Chapter 1226: Missing Out on a Thousand Years

In the past, it was the Aurora heaven beyond heaven. Now it was the Green Heaven!

Within it were numerous majestic universes, one starry sky after another, and countless planets. They had originally emanated bright, dazzling starlight. But then, in an instant, the entire heaven beyond heaven, including innumerable planets, all went dark. It was as if the light had been sucked away.

In the middle of the seemingly never-ending heaven beyond heaven, in a location that most low-level cultivators could never reach in a lifetime, was a massive black hole. That black hole had come into being out of nowhere!

Above the black hole was a vast, ever-expanding spider web! It was made of white spider silk, and the nodes where the silk connected continued to expand outward, along with the roiling aura of a True God.

At the same time, as that godly aura spread, all the heads in the spider web were calling out the same thing.

“Bimo Si!”

“Bimo Si!”

“Bimo Si!”

Sound was inherently shapeless. But the spider web had bestowed it with the will of a god, causing it to become strands of godly authority that converged in the middle of the web.

A figure was being revealed there! It was half person, half spider! At the moment, about seventy percent of the body of the figure was the color gold!

The chanting grew increasingly intense, causing the returning aura to strengthen. The might of a True God was flooding this starry sky.

Xu Qing’s immortal embryo towered over the spider web, its face awe-inspiring and its eyes glinting coldly. Astonishingly, its right hand contained a massive immortal palace that shone with dazzling immortal light. In the form of the immortal embryo, Xu Qing’s gaze focused on the figure forming in the middle of the spider web.

His hand fell. The immortal palace rumbled.

The black hole was beneath the spider web, and the hand was above it. The attack came from above and below, and the entire heaven beyond heaven stirred. The web would be crushed!

The half-person half-spider figure suddenly looked up, and the gaze of the spider met Xu Qing’s gaze. It was a connection of gazes but also a clash of souls and a convergence of ringsource.

The moment the connection occurred... Xu Qing’s vision flashed with light.

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Things went back to normal an instant later. Nothing had changed. The immortal palace was still there, descending to crush the spider web.

The half-person half-spider figure struggled, but hē had not yet fully returned, and was not strong enough to fight back against the weight of an entire heaven beyond heaven. But in hīs defiance, hē fought back with godly authority and godly might.

Xu Qing trembled. Blood sprayed out of his mouth. His fleshly body and soul began to rip apart. But ultimately... he was unleashing what his foundation was capable of, by using the power of a heaven beyond heaven.

He was paying a huge price, but the result was success. Deafening rumbling sounds echoed out as the half-person half-spider figure was shoved down into the black hole.

It was over. That was when exhaustion flooded into Xu Qing. He quickly sat down cross-legged atop the black hole that contained the suppressed god, and absorbed the ringsource flowing out. It nourished him, and at the same time enabled his immortal embryo to grow further.

He forgot about the passage of time. He forgot about his Acquisitioner mission. He focused fully on cultivation.

The benefits were astounding. His cultivation base rose from early Quasi-Immortal, higher and higher. In almost an instant... ten years passed.

When Xu Qing opened his eyes, his cultivation base had reached the great circle of Quasi-Immortal. He felt like he was at the peak. It was like omnipotence. And as a result, when he opened his eyes, they were initially blank.

He quickly recovered. Upon realizing that ten years had passed, he remembered about his Acquisitioner duties. After all, to cultivators like Xu Qing, ten years of cultivation didn’t count for much.

I still have time. Next up, I need to arrange to get back to Revered Ancient!

Having reached this point in his train of thought, Xu Qing’s eyes glittered with determination. He stepped out of the heaven beyond heaven, and when he appeared outside, he was in the Heavenless Zone where the spider statue had been.

The statue had disappeared. The prison was no longer there. The wardens and prison guards were long gone.

However, Sir Star Ring and the others had not left. They were waiting there. Upon seeing Xu Qing, their expressions flickered.

They left together. Upon returning to the Department of Acquisitions, they handed in their mission. After that, they were given a host of additional missions. As a result, their squadron became well-known throughout the Nineshores heaven beyond heaven.

Before long, they were transferred to the front lines of the war. Their squadron quickly began to perform meritorious services on the battlefield between the Fourth and Fifth Star Rings. They even captured a goddess. That goddess was the daughter and only child of a God Lord![1]

Because of all the services rendered, Xu Qing’s prestige skyrocketed. What was more, word spread that the Aurora heaven beyond heaven now belonged to him. It took no time at all for Xu Qing’s name to ring in the ears of countless cultivators.

Although it seemed like time was passing slowly, to Xu Qing, it was speeding by. Eventually, he got a mission that led to an encounter with a God Lord from the Fourth Star Ring! Although he was capable of fighting Lower Immortals, he couldn’t possibly win a fight like that. The other cultivators in his squadron all died. He was seriously injured to the point where he nearly died. He fled into space-time, but was chased. Eventually, he chose to enter the chaotic sea of space-time. Within that boundless chaos, he disappeared.[2]

Although he managed to escape death, he suffered grievous injuries in the chaotic sea of space-time. He lost consciousness and then drifted through the chaos into the depths of space-time. He had no idea how much time passed before he woke up.

It took a lot of struggle, and some luck as well, but after experiencing countless setbacks, he managed to free himself. He eventually got back to the point where he had left. He emerged into the world.

Upon returning, he found that the war still raged. But then... a terrifying truth became evident when he returned to the camp. It was a truth that caused him to tremble with disbelief.

He found that from the time he had gone missing until now... a thousand years had passed! That truth filled him with extreme anxiety, perhaps even dread. He immediately left the battlefield and used the means he had at hand to leave the Fifth Star Ring and return to Revered Ancient. He didn’t dare to wonder what Revered Ancient would look like. A thousand years had passed.... He had missed out on a thousand years.

Soon, he hovered in the dome of heaven above Revered Ancient.

His face fell.

Revered Ancient looked very different compared to how he had left it. Gods were everywhere. Humans were extinct. Empress Summer Departure was nowhere to be seen.

He went to his former haunts in the lands of humans. He went to the entrance to Brilliant Heaven, only to find... that the entrance had collapsed. He went to the continent of South Phoenix. He went to the Sea of Endlessness. Huang Yan had perished.

Xu Qing took it all in silently. Then a sigh echoed in his ears. It was a familiar sigh. He turned and saw an old woman standing next to him.

She looked vaguely familiar. Floating next to her was a frail butterfly.

“Before Master withered into death,” the old woman said in a hoarse voice, “she said that you promised to come back in time. A thousand years have passed. You’re far too late. So... what exactly is the point of coming back now?”

She had once been the apprentice of the palace lord of the Summer Immortal Palace. She had been... a little butterfly.[3]

1. The term “goddess” being used here combines the character for god and female. In the context of this novel, it more specifically means ‘daughter of a god.’ I’m using the common rendering “goddess” for a few reasons. First of all, using ‘daughter of a god’ or ‘god daughter’ becomes very clunky. Second, I have not used ‘goddess’ for any of the female god characters in the novel. All such female gods are simply just called gods. When this term comes up in future chapters, it will always retain the meaning ‘daughter of a god.’ ☜

2. The chaotic sea of space-time was previously mentioned in

chapter 1170

. ☜

3. There’s an additional relevant line of text regarding the little butterfly in the next chapter, so I’ll save my customary links to past chapters for then. ☜