu God-Emperor saw through the ruse—and turned the tables. Allowing his Divine Maiden to be captured, he intended to exploit Lord Zhanlu’s investigation, using her bloodline to secretly probe Zhanlu’s own Heavenly Edicts!”

“Hence came the subsequent exchange…”

“But looking back now—this entire sequence… from beginning to end… was always part of the Flesh-and-Blood Beacon strategy—to make that beacon burn ever brighter!”

“If the initial Left Wing beacon aimed only to draw the Right Wing’s divine forces for the assassination, then the great battle sparked by the Divine Maiden’s arrival was meant to ensnare the entire battlefield—and trick Li Zhu himself!”

“And finally, that transaction—which transformed the battlefield itself into a blazing beacon—even my departure and the bounty placed upon me—were all pieces of that same beacon! All designed to fix the full attention of every deity in the Fourth Ring!”

“Layer upon layer—each escalation greater than the last!”

“And all of it… existed solely to conceal one truth…”

“The presence of the Young Lord of Aurora here!”

In that instant, clarity flooded Xu Qing’s mind. Every tangled thread snapped into alignment.

“No wonder… such is the Immortal Sovereign’s design…”

Xu Qing drew another deep breath, glanced once more at the Young Lord ahead, then turned to Linghuang Immortal Lady and asked,

“What does he intend to do now?”

At his question, Linghuang’s gaze settled lovingly upon her husband as he strode steadily toward the canyon’s edge. Softly, she replied to Xu Qing:

“Your brother… is going to peel the skin from this Primordial Mother Star.”