Chapter 1208: Aurora’s Heaven Beyond Heaven

It was a poisoned immortal fruit!

Xu Qing looked at Poison Monarch, then bowed deeply at the waist. “Your humble servant accepts the mission!”

He wanted the poisoned fruit!

Poison Monarch didn’t seem surprised. He thought Xu Qing to be much like himself. If you wanted to get stronger, break through, and reach higher heights, you could definitely

ask a tiger for its skin!

In this case, Poison Monarch was the tiger. At the same time, Xu Qing was providing a tiger skin to Poison Monarch. After all, the Immortal Paragon had ordered that no one infect Xu Qing with their karma.

That’s just going to make things interesting.

Poison Monarch flicked his sleeve and started walking away. He blurred, as if he were becoming one with heaven and earth. Ultimately, he vanished, leaving behind a few words echoing about. “You’re on your own now, Xu Qing.”

After he was gone, everything went back to normal. Then a golden stream of starlight descended from above, wrapped around Xu Qing, and drew him up into the sky.

He rose up into the canopy of heaven and ultimately left the planet that housed the Department of Acquisitions headquarters. He didn’t resist. He allowed the starlight to guide him up. As the planet grew smaller and smaller in his view, his thoughts wandered.

Although the immortal fruit was poisoned, it was extremely fresh and of good quality. The downsides and upsides were clear to see.

Furthermore, Xu Qing wasn’t under the illusion that eating the poisoned immortal fruit would mean that the other party’s evil intentions would go away completely. Those evil intentions were related to personal progress, so it was almost certain that the two of them would clash again later. Rather than place his hope on the off chance that the other party would simply give up, Xu Qing preferred to take control.

Besides, he was well aware that he currently had a severe lack of cultivation resources. With a good excuse to work with, he was definitely going to be able to make some advancement. And thus, rather than worry about when the poison might flare up... he figured it would be better to just eat the fruit and grow stronger as quickly as possible.

It was similar to how, back when he had no cultivation base, and was stuck in that city that the broken face had just looked at, he ultimately chose to start practicing cultivation, if for no other reason than to get rid of mutagen more quickly. That same frame of mind applied here.

Besides, to a certain degree, Poison Monarch was right. The two of them really were very similar.

In any case, it’s still possible that I could deal with a poison flare-up if it happens....

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed as the planet grew smaller and smaller, all while the Reception Universe as a whole filled his field of view. Eventually... the entire universe was visible to him, and the starlight took him completely out.

When he appeared in the starry sky, he caught sight of Sir Star Ring and everyone else. They were waiting for him.

Coming to a stop in front of them, he waved his hand to open the ring of holding. The Acquisitioner identity medallions flew out. They were gray pieces of jade.

Everyone took their medallion and sent some divine will inside. Light flared, which then turned into gray hundred-pocket robes. Everything around Xu Qing blurred as he also donned a hundred-pocket robe. From a distance, the group of 89 cultivators were all dressed alike, causing an indescribable air of prestige to surround them.

Looking very serious, Zhou Zhengli strode forward and bowed to Xu Qing.

“Greetings, Captain!”

The other ascendees, regardless of what they were thinking inside, also offered formal greetings.

That included Yuanshan Su. As for Hordeslayer and Rampart, they were about to join in when they realized Sir Star Ring wasn’t moving a muscle. All of a sudden, Hordeslayer and Rampart seemed to stand a bit taller. Xu Qing didn’t seem to care either way about any of it. Taking out the mission jade slip, he sent the mission information into the minds of everyone present.

Their first mission as Acquisitioners was to take place in the Helioterra Universe. They were to go there and search for resources![1]

There was something unique about the Helioterra Universe. It was not in the Nineshores Heaven! It was located in another heaven beyond heaven. However, that heaven beyond heaven was not listed alongside the eleven Immortal Lords! Put most precisely, this heaven beyond heaven belonged to a perished Immortal Lord. As a result, that heaven was masterless.... The name of that heaven beyond heaven had long since been erased.

After looking at the mission jade slip, Xu Qing was instantly shaken inside. He wasn’t the only one. Other ascendees, particularly Sir Star Ring and the other Shining Stars, all had odd looks on their faces.

In all of the Fifth Star Ring, there was only one place that matched that description.... It was, of course, the Aurora heaven beyond heaven!

Prompted by instinct, Li Mengtu and Zhou Zhengli looked at Xu Qing. Even Hordeslayer, Rampart, Yuanshan Su and Sir Star Ring... all looked in his direction. After what all of them had experienced in the historical reflection of the Aurora Immortal Palace, they had come to view Xu Qing as Young Lord Aurora. The entire event had left a deep impression on them.

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed as he checked the details of the mission. It said that to get to the Helioterra Universe, they had to take the mission jade slip to a teleportation facility, where arrangements had been made for them to teleport to their destination.

Because that heaven beyond heaven was masterless, it had become a public place. What was more, because of the historical events of the past, the nonhumans there had become quite rebellious by nature. After all, there was no heaven for them to be subordinate to.

When people from other heavens beyond heaven went inside, they would usually split up based on who backed them. Compared to other heavens beyond heaven, it was a wild and disorderly place, where everything was a complicated jianghu-like world.

It had countless universes within it, all sorts of nonhumans, and a mish-mash of organizations. There were also a host of god prisons. Because of that, it was considered to rank high among the heavens beyond heaven. Back in the day, Immortal Lord Aurora was considered to have peak battle prowess among the Immortal Lords.

Based on the description in the mission jade slip, the Helioterra Universe was on the edge of the heaven beyond heaven. It was administered by the imperial clan of the Helioterra race, who were known as Helioterrans. It had a total of thirty-one god prisons in it. Of those thirty-one prisons, the biggest was A29, and within it were imprisoned, for the most part, Altar Gods.

After everyone had familiarized themselves with the information from the jade slip, Xu Qing put it away. He swept the gathered crowd with his gaze, and then without a word, headed to the nearest teleportation facility, just as the mission had directed.

Zhou Zhengli and Li Mengtu exchanged a glance and then followed. Everyone else started moving with glittering eyes. And thus, the group became a stream of 89 beams of light that pierced through the starry sky.

As they sped by at top speed, the cultivators they passed mostly just frowned and got out of their way. These were obviously notorious Acquisitioners, and they were like tigers or jackals that no one wanted to get close to, let alone provoke.

Half a month passed.

In the depths of the Nineshores Heaven was an ancient planet that had a teleportation facility built into it. As Xu Qing and the others descended, Xu Qing produced the mission jade slip, and the portal filled with rumbling sounds. A powerful force of teleportation power caused majestic pulses to flow out in all directions.

Xu Qing and the others instantly disappeared. It took them five days to reach their destination.

When they reappeared, they were in an unfamiliar starry sky, and they were standing on an ancient and crumbling platform made of crimson stone. The platform was hot, but was rapidly cooling down. It took a huge amount of resources to use a teleportation portal that teleported you to another heaven beyond heaven.

The requirements for a cultivator to use such a portal were high. Someone without a sufficient cultivation base, would likely be killed by the process itself. One could not have any mental flaws either, as one could lose one’s mind and ultimately die.

When the group materialized, a few dozen people coughed up blood and immediately settled down cross-legged to recover. Some seemed dazed, as if they had been shaken down to their souls.

Only Xu Qing and Sir Star Ring appeared to be completely unfazed.

Thankfully, these were all ascendees. Based on everything they had experienced to get to this point, they were elite chosen both in terms of cultivation base and mental acuity. Even though some were affected by such a massive teleportation between heavens beyond heaven, they quickly recovered and began to study their surroundings with divine will.

There was very little light in the sky. The stars here were dim. The spirit energy was scarce. The place was truly a wilderness.

“So, this is the Helioterra Universe,” Xu Qing murmured as he stood on the stone platform and looked around. Then he glanced at Zhou Zhengli.

Zhou Zhengli understood the meaning of his glance. Stepping forward, he bowed and said, “Young Lord, everyone is aware of the mission and the parameters. I suggest we split up. Regardless of how we fare, we’ll pool our resources when we meet back up.

“If anyone runs into a situation too difficult to handle, they can use up some of their ringsource to call for help from nearby. If even that fails to resolve any sticky situation, then the young master can intervene. Of course, the premise is that the ringsource at hand is worth it. What do you say, sir?”

Zhou Zhengli looked at Xu Qing.

Xu Qing nodded. He wasn’t inclined to waste time and energy making complicated arrangements. Besides, he knew that everyone was after ringsource, so there was no way he could completely avoid people taking some for their own. It made more sense to give people some leniency in that regard.

“I’ll handle Prison A29. The rest of you can decide amongst yourselves where you want to go other than that.”

With that, Xu Qing blurred off into the distance. After he was gone, everyone exchanged glances. There was some brief communication, and then some people went off on their own, while others stuck together in groups of between three to five. And thus, they were like a cloud of locusts that dispersed in different directions.

***

In the depths of the Helioterra Universe was a galaxy in which floated an amazing imperial palace. There was currently a lot of singing and dancing going on in the palace.

Seated on the imperial throne was a red-skinned giant with two faces, resting his head on one hand. All of a sudden, a jade slip flew into the palace and stopped in front of the giant. There, it popped, producing the projected image of a figure who immediately prostrated to the two-faced giant.

“Your Majesty, an Acquisitions squadron from the Nineshores heaven beyond heaven just entered our Helioterra Universe!”

The two-faced giant didn’t look at the newly arrived messenger. He just kept watching the singing and dancing. “You know the drill. Make sure they find some ringsource. If these jackals know what’s good for them, they’ll take some scraps and then leave. But if they don’t know what’s good for them, then we’ll make sure they understand who’s

really

in charge of the Helioterra Universe.”

1. What I’m rendering as “Helioterra” is a reference to an ancient Chinese theory about the nature of the universe. There were two common theories, which are generally rendered as heliocentric theory and geocentric theory. In this case, “helio” refers to the sun and “geo” to the earth. I think you can get the meaning just on that, but to be absolutely clear, they were conflicting theories about whether the center of the universe was the sun or the earth. A third theory eventually came around that was a mixture of the two. I’m using “helioterra” because it mixes two words related to sun and earth. It also works in other contexts as you will see. ☜