Chapter 885
World Invasion, Ancient Secrets
Chapter 885 World Invasion, Ancient Secrets
"This is a long story..."
Guixu Daoist paused, seemingly organizing his thoughts.
His ethereal figure swayed slightly, as if recalling a long-forgotten past.
"Child, do you know that beyond this starry sky, there are other worlds?"
Lu Qing's heart stirred, and he nodded: "This disciple knows. It is said that the Dark Abyss is connected to another world."
A hint of surprise flashed in Guixu Daoist's eyes: "Oh, you actually know about the Dark Abyss. It seems you've been there?"
Lu Qing nodded: "Not long ago, I entered the Dark Abyss with my divine sense avatar and saw the corpse of a Xuanhua powerhouse."
“Xuanhua…” Guixu Daoist was silent for a while after hearing this name before saying, “I didn’t expect that you not only entered the Dark Abyss, but also went deep into that place. When I went in there back then, I was also very careful, as if walking on thin ice.”
Lu Qing nodded and briefly recounted his experiences in the Dark Abyss.
The story begins with meeting Qiu Ruofeng, then proceeds to the Demon Abyss, encounters with the demonic fire monsters, and finally, entry into the black tomb where Xuanhua's corpse sits on the white jade throne.
He didn't go into too many details, but just gave a general account of what happened, including the sheer number and strength of those demonic fire monsters, and the bizarre sight of the Xuanhua Corpse being half light and half darkness.
Guixu Daoist listened without interrupting Lu Qing.
However, when he heard Lu Qing say that the dark power in the Dark Abyss was weakening, his illusory body trembled slightly.
He remained silent for a long time after Lu Qing finished speaking.
A profound silence fell over the main hall.
The old dragons listened quietly without saying a word.
After a while, Guixu Daoist sighed and slowly spoke.
"As expected, the Dark Abyss has changed. No wonder even those of you at the Dao Integration Realm were able to come out safely."
When I went in back then, the dark power there was much stronger than it is now.
My avatar, even though it only went in to explore, was almost corrupted and its divine sense was damaged.
He looked at Lu Qing, his gaze deep.
"You guessed right. The depths of the Dark Abyss do indeed connect to another world, and the reason I left this starry sky back then was actually related to this."
Lu Qing listened attentively without interrupting.
Guixu Daoist continued, "It all started with one person."
He paused, his gaze becoming distant, as if traversing endless time and returning to that distant era.
"That was when I was young, not long after I entered the Transformation Realm. I was full of vigor and wanted to travel the entire starry sky and explore all its mysteries. It was during that time that I met someone."
"Alone?" Lu Qing asked.
Guixu Daoist nodded: "A Dao Transformation Immortal, he is knowledgeable, speaks eloquently, and knows many secrets that even I do not know."
I was young then, and I admired him immensely, considering him a close friend. I invited him to travel with me through the stars and explore all their mysteries.
Lu Qing nodded slightly, his gaze inadvertently sweeping over the old Azure Dragon and the others.
Upon seeing this, he was slightly taken aback.
The old Azure Dragon, the black bull, and the Mingfeng all wore expressions of resentment.
Anger flashed in the old dragon's eyes, the black bull's eyes were wide open and it was panting heavily from its nostrils, and although Mingfeng maintained a trace of elegance, her phoenix eyes were also full of indignation.
Lu Qing was puzzled, but did not interrupt Guixu Daoist's narration.
Guixu Daoist continued, "We traveled together for a period of time."
Those days were truly happy.
Together we explored many ancient ruins, comprehended many profound martial arts techniques, and discussed the mysteries of the starry sky.
I thought I had found a true confidant.
His voice lowered.
"But gradually, I noticed something was wrong."
"What's wrong?" Lu Qing asked.
Guixu Daoren said, "Although that person appears refined and speaks eloquently, he actually has a rather crazy heart."
In particular, his tone was full of contempt whenever he talked about those low-level cultivators and mortals.
In his eyes, those people were nothing more than ants, weeds, insects he could crush at will.
He sighed and continued, "At first, I didn't pay much attention to it."
I also know that this world is a dog-eat-dog world, where the strong are respected.
Every strong person has their own attitude towards the world.
I have compassion for those at the bottom of society, but I'm not so arrogant as to expect others to feel the same way.
“Until something happened.” Guixu Daoren’s voice became heavy. “That thing made me realize that he and I are not on the same path at all.”
Lu Qing listened quietly.
Guixu Daoist said, "That time, he and I used our divine sense to create clones, concealing our cultivation levels, and entered a small world to travel."
That small world was very ordinary, with little spiritual energy and no powerful beings.
We were like two ordinary wandering Taoist priests, walking through those cities and villages, experiencing the lives of ordinary people.
One day, we came to a city.
The city wasn't large, but it had a population of several hundred thousand.
The streets were bustling with people.
We were walking down the street, looking for a place to rest. Just then, an unexpected incident occurred.
“A mere mortal accidentally bumped into him.”
Guixu Daoist's voice carried a hint of anger, and even after hundreds of thousands of years, that anger had not subsided.
"He was just an ordinary mortal, a peddler carrying a load on his shoulder. Because there were many people on the street, his load accidentally bumped into the other person's sleeve. It was just a small thing, just a minor collision."
His voice turned cold.
"Then, that person did something I can never forgive."
"What did he do?" Lu Qing asked.
Guixu Daoist closed his eyes, as if unwilling to recall that scene.
"He used his supernatural powers to refine all the living beings in that entire city."
Lu Qing's pupils contracted slightly.
The entire city's inhabitants numbered at least hundreds of thousands of lives.
Guixu Daoist continued, "I was caught off guard and didn't have time to stop him."
I could only watch helplessly as those mortals, with their very breaths, were refined into nothingness, body and soul alike.
Their wails, their curses, their despair—all vanished completely in that instant.
He opened his eyes, a flicker of pain in them.
"And even after that person had refined all the living beings in an entire city, he still hadn't stopped."
He was angered by the curses uttered by those creatures as they were being refined.
He actually said he would refine the entire small world, so that those ants would know the consequences of offending him.
Lu Qing remained silent.
He had witnessed many cruel things, but the casual slaughter of an entire world's living beings still chilled him to the bone.
Guixu Daoist said, "It has come to this point, and I finally couldn't stand by and watch, so I intervened to stop him."
"And then?" Lu Qing asked.
Guixu Daoist said, "Then, we made our move."
That battle raged from that small world to the depths of space.
From the initial mental projections to their respective physical forms, the battle ultimately ended in my victory.
“I suppressed him.” Guixu Daoist paused. “However, after I suppressed him, he begged me for mercy.”
He immediately swore an oath, promising never again to indiscriminately kill any lowly cultivator or mortal. He said he knew he was wrong, that it was just a momentary impulse, and that he was willing to spend the rest of his life atoneing for his sins.
Guixu Daoren's voice carried a hint of bitterness.
“I thought of our friendship over the years, and I saw that he had indeed made a solemn vow, so I softened my heart and let him go.”
Upon hearing this, Lu Qing had already vaguely guessed what would happen next.
Guixu Daoist continued, "However, it was precisely because of my momentary soft heart that I ultimately made a grave mistake."
He sighed and said, "After that person left, he indeed lived a quiet and law-abiding life for thousands of years, secluded himself to recuperate, and never came out to do evil again."
Seeing this, I assumed he had truly reformed, and thus felt relieved enough to go into seclusion for spiritual practice.
“Until one day…” Guixu Daoist’s voice became low, “I was awakened by an extremely strong resentment in the starry sky.”
"Resentment?" Lu Qing frowned.
Guixu Daoist nodded: "The strength, density, and intensity of that resentment are simply unprecedented."
That resentment could only be formed when billions of living beings were wailing and cursing at the same time.
After being startled awake, I had a vague premonition of something bad. So, I did some quick calculations with my fingers.
He looked at Lu Qing, his eyes filled with deep regret.
The results I calculated filled me with shock and anger.
It turns out that the Dao Transformation Immortal I once regarded as a 'confidant' actually refined the beings of dozens of small and medium-sized worlds during my seclusion.
The number of innocent souls he caused is in the hundreds of millions!
Even some of my own disciples have fallen at his hands!
Lu Qing was startled.
The beings of dozens of worlds—what an enormous number!
Guixu Daoist said, "After learning all this, I was extremely shocked and furious. I immediately left seclusion to intercept and kill that demon. I am good at divination, and through the entanglement of cause and effect, I quickly found his trail."
“But…” He paused, his voice tinged with seriousness, “After a brief exchange, I discovered that his cultivation had increased dramatically. I don’t know what kind of demonic art he had cultivated, but his strength had skyrocketed, and even I could no longer suppress him easily.”
"In the end, I had to resort to my most powerful methods and pay a considerable price to completely suppress him, but at the last moment, a wisp of his soul still managed to escape."
Guixu Daoist looked at Lu Qing with a solemn expression.
"And the direction he fled was the Dark Abyss."
Lu Qing's heart stirred.
It's the Dark Abyss again.
Guixu Daoist continued, "I was seriously injured at the time and dared not advance rashly. I had to retreat temporarily and return to seclusion to recuperate. This recuperation lasted for thousands of years."
"Thousands of years later, my injuries finally healed. I was concerned about the remnant soul of that demon, so I entered the Dark Abyss in my avatar to see if he was still alive and if he was still doing evil."
He paused, then continued, "I used to be very wary of the Dark Abyss."
After all, legend has it that in ancient times, this Demon Abyss caused the deaths of many Dao Transformation Immortals.
But in order to rid myself of that evil spirit, I was willing to take the risk.
"And it was this exploration that allowed me to discover a tremendous secret."
Guixu Daoist looked at Lu Qing with a profound gaze.
“Deep within the Dark Abyss, I saw the Xuanhua corpse.”
Lu Qing nodded; he already knew all of this.
Guixu Daoist continued, "But you may not know what the Xuanhua corpse is suppressing."
"What is being suppressed?" Lu Qing asked.
Guixu Daoist slowly said, "It suppresses the passage to another world."
Lu Qing frowned.
Guixu Daoist explained: "Deep within the Dark Abyss, there is a passage that connects to another world."
That world is extremely dangerous, and it contains things we can hardly imagine.
The transformed corpse sat upright in that passage, using its body to suppress the passage and prevent what was inside from escaping.
He paused, then continued, "Moreover, I also sensed a will within the Xuanhua corpse."
"Thoughts?" Lu Qing asked.
Guixu Daoist nodded: "That thought was very weak. It should have been left behind by Xuanhua before his fall. It told me a secret about the ancient times."
Lu Qing's spirits lifted.
Ancient times!
Guixu Daoist slowly said, "That thought said that in ancient times, the human race and the witch race fought a great war. In the end, the human race won. This should have been a time for recuperation, but not long after, a crack appeared in the starry sky."
"A crack?" Lu Qing's heart stirred, recalling the prophecy that Qiu Ruofeng had once made.
Guixu Daoist nodded: "That crack connects to another world."
From the crack, a strange, evil creature emerged.
Those evil creatures were incredibly powerful, and the power they cultivated was completely different from that of our world.
More importantly, they are extremely cruel and bloodthirsty, devouring almost any living creature they see.
His voice became serious.
"And their ultimate goal is to directly devour the origin of each life world."
Lu Qing's pupils contracted slightly.
Devouring the origin of the world?
Guixu Daoist continued, "The powerful human beings at that time expended a great deal of effort to annihilate the first batch of evil creatures."
Even so, the night sky was severely damaged at that time.
Many worlds of life were shattered, their origins devoured, and they were utterly destroyed.
"And those powerful beings, through searching the souls of evil creatures, discovered a terrible truth."
"What facts?" Lu Qing asked.
Guixu Daoist said, "Those evil creatures are merely the vanguard."
They come from another world, a world where powerful beings are coveting our starry sky.
Before long, even more evil beings will come here and devour us all.
Lu Qing remained silent.
Guixu Daoist continued, "After learning of this news, the powerful figures of the human race discussed it and finally made a decision."
"What decision?" Lu Qing asked.
Guixu Daoist said, "They have decided to take the initiative."
We must never allow a major war to take place in our own space.
Otherwise, even if they eventually manage to wipe out all the invaders, the entire starry sky will be riddled with holes and suffer heavy losses.
Those worlds of life, those mortal beings, will all be reduced to ashes in this great war.
"So, they chose to take the initiative?" Lu Qing asked.
Guixu Daoist nodded: "Yes, at that time, the most powerful beings of the human race entered another world by obtaining coordinates from the souls of evil creatures to target those evil beings. Among those powerful beings was Xuanhua."
He paused, then continued, "In fact, for the safety of their own starry sky, those powerful beings sealed the passages and coordinates of this world after they left, to prevent it from being discovered by the enemy."
They were prepared to die, determined to use their lives to fight for a glimmer of hope for this starry sky.
Upon hearing this, Lu Qing felt an indescribable emotion welling up inside him.
Those ancient powerful beings chose to take the initiative to protect this starry sky.
They are willing to give their lives to ensure the peace of this starry sky.
Lu Qing was silent for a moment, then asked, "If that's the case, how did the Dark Abyss come about?"
Why would a mysteriously transformed corpse appear there?
Furthermore, why are there so few records of those ancient powerful beings in the starry sky today?
Guixu Daoist looked at him and slowly said, "This involves another secret."
(End of this chapter)