Chapter 1347: Primordial Mother Star

Chapter 1347: The Primal Mother Star

This was clearly a ritual.

Its scale defied comprehension, staggering the heavens and earth.

Using the left eye of the Shattered Firmament as sky, and the right eye of the Wasteland Earth as ground, it established the cosmic poles of this rite—piercing through the void, shattering time itself.

Then, all converged upon Prince Ziqing—upon the skull he held aloft.

That skull became an anchor in space and time, initiating a singular return rooted in Ziqing’s fate.

If spacetime were clear water,

then the skull of Prince Ziqing from long ago was a drop of pitch-black ink.

That ink fell into the water—

spreading, staining everything.

It dyed the world, altering its hue.

The entire Devouring Heaven Domain turned dark.

As the stain expanded, every trace of the Ziqing Upper Kingdom—outside and within—began vanishing as though it had never existed, fading with terrifying speed.

The dust of ages peeled away from spacetime, restoring Devouring Heaven to its original form.

At last, even the capital of Ziqing disappeared amid that rising tempest of erasure—

along with Xu Qing and Ziqing themselves, who stood within the imperial palace.

In the next instant, their presence and every vestige of them ceased to exist.

Cut off from the present world,

they stepped into antiquity.

…

Wind blew from heaven and earth,

carrying the breath of ancient times—and a faint, lingering scent of blood.

It swept across the shattered land, over withered forests, and in the void, like the brushstroke of celestial artistry, painted Xu Qing as he would appear tens of thousands of years hence.

His figure emerged.

The moment he appeared, Xu Qing’s eyes gleamed with astonishment. Gazing around, his mind surged with emotion.

“The aura here… this is truly the place I sought!”

He lifted his head, looking toward the sky.

The firmament was grayer than in his memory—

thick with alien essence, not yet fully dispersed, hanging in this age as a perpetual haze.

This place was still Wanggu—but no longer Devouring Heaven.

“The Sacred Lan Domain…”

The ancient Sacred Lan Domain.

And this was also the true location of the original Ziqing Upper Kingdom!

War raged here now!

Through Xu Qing’s senses, countless ancient cities dotted this primordial Sacred Lan Domain—and at this very moment, beacon fires blazed across the land.

Cultivators from ten thousand races besieged the walls.

This was the historical hour of Ziqing Upper Kingdom’s fall.

Innumerable warriors from myriad clans poured in from every domain like a flood, sweeping away city after city of Ziqing, slaughtering every citizen who dared fight for their homeland.

Driven and manipulated by hidden powers behind the scenes, they sought to annihilate Ziqing utterly—

to crush humanity’s rising tide once and for all.

Watching this unfold, Xu Qing fell silent.

A calm voice echoed in his mind:

“Didn’t I tell you the truth? That Prince Ziqing truly enacted the Fate-Retrieval Rite, returning to antiquity!”

“This is the precise moment in time he reached through his own destiny!”

As the voice faded, crimson light flashed across Xu Qing’s body. In the next heartbeat, a cloud of blood seeped from him, floating into the air and coalescing into… a blood-red mask.

The moment it formed, the mask gazed into the distance, its depths flickering with ghostly flame.

Then it turned to Xu Qing.

“Now, I require you to sever, of your own will, the karmic bond tied to our completed transaction.”

Xu Qing’s expression remained impassive. His eyes swept over the mask—deep, inscrutable.

Before his battle with Prince Ziqing, he had studied the mysterious light of the Huangtian Divine Clan atop Zhaoxia Mountain, absorbing it continuously. Yet his cultivation had reached its absolute limit; breakthrough was impossible.

Nor could he absorb any more of that light.

What remained formed the core of a key.

Thus, Xu Qing began probing deeper into this key.

Through repeated exploration and contemplation, he finally grasped its nature: it was the key to unlocking the gate of the Primal Mother Star.

But a key alone was insufficient—he needed to find the door itself.

He searched everywhere: in the lands of Huangtian, through the Heavenly Dao—but failed each time.

No path to the Primal Mother Star revealed itself.

He found no clues whatsoever.

From past experience, he knew the Primal Mother Star existed in peculiar ways—like the Fourth Star Ring, which resided only in the memories of gods.

The Ninth Star Ring’s Primal Mother Star seemed even more enigmatic.

Then, three years before deciding to confront Ziqing, Xu Qing—while studying the key and reflecting on his entire life—finally uncovered a trace.

It was Prince Ziqing himself.

Prince Ziqing was humanity’s desperate gambit for survival—and Wanggu’s as well.

Compared to the full span of Huangtian’s existence, Wanggu was but a fleeting moment—thus, in a sense, Wanggu *was* Huangtian.

Therefore… Prince Ziqing’s salvation must encompass Huangtian too.

And Huangtian’s predecessor was the Primal Mother Star.

This was the sole thread Xu Qing could find linking to the Primal Mother Star.

If Prince Ziqing was Huangtian’s act of self-preservation, then by further deduction—he might very well be the Primal Mother Star’s own attempt at salvation!

If that were true, then Prince Ziqing’s fate itself might be the door to the Primal Mother Star.

Not the present-day Ziqing—but the ancient Ziqing, before he sacrificed himself to the Shattered Visage!

His fate!

Thus, what Xu Qing truly desired was precisely a return to antiquity!

This return was not achieved through his own Temporal Constitution—for though it allowed him to traverse time and space, it led only into his personal temporal domain.

What he sought instead was the spacetime woven within Zi Qing Crown Prince’s destiny!

Yet such a specific requirement left Xu Qing uncertain whether Zi Qing would even unfold that spacetime during their confrontation.

Hence, he turned his thoughts toward the Wishing Mask!

Long ago, this mask had struck a bargain with Xu Qing: Xu Qing wished for it to help him forge an immortal body.

In return, the mask demanded he bring it before the shattered visage statue of the Zi Qing Upper Kingdom in the Devouring Heaven Domain.

After countless trials—and especially following his battle against a deity under Mother River’s command—Xu Qing had already formed suspicions about the true nature of this Wishing Mask.

So now, he struck another deal with it.

These thoughts flickered through Xu Qing’s mind before he raised his hand and severed the connection between himself and the mask.

Softly, he spoke:

“Our transaction is complete!”

As Xu Qing cut the karmic thread, the crimson mask trembled violently. Its surface twisted grotesquely into an eerie smile—then vanished in an instant from this ancient spacetime of Zi Qing’s fate.

Watching it disappear, Xu Qing narrowed his eyes.

“So… you intend to trade Shang Huang for your freedom…”

After several breaths, Xu Qing withdrew his gaze, sensing the myriad battles unfolding across this primordial Zi Qing Domain—and farther still, the capital city of the Zi Qing Upper Kingdom.

At last, his eyes gleamed with strange light. Raising his right hand, a ray of brilliance suddenly blazed forth!

Its hue resembled dawn’s first glow—

the very Radiance of Dawn, the mysterious luminescence venerated by the Huangtian Divine Clan.

Taking a deep breath, Xu Qing steeled his resolve.

Here, in this place, he would attempt to open the Gate of the Primal Mother Star!

Just as Mi Ming once had, he would harness the Primal Mother Star to transcend his cultivation.

Knowing time was scarce, he hesitated no longer—but flung the radiance skyward with decisive force.

Instantly, the light shot upward, blazing across the firmament before erupting outward, transforming into a celestial rainbow!

Resplendent and vast as a surging river, its iridescent waves swept in all directions—until at its heart, a peculiar aura abruptly emerged.

Slowly, it coalesced into a luminous fissure!

Xu Qing’s gaze sharpened instantly. Within that radiant rift lay a realm nearly absolute in its isolation—a place utterly undetectable except through this very crevice!

It was neither the memories of deities nor those of sentient beings.

It was Huangtian’s dream!

And there, astonishingly, floated two enigmatic, ethereal Primal Mother Stars—

one black, one white.

The moment Xu Qing beheld them, his body lurched forward. He plunged into the light, surged through the fissure—and vanished in a flash!

Behind him, the rift and its radiance, having fulfilled their purpose, dissolved into nothingness.

The Primal Mother Star of the Fourth Star Ring existed within the collective memories of its ring’s inhabitants.

But the Primal Mother Star of the Ninth Star Ring resided within the dreaming consciousness of the Huangtian World itself.

Because the Huangtian World was so ancient—and later endured the arrival of Hou Tu, who founded Wang Gu and established a cultivator’s Dao of Heaven—its will had gradually eroded.

Then came the Shattered Visage, which turned that erosion into utter fragmentation.

On the brink of total dissolution, the Huangtian World gathered its final thread of self-preservation, weaving it into Wang Gu—and thus gave rise to humankind.

From this confluence of humanity, Wang Gu, and Huangtian’s last hope, Zi Qing was born.

As Xu Qing gazed upon the Primal Mother Stars, these truths surfaced in his mind.

He now stood in a realm of dazzling, kaleidoscopic light.

Far off, amid endless radiance, the twin Primal Mother Stars—one black, one white—slowly rotated, their opposing hues intertwining with the surrounding spectrum to weave a dreamscape of surreal beauty.

Staring at them, Xu Qing’s eyes burned with sharp determination.

The path he would walk originated with Mi Ming!

Mi Ming’s ascension had relied on the Fourth Star Ring’s Primal Mother Star, forcibly embedding himself into it to achieve fusion.

First borrowing the star’s power to attain Sovereignhood and inscribe his True Name, then transcending from deity to immortal—

thus becoming both god and immortal simultaneously, granting him unique authority over other deities.

Yet afterward, Xu Qing analyzed that ascension and concluded: merging with the Primal Mother Star offered an even higher possibility.

Namely… devouring it entirely!

Perhaps Mi Ming had once harbored this ambition too—but constrained by reality, he settled for temporary fusion,

never attempting full consumption.

For this path bristled with near-insurmountable obstacles:

the Fourth Star Ring Sovereigns’ opposition, the Primal Mother Star’s ultimate rejection, Mi Ming’s own capacity to endure the sacrificial rites, and the peril of will-conflation…

Any single misstep would doom the ritual.

Like walking a spider’s thread!

Thus, Mi Ming chose the safest, most reliable method—brief fusion for ascension—then deliberately dispersed the bond.

Xu Qing’s plan, however, began where Mi Ming’s ended—and pushed further, aiming to accomplish what Mi Ming could not!

“Three difficulties stand before me,” he murmured.

“Internal and external.”

“The external challenges: first, interference from other Ninth Star Ring Sovereigns; second, the choice of the Shang Huang Shattered Visage.”

“The third—the internal challenge—lies in the Primal Mother Stars’ own resistance!”

Gazing ahead at the twin stars, Xu Qing’s eyes flashed with uncanny light.

Thanks to this realm’s secrecy—and the presence of the Shattered Visage—the first external obstacle no longer applied.

Undetectable and shielded, this place remained beyond the reach of the Ninth Star Ring’s Sovereigns.

“As for the Shattered Visage itself…”

Xu Qing hardened his resolve, prepared for confrontation—and equally prepared for failure.

But regardless, he would attempt it once!

With that thought, without hesitation, his form blurred—

Straight for Gemini Prime Star!

...

Ancient winds swept across the heavens where dawn’s radiance had faded, gathering the lingering traces of what once was and casting them down upon the earth.

They brushed past shattered mountains and rivers, past ruined cities and crumbling walls.

At last, they blew against the vast capital at the heart of the Sacred Lan Domain—the city hailed as the rising beacon of humanity’s resurgence.

That was… the imperial capital of the Zi-Qing Upper Kingdom!

Now, beyond its walls—whether in sky or on land—countless cultivators from myriad races surged toward the city from every direction. Their faces twisted with savagery, eyes burning with cruelty and madness, their murderous intent surging like a tide.

The city walls had already fallen!

Within the capital itself, cultivators of the myriad races swarmed just as thickly, sweeping through its streets with ruthless efficiency.

And their foes—the cultivators of the Zi-Qing Upper Kingdom—stood in silence.

Silently resisting. Silently killing. Silently dying.

No matter how grievous their wounds, no matter how turbulent their hearts, they uttered no desperate cries.

Such was not the way of the Zi-Qing Upper Kingdom.

Likewise, no matter how many comrades fell beside them, they did not succumb to despair—only sorrow weighed upon them, and an unyielding will.

For their Crown Prince still lived!

Deep within the palace behind them stood a solitary figure.

And all around the imperial palace, warriors from the myriad races poured in from every side, locked in bloody combat with the royal guard.

Death came without pause.

Corpses littered the ground.

Blood already flowed in rivers.