Chapter 1229: The Illusion Contained Reality

There was no door to life. There was no path to death. There was no way to depart. There was no means to return.

Thus was the pain of this True God. Hē was frozen in an ice coffin, sealed in time by the space-time hourglass, hīs karma ensnared by the heaven beyond heaven. Stuck halfway between returning and departing, hē was like a special spirit stone that emanated ringsource. All hē could do was descend into the burning pain, hīs soul torn apart as hīs godhood and ringsource was slowly sucked away in what amounted to pure torment.

Out in the starry sky, Xu Qing looked coldly at the ice coffin. His fury was finally subsiding. The end this True God had experienced was the best kind of torment to inflict on hīm. Since hē enjoyed pain, hē would personally feel a lot of it.

It’s too bad I don’t have Yu Liuchen’s godly authority of telling stories....

If he had that godly authority, then he could draw out time even further. He could tell a story of pain upon pain for this True God, and ensure that his time spent sealed in ice was one of even greater mental torment. At the same time, he would be able to extract even stronger ringsource.

There’s no rush.

Xu Qing retracted his vision, then went over and sat down cross-legged on the ice coffin. Closing his eyes, he began doing some breathing exercises. All of his pores opened, and ringsource from the coffin poured into him.

The ringsource was strong and pure, and as he did breathing exercises, it flowed into him. Once inside, it reached his immortal embryo and provided profound nourishment. The immortal embryo began to emit a soft glow that illuminated the surrounding darkness, and caused the innumerable universes, galaxies, and planets in the heaven beyond heaven to be a bit brighter. They were still recovering.

As light pulsed off Xu Qing’s immortal embryo, the immortal palace that served as his immortal foundation reacted similarly.

In that manner, time passed. A month went by.

Xu Qing opened his eyes. A mysterious light shone therein as he looked down at the coffin floating in the starry sky. The coffin had originally emitted strong ringsource. But it had diminished quite a bit, and had gone from a raging river to a trickling stream.

That was no surprise. The special spirit stone made of a god would last for a long time and would provide a lot of ringsource. But it wasn’t going to all come out at once. Absorbing it slowly but surely would be the most beneficial thing for Xu Qing.

During his month of breathing exercises, he had made some significant cultivation progress. His immortal embryo had become more stable, and its aura and pressure had increased. The immortal palace that served as his immortal foundation, plus his status as the lord of this heaven beyond heaven, ensured that his aura was far closer to that of an immortal. He was now very close to the peak of early Quasi-Immortal.

On the outside, cultivation speed like that would provoke instant jealousy among others. It was incredibly fast. After all, the Quasi-Immortal level was about the process of going from an immortal embryo to a mature immortal. And it required terrifying amounts of ringsource. Becoming a mature immortal... was the sign of the Lower Immortal level!

Unfortunately, it was too slow for Xu Qing.

I need more of these True God spirit stones....

Licking his lips, he stood and looked off into the distance. He was thinking about what he had seen in that illusion.

Now that I think about it, there were some very strange aspects to that illusion....

His eyes glittered mysteriously.

In the illusion, it had taken him ten years of secluded cultivation to reach the peak of Quasi-Immortal. Although his memories didn’t contain all the details of how that happened, he could clearly remember what it felt like to reach that level. There was something especially noteworthy....

If I really did spend ten years of secluded cultivation here, it’s hard to say if the ringsource coming from the ice coffin would be enough to reach the peak of Quasi-Immortal. But it would definitely be enough for late Quasi-Immortal. It seems safe to say... that the illusion was at least logical on a theoretical level....

Even as the thought occurred to him, his mind filled with a haze.

On an instinctual level, he wasn’t willing to take that route. He was not going to stick around here in seclusion. For one thing, he didn’t want things to end up like they had in the illusion. What was more, sitting around in seclusion was the slow path to making progress.

There was another reason. Xu Qing knew full well that if he wanted to break out of the Quasi-Immortal level and step into Lower Immortal, he needed more than just ringsource to transform his immortal embryo. He needed to push his canon to a higher level!

And I need my tenth extreme!

He currently had no direction to pursue when it came to his tenth extreme. He hadn’t even done that in the illusion.... After some thought, he put the ice coffin into the black hole. The black hole would absorb the ringsource and keep it stored for later use.

Looking thoughtful, he turned to leave. But then he stopped in place all of a sudden. His eyes glittered.

“Wait. No!”

I must have made some progress with the tenth extreme in the illusion. After all, by the time I got back to Revered Ancient, my cultivation base was... not Quasi-Immortal. But I can’t remember the details.

He frowned. Now he was more doubtful than ever about the illusion. Unfortunately, without more detailed information to go on, he had no choice but to suppress his doubt and leave the Green Heaven.

***

Meanwhile, outside of the Green Heaven, the streams of immortal will began to disperse. Before leaving, they couldn’t help but glance back incredulously at Xu Qing emerging from the Green Heaven.

They would remember Xu Qing. It would be impossible to forget what they had just seen. The lord of the Aurora heaven beyond heaven, with a Quasi-Immortal cultivation base and battle prowess close to that of an immortal, had crushed a returning True God. A stunning achievement like that was enough to raise the eyebrows of them all.

One by one, they left.

***

The figure standing in the highest tower in the Nineshores Immortal Palace nodded.

Since he seized the destined opportunity... and accomplished his Acquisitioner’s mission, then... there’s not much point in him staying in this star ring.

“Send orders to the Department of Acquisitions,” he said. “The squadron of new ascendees will be converted to a Transporter squadron. Just like all the other squadrons, they’ll take what they collected as Acquisitioners and transport it to the battlefield. They don’t need to come back. They’ll move in directly to the star ring’s god barrier formation.”

In response to Immortal Lord Nineshores’ words, the tower trembled, and then an official decree was sent from the Nineshores heaven beyond heaven.

***

Poison Monarch was in the Department of Acquisitions. As he sat there cross-legged, his eyes opened. New orders had come in from Immortal Lord Nineshores. He checked the orders, whereupon his expression flickered. After looking off into the distance, he sighed.

Is the kid lucky? Or is he unlucky...?

Poison Monarch didn’t want to simply give in like this, but the orders were from Immortal Lord Nineshores, and he didn’t dare to work against them. Sighing, he made the arrangements.

***

Xu Qing left the Green Heaven and returned to the same spot in the Heavenless Zone.

The prison was gone. However, the guards, the wardens, and Sir Star Ring and the ascendees were all waiting to see how things ended. A month had passed, and they were all feeling uneasy. After all, it shouldn’t have taken an entire month for a True God to return after the process had been started in the way it had.

Therefore, when they saw Xu Qing, they relaxed a bit. That was especially true when they realized that he was obviously stronger than in the past. Zhou Zhengli was the first to step forward and bow.

“Congratulations, Your Majesty. You have crushed a True God! There is truly no end to your virtuous achievements!”

Everyone else rushed to pay respects. All of them were shaken to varying degrees. The ascendees had personally witnessed Xu Qing becoming a Quasi-Immortal. They had sensed the majesty of his immortal embryo, and the fact that he was lord of a heaven beyond heaven. Now he was very nearly as strong as an immortal. They had also watched him teleport a True God away, and then calmly return.

Even top chosen couldn’t avoid being astonished to see him make such rapid progress and reach such great heights.

Sir Star Ring looked quietly at Xu Qing and sighed in his heart. The difference between them was only growing larger. However, that feeling didn’t last for long before it turned into a motivating force.

Xu Qing looked around at everyone. Upon seeing that the wardens and guards were still present, he relaxed a bit.

Things were already different from the illusion. After all, in the illusion, he had come out to find the warden and guards gone. But then, even as such thoughts entered his mind, and as everyone was bowing to him, something happened. Before he could say a word...

The ascendees’ identity medallions all vibrated. New orders came from the Nineshores heaven beyond heaven, conveyed through the Department of Acquisitions.

“There are new developments in the war outside the star ring. There is a huge demand for ringsource. All Acquisitioner squadrons are to personally transport the ringsource they have collected to the front lines as Transporter squadrons. There shall be no delays!”

All of the ascendees reacted with visible surprise.

Transport it ourselves to the front lines?

Hordeslayer and Rampart were trembling with astonishment. Yuanshan Su frowned. Li Mengtu’s expression flickered. Sir Vilespirit’s pupils constricted. The ascendees all reacted in different ways.

The war had always been something far, far removed from them. None of them had ever imagined... that they would see it so soon! That was especially true considering that their cultivation bases would make them like drops of water in the ocean. They could die at any moment.

Maybe they would run into Godfire gods, or Altar Gods. They might even encounter True Gods! Based on their previous understanding, the war with the Fourth Star Ring was being waged between God Lords and Immortal Lords. It was a war between gods and immortals. It was a war between opposing sides. It was a war of complete extermination of species!

Zhou Zhengli looked gravely at Xu Qing. Sir Star Ring’s heart sank as he did the same. All of the cultivators did the same.

Xu Qing, meanwhile, felt somewhat dazed. He was yet again thinking about the illusion he had experienced thanks to that True God. In the illusion, he had gone to the front lines! The difference was that, in the illusion, it had happened ten years later. In reality, it was happening a lot sooner. Ten years sooner.

Why did it happen that way in the True God’s illusion? Was it a coincidence?

A dour look filled Xu Qing’s eyes.