Chapter 1215: Different Routes to the Same Destination

Even as the canon of order stirred around Sir Star Ring, and the chains of order filled the void around him, Xu Qing’s gaze turned hard.

“Watch out,” he said, pointing in Sir Star Ring’s direction.

Sir Star Ring reacted with matchless speed, sending his chains of order out in front of him in a defensive array.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t quite fast enough. An astonishing force arrived before the chains. It was like planets shattering or universes quaking.

A deafening boom rang out as Sir Star Ring’s face went pale. Blood sprayed out of his mouth as he was sent spinning back like a kite with its string cut, his chains of order snapping and crumbling.

Astonishingly, in the spot where the chains had been shattered stood a figure. It was a blurry figure who was poised to pursue Sir Star Ring, only for Xu Qing’s finger to wave, causing space-time canon to form a sealing power. The figure was blocked.

However, that was only temporary. Xu Qing’s space-time sealing wasn’t strong enough to block the figure for more than a moment. Thankfully, that, coupled with the blockage of the chains of order, was enough to give Sir Star Ring a bit of breathing room.

As Sir Star Ring tumbled back coughing up blood, he unleashed his canon of balance, which gave him enough speed to temporarily avoid deadly danger.

The figure lurched to a halt in the starry sky. He was now fully visible. He was none other than the middle-aged cultivator with the crimson robe who had just stepped out of the imperial palace. Left standing behind in the palace was a blurry afterimage.

His true form had achieved incredible speed, appearing right in front of Sir Star Ring. If it hadn’t been for Xu Qing’s warning and assistance, Sir Star Ring would have been killed or, at the very least, sustained a grievous injury.

The cultivator turned to look at Xu Qing and coolly said, “You could see me moving? No wonder you have the gall to steal my Master’s god fodder.”

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed coldly. This was definitely the strongest Quasi-Immortal he had ever faced. As for his canon... it wasn’t very strange. In fact, it was downright simple.

Speed! He was capable of moving so quickly that he surpassed time itself! Canon wasn’t classified by strength or weakness. It was more about who could push it farther, and who could understand it more deeply.

“I originally wanted to kill this other guy so you would realize you can’t run, and should just return the stolen property. But since you blocked my path... then I guess I will kill you after all.”

Even as the middle-aged cultivator’s voice continued to drift out, he appeared only nine meters in front of Xu Qing!

That was a level of speed that surpassed the senses. He reached out with the intention of shoving his hand toward Xu Qing. As a result, he seized control of the space around Xu Qing, which became a vortex that erupted with a ripping force.

And yet, only an instant later, the middle-aged cultivator’s eyebrows shot up, and he made an exclamation of surprise. But he didn’t fall back.

Killing intent flared in Xu Qing’s eyes. He had long since been prepared to act. While his opponent was speaking moments ago, his canon of space had begun building up, and his canon of time had sowed chaos. Together, they formed space-time, and led to Infinite Timelessness.

When his opponent closed in and created that vortex, the ripping force encountered Xu Qing’s space-time. Without any fanfare at all, it was destroyed.

Xu Qing shivered, and blood oozed out of the corners of his mouth. But he still lifted both hands and went into an incantation gesture.

“Suppress. Freeze. Seal!”

Space was suppressed. Time was frozen. Space-time was sealed!

The starry sky around the middle-aged cultivator seemed to go rigid. All of the timelines solidified. The space-time they formed together was sealed, and everything around him seemed to become like amber.

At the same time, Xu Qing shone with silver light as he was made manifest as his nearly completed immortal embryo. He was massive, like the true body of a god towering within the starry sky. He lifted his right hand and spread his five fingers wide to represent the five elements. Metal. Wood. Water. Fire. Earth. The five extremes became ringsource, like five planets. It was as if his hand was an entire star system. They also resembled five gods! The power of the extremes then bore down on the immobilized middle-aged cultivator!

Without the slightest hesitation, Sir Star Ring tapped into his canon of balance, using all of his remaining strength to turn the starry sky into a set of scales. He was not doing it to bolster himself, but rather... to bolster Xu Qing. He paid the price to strengthen Xu Qing. As a result, Xu Qing’s battle prowess swelled, putting him extremely close to the peak of Quasi-Immortal.

Next, the kelp emitted dazzling rumbling sounds as its leaves unleashed its innate ability. Its innate ability was that of sealing. And it didn’t seal space, but rather... ringsource! It was going all out, both to bolster Xu Qing and to bolster the sealing.

As they weakened and he got stronger, Xu Qing spread his five fingers, causing something like the might of heaven to descend.

The immobilized cultivator slowly looked up at Xu Qing. Eyes shining with a strange, meaningful light, he said, “I think I know who you are. You’re that... Xu Qing!”

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

The middle-aged cultivator licked his lips, then lifted his own right hand, put it in front of himself, and pinched his fingers together. That action caused cracking sounds to ring out.

Space shattered. Time cracked. Space-time crumbled.

Then he relaxed his fingers, only to pinch them together even harder.

Sir Star Ring trembled from head to toe and coughed up a huge mouthful of blood. His balance, in the shape of scales, started crumbling. However, Sir Star Ring was an extraordinary individual, and thus, streams of starlight appeared around him. And every single stream was connected to a Star Ring Pagoda! By fully catalyzing their strength, he sent starlight streaming forth to sustain himself and slow down the crumbling of the scales.

That ensured that Xu Qing would be bolstered by balance for a bit longer.

The kelp’s leaves were shattering, and it was shaking violently. But the rips and tears in the leaves immediately sprouted little vines that snaked out and wrapped around the middle-aged cultivator. The sealing was being changed into a binding!

And yet, there was more. Starfire suddenly appeared in the starry sky, and hēr god altar became golden light. A divine likeness appeared, which unleashed full power. The middle-aged cultivator suddenly started transforming into clay. At the same time, the light of innumerable stars shone above and crushed down onto him.

They were all trying to create an opportunity for Xu Qing!

This cultivator was truly astonishing in terms of speed and battle prowess. He was at the peak of Quasi-Immortal, just a step away from being a Lower Immortal! Although that one step would be incredibly difficult to complete, it was no exaggeration to say that when a cultivator reached this level, they were extraordinarily powerful. Strong enough to destroy all obstacles in their way.

And this cultivator’s canon was the simple yet terrifying canon of speed. The reason that canon was considered to be simple was that it was actually connected to many other types of canon. And it had many applications. What this cultivator was revealing now was only a small portion of what it was capable of.

Therefore, though everyone else was participating in this fight, Xu Qing was the one with the greatest battle prowess, and thus, he was the best weapon. And the best tactic at the moment was to create an opportunity for that weapon.

All of this takes quite a bit of time to explain, but in reality, everything happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off a piece of flint. An instant later, the efforts of Sir Star Ring, Starfire, and the kelp bought enough time for Xu Qing’s five fingers to fall all the way down. The starry sky shook.

Those five fingers were like gods or planets. They unleashed a galactic power that was all focused on the middle-aged cultivator. And yet, no deafening sound resulted. The fingers and the palm fell, brimming with the power of the five elements.

It looked like a killing move, but in actuality, it wasn’t! This was also a sealing!

This was Xu Qing’s tactic. By using the five extremes of the five elements, he created the foundation of a lower star ring. Then, he combined time, space, order, and balance, as well as fetters of ringsource. This was an extreme sealing!

For the first time, the middle-aged cultivator’s pupils constricted. He instinctively felt great danger, and thus he blurred as he tapped into his canon of speed. He wasn’t hesitating at all. He was immediately trying to take his canon to a higher level of use.

It was... something that surpassed space, time, space-time... and walked a path that wasn’t aligned with parallelism! In certain respects, his canon and Xu Qing’s canon were different routes to the same destination!

The difference was that he was not choosing the complicated route of parallelism. He was doing something far more direct.

It was something that Lower Immortals would comprehend, but not beings under that level, with the exception of people like Xu Qing, whose enlightenment had led him in that same direction. And as a result, Xu Qing was shaken by what he saw.

His path. His path....

Xu Qing had long been searching for a tenth extreme. He had worked hard, but hadn’t made any progress. But now he felt like he was in a dark world in which light had just appeared! Sadly, given the current circumstances, there was no time for thinking or planning. He had to put that inspiration aside for later.

Next came his true killing move!

A bell tolled. It was the toll of a bell that contained a scrap of God Lord power, something that could devastate all magics.

The starry sky went blank. The Quasi-Immortal cultivator shivered.

What appeared next contained heaven’s principle, parallelism, and the canons of Xu Qing's immortal body. It corresponded perfectly to his immortal embryo. It was... an iron skewer! And it wasn’t just one.

One after another, iron skewers emerged in parallel space-times. In total, there were 479 of them! Like shooting stars, they began shifting from being illusory to corporeal! Ultimately, all 479 combined into a single iron skewer at Xu Qing’s command.

He sent it out in a lethal attack! It shot right toward the middle-aged cultivator.

The cultivator fell back. He fled at top speed. He fled through time. He fled through space. He fled through the past, present, future, through fate and karma, through lineaments and memories.... He fled through everything!

But the iron skewer made from 479 skewers was guided by the tolling of the bell. Nothing could stop it.

It pierced space! It shattered time! It crushed past, present, and future! It penetrated fate and passed through karma! It devastated lineaments and memories! It passed through everything as it honed in on its target.

It caught up and stabbed him through the forehead. The moment it hit him, ripples spread out from his forehead, which turned into a surface of water. A blurry reflection became visible. Put precisely, it was a figure with its back turned away, a figure whose aura surpassed that of a Quasi-Immortal, and whose presence caused the entire surrounding universe to tremble.

It was an immortal! It was the middle-aged cultivator’s Master. This was a life-saving projection that had been implanted in him.

The figure looked over its shoulder. It cast a single glance at the iron skewer. That single glance caused the skewer to tumble off to the side, completely out of control.

Blood sprayed out of Sir Star Ring’s mouth. Starfire’s god altar destabilized. The kelp started crumbling. Xu Qing’s mind filled with rumbling sounds.

Taking advantage of the moment, the middle-aged cultivator finally managed to evade death. Retreating at top speed, he put distance between himself and his opponent. Though he was glaring at Xu Qing, his heart still pounded with lingering fear.

Then he said, “Emperor Helioterra. I command you and your species to help me. Attack!”

The emperor’s expression flickered, and inside he hesitated. If this were a simple matter of attacking a human, he wouldn’t think twice. But this emissary’s demand went beyond that. He wanted the Helioterrans to kill this human!

As the Helioterran emperor tried to decide what to do, Xu Qing managed to clear his head.

Looking at the middle-aged cultivator coldly, he said, “You’re out of chances.”

Xu Qing looked up into the starry sky. At that exact moment, the starry sky trembled, and a huge rift was sliced open. People emerged.

In the lead was Zhou Zhengli! Following him were Yuanshan Su, Li Mengtu, Sir Vilespirit, and more. All of the ascendees, Acquisitioners all, had come!

Another thing Xu Qing had done on the way was have Zhou Zhengli go out with orders for these people, just in case. If nothing else, Xu Qing would need them afterward to deal with the True God. Under Zhou Zhengli’s leadership, they had ripped open the starry sky to arrive here!