Chapter 1323: Primordial Gruish Sacrificial Altar

Within the sea of gold-and-silver light, waves seethed as the timescape bottle emerged from Xu Qing’s personal time. It looked like just an ordinary bottle, though it pulsed with a very wild and ancient aura.

It seemed ancient and decaying; even with the traceback of the wish power, it didn’t seem possible to pull it back in its entirety. Even with the blessing of Xu Qing’s statute and canon, which caused space-time to flow on the surface of the timescape bottle... the image carved on the surface of the little bottle was difficult to see clearly.

The carving almost seemed alive, its various lines intertwining and twisting into the shape of a sphere. As it rotated, it released a strong aura of life force.

Is that... a planet?

Xu Qing’s pupils constricted. As the planet spun, a beam of light like that of daybreak appeared and covered the entire bottle.

Xu Qing’s pupils constricted further as he closely observed what was happening.

However, the scream of the mother river God Lord interrupted everything. Hē held nothing back to unleash hīs godhood, and thus, never-ending godlight spilled out, eating away at the chain of statute power until it wasn’t pulling on hīm. The image that had been forming moments before vanished, and the timescape bottle went back to normal.

The God Lord fell back at top speed, hīs face pale, hīs body weak, but hīs eyes and heart bubbling with killing intent. Hīs injuries were severe. Despite only sending one-third of hīm here as a clone, the damage to hīs godhood was so bad that it had already affected hīs true form.

This guy doesn’t just come with the machinations of God Paragons. He has assets even more mysterious than that! And almost all of those assets are directly connected to the Revered Ancient mainland....

I’d say there’s an eighty to ninety percent chance... that this guy has become the final resistance of Revered Ancient as it’s being devoured by Eminent Desolation! He has Revered Ancient destiny aura, heavenly daos, and its light, and thus, that strange little bottle is connected to him!

Someone like this... well, no wonder he’s tied up in the machinations of the God Paragons! That said, though his chain of statute has limited me, it also allowed me to form a direct connection to him, and thus... see his weakness!

The God Lord’s eyes glittered with golden light, and in fact, golden fire erupted from them and spread out over hīm, hissing and popping as it burned. Within that golden fire, hē looked like a holy figure. However, hīs eyes shone with a distinct determination that couldn’t be hidden.

“You have the exact weakness I anticipated. A fusion between immortal and god can’t possibly be that easy! You’re struggling! Your current state is temporary. That state of fusion between immortal and god won’t last for long!”

As the God Lord’s godly voice echoed in the starry sky, hē lifted his right hand, and the flame from hīs eyes surged. Then... hīs godhood ignited! An instant later, even more abundant fire erupted from hīm, turning the entire starry sky around him into a conglomeration of godfire.

It burned everything, creating a void, and providing immense nutrients to hīm. The heat and light turned into godly might that threatened to incinerate the entire surrounding universe. In an instant, hīs godly will filled the starry sky. Then, as hē put everything on the line, the God Lord lifted hīs hand and pointed at Xu Qing.

The moment hē spoke, hīs voice became the natural laws of the star ring!

“I wish for your immortal-god fusion to become unstable, and to collapse within three breaths of time! I wish for your immortal soul to become independent, and to then fall apart! I wish for your god body to devour your soul and make it an illusion!”

As the wishes were spoken, the natural laws of the Ninth Star Ring echoed within that universe, causing all living beings to tremble. At the same time, they formed three closed eyes of natural law. The first eye opened on the forehead of the God Lord.

The moment that eye fixed on Xu Qing, the sea of gold and silver around him emitted cracking sounds. And then the two colors, gold and silver, began to separate from their fused state. On the left was silver, on the right was gold. Xu Qing was in the middle. And his body seemed to be on the verge of splitting apart. The instability which had already existed grew dramatically more apparent!

A vicious expression appeared on the face of the God Lord as a second eye opened on hīs forehead. Natural laws erupted. The star ring trembled. Xu Qing’s soul began to fluctuate.

And yet, Xu Qing didn’t seem bothered by the developments. Whether it was the sea of light splitting apart or the fluctuations striking his immortal soul, nothing seemed to affect him. He just let the God Lord’s eyes open. Meanwhile, inside Xu Qing’s mind, magical techniques combined to form a divine ability.

It was the legacy of Li Zihua, the divine ability known as the God Decapitation Altar!

It belongs to someone else, but I can use it as a frame of reference to make... my own divine ability.

Xu Qing lifted his hand and made a beckoning gesture. The red moon flew to him and became an endless blood mist underfoot. And that seething mist then turned into a blood-red altar! It was a red moon sacrificial altar!

Next, he took the black, bronze pagoda that was the origin of the Ghost Emperor mountain and knocked it on its side to make a supporting frame for the altar.

Then he hoisted the altar up! The chains from Golden Crow bound the frame to the altar, then swayed beneath it.

It was a strange sight. Xu Qing closed his eyes. His thoughts stirred again, and the power of taboo poison surged, becoming a roiling black mist, within which could barely be seen the image of a gigantic beast. And that beast lurked there, on the west side of the altar.

Next, Xu Qing summoned D-132. The painter emerged, a wild expression on his face. Using the millstone, he ground daybreak light into material to add color to the altar. Then he mixed in the destiny aura blood of the boy, using it to paint eyes onto the stone lion. Trembling, the stone lion let loose an ear-splitting roar. Cackling, the painter took his paintbrush and stabbed it into his own forehead. Just before dying, he crawled to the north of the altar.

After that, within the blood mist on the altar, the gruish scarecrow strolled out, went to the south corner of the altar, then bowed to the center with an object held in its hands. It was the timescape bottle.

Finally, in the east of the altar, the god’s finger appeared, with the D-132 head in front of it.

The head was moaning, “You’re dead! You’re dead! You’re dead!”

The God Lord from the mother river looked at all of this and trembled. Hē felt an intense sensation of deadly crisis, and it was only growing stronger. It felt like catastrophe was about to strike, and there didn’t seem any way to stop it.

“What is that thing?!”

As that voice echoed out, Xu Qing, who sat in the middle of the altar, opened his eyes. He looked at the mother river God Lord.

Voice cold, he said, “I’ve gathered and combined all of the gruish things I’ve collected in my life. And with the traceback function of your wish power, I’ve formed this altar. I think I’ll call it... the Primordial Gruish Sacrificial Altar!”

When the final word left his mouth, the echo of Xu Qing’s voice caused the starry sky to tremble.

At the same time, the space around Xu Qing rippled as a massive force began to form a boundary that ripped apart reality and illusion. Sinister shadows that surpassed taboo poison drifted in sinister winds, spreading out to converge around the altar.

Within those shadows were the outline of freakish, gruish entities, and they pulsed with hair-raising auras that were profoundly ancient! From the look of it, they were more ancient than the gods! The aura caused even the God Lord to tremble. Sounds like wailing or weeping echoed in the surrounding starry sky, as if evil entities were being born, and they wanted to devour everyone!

As they struggled endlessly in the darkness and gloom, Xu Qing’s gaze shifted to the God Lord. They surged toward the god. That endless stream of darkness would cause any onlooker who observed it to shake to the core of their being. Wherever the darkness passed, the starry sky decayed, and skin melted.

The God Lord’s face fell as the sensation of deadly crisis intensified. Hē fell back, unleashing every god magic hē could think of. Dazzling light formed in front of hīm, as various forms of the godhood of wishes created a defensive barrier. At the same time, hīs body became nothing as hē used a god magic to flee off into the distance!

The gruish things from the Primordial Gruish Sacrificial Altar seemed to smell blood, and they rushed forward even faster, unleashing terrifying howls.

Regardless of voids, space-times, or parallel universes, they were able to lock down onto the God Lord. In every dimension, every thought, and every story, they chased the God Lord, dragging hīm from wherever hē was until hē was back in the middle of the altar.

There, the God Lord appeared. And then hē screamed as... the sacrifice began!

The altar surged, locking onto the body. The black tower thrummed, suppressing the soul! Taboo poison surged, sealing the mind! The entire altar trembled to mark the beginning of the sacrifice!

Innumerable gruish things pounced ravenously.

The dead painter’s gruish laughter rang out as his dead hand frantically painted.

The stone lion roared, “What are grues, born before the gods; in the higher star rings, the Grue World precedes the godly!”

The head danced and sang, “At fifteen minutes before midnight, break the finger of blood; offer the seven orifices as a sacrifice to the grue lord.

“Dig out the left eye for the cursed sparrow; give the right eye as an offering to the timescape.

“Hang both ears on the black crow; stuff the tongue into the bronze chalice.

“Take the godly marrow and godhood, the spirit body and god soul, and toss them in the River of Forgetfulness!

“Bury the others in the Mountain of Sin, the god kingdom collapses, illuminated by blinding light!

“Finally, the millstone turns thrice; the grue offering reveals its true face!”

The voice was piercing, like a dirge of death! No matter how the God Lord struggled and howled, there was no way to escape the terror. The gruish power of the Ninth Star Ring seemed to be converging in that area, then erupting dramatically.

Hardly an instant later, the might of the Primordial Gruish Sacrificial Altar caused the God Lord to completely and utterly vanish. Along with the altar, hē became nothing. Only a bit of the gruish aura remained in the starry sky, as well as a sigh from the ancient immortal, who also died.

𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

The starry sky went still. Xu Qing hovered in the peaceful silence. Finally, he looked up at the distant universe.

A moment passed, and then he waved his hand to produce the Immortal Paragon’s treasure. He waved his hand at the starry sky below. A thin line appeared beneath him, which became a circle that wrapped around Revered Ancient. It created a line of demarcation. And within it, Xu Qing’s voice echoed to fill the Ninth Star Ring.

“From now on, outsiders who cross this line will do so at their own peril!”