Chapter 1347: Primeval Motherworlds

It was clearly some sort of ceremony, governed by universally shocking laws. With the left eye of the broken face as heaven, and the right eye of Eminent Desolation as earth, the position of heaven and earth were established, the void was pierced, and time was shattered.

They swept about Zi Qing and converged on the skull. The skull served as a space-time anchor, while Zi Qing’s power of fate was the foundation for a very special type of return. If you thought of space-time as clear water, then Zi Qing’s old skull was like a drop of ink.

That ink had just landed in the water. And it spread to cloud everything. It infected the world and altered its color. All of the Heaveneater Region turned dark. As the ink spread, as that darkness spread, all traces of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan disappeared, as if the place had never even existed.

The dust of space-time was shed, and the region returned to its original form. Ultimately, the kingdom was taken by the wind, leaving behind nothing in its wake.

That included both Zi Qing and Xu Qing, who were in that kingdom’s imperial palace. An instant later, their auras were gone, and there was no evidence of their existence.

They were isolated outside of the world. They had entered the ancient past.

***

The wind blew across heaven and earth. An ancient aura abounded, filled with faint traces of blood. It swept over shattered lands and withered forests. And then, like a brush painting the works of heaven, it formed the Xu Qing who wouldn’t come to exist for tens of thousands of years.

The moment he appeared, his eyes glittered, and he looked around, stunned.

The aura here... is definitely what I was looking for!

He looked up into the sky. It was a lot grayer than he remembered. A dense mutagen filled heaven and earth. It had not been diluted in this time period, and in fact, occasionally manifested as a dusky haze. This was Revered Ancient, but it was not the Heaveneater Region.

𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

This is the Holytide Region....

This was the Holytide Region of antiquity. At the same time, this was the original location of the true Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan!

War raged!

Xu Qing’s senses were telling him that in this ancient version of the Holytide Region, there were a host of ancient cities that had been set ablaze. Citizens of the countless species had besieged those cities. This was the point in history when the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan ended up being destroyed.

Cultivators from the countless species had come from many regions, and now they were like a tide smashing into the cities of the kingdom and destroying them. The citizens were being massacred.

Forces behind the scenes were pushing them to completely wipe out the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan! Humans were rising to prominence, and they needed to be crushed!

Xu Qing looked on silently.

Then, a tranquil voice echoed in his mind. “See, I wasn’t lying. That Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan really used a fate magic to go into the past! Using his own fate, he returned to a specified point in space-time!”

As the voice drifted out, blood-red light shimmered around Xu Qing. Then, a blood mist separated from him, then came to float in front of him in the form of.... a blood-red mask! In the eye-holes of the mask was something like underworld fire, far off in the distance.

The mask looked at Xu Qing. “Now, I need you to take the initiative to sever the karma between the two of us when we completed our deal.”

There was no facial expression on Xu Qing as he looked at the mask, but his eyes shone with profound light.

Back before he fought with Zi Qing, he had spent time on Mount Daybreak researching the mysterious light from the Brilliant Heaven Godfolk. But even after absorbing all of it, his cultivation base had been unable to achieve a breakthrough. The light couldn’t do anything more.

All that had remained had been its core, which was a key. Of course, Xu Qing had taken plenty of time studying the key. After many such sessions of study, he came to realize that it was the key to the door of the primeval motherworld. It was only with that key that the door could even be found!

Xu Qing had looked for the door. But whether he searched in Brilliant Heaven or called on the help of the heavenly dao, he had failed. He could not find the door leading to the primeval motherworld. He couldn’t even find any clues.

Given his experiences, he knew that primeval motherworlds were very special. For example, in the Fourth Star Ring, the primeval motherworld only existed in the memories of the gods. The primeval motherworld of the Ninth Star Ring had even more unique qualities.

Three years before the date he had chosen to fight Zi Qing, Xu Qing’s study of the key prompted him to consider some memories in which he finally found a clue.

It was Zi Qing!

Zi Qing, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan, was the salvation of human destiny aura, as well as the salvation of Revered Ancient. Compared to Brilliant Heaven, Revered Ancient actually hadn’t existed for very long. And in some ways, Revered Ancient was actually Brilliant Heaven.

In that case... the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan was also the savior of Brilliant Heaven. And the precursor to Brilliant Heaven was the primeval motherworld.

That was the only clue Xu Qing had discovered pertaining to the primeval motherworld. Zi Qing was the savior of Brilliant Heaven. Thus, one could logically deduce that there was a high likelihood that Zi Qing was also the savior of the primeval motherworld! If that turned out to be true, then Zi Qing’s fate lay within the door to the primeval motherworld.

Unfortunately, that was not the current Zi Qing. Rather, it was the Zi Qing who had not sacrificed anything to the broken face. It was the Zi Qing of antiquity! It was

his

fate!

As such, Xu Qing actually wanted to return to antiquity! It was a type of return that wasn’t possible for him using his space-time canon. He could use that canon to enter space-time whenever he wanted, but it was only

his

space-time. He needed to get into the space-time of Zi Qing’s fate!

The big downside to that special requirement was that he wasn’t certain that Zi Qing would do such a thing during the fight.

That was when he had thought of the Mask of Wishes.[1]

He had made a deal with the mask a long time ago. His wish had been to reform his immortal body. After that, the mask told Xu Qing the price. It told him that it wanted the statue of the broken face located in the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan in the Heaveneater Region. After everything Xu Qing had gone through, including fighting the subordinate god of the mother river, Xu Qing had guessed what the Mask of Wishes was up to. Therefore, he had struck another deal with the mask.

With such thoughts in mind, Xu Qing waved his hand, severing the connection between himself and the mask.

“Our deal is now complete,” he said calmly.

With the karma severed, the blood-red mask trembled. The facial features of the mask distorted, revealing a gruish smile. Then the mask vanished from the ancient space-time of Zi Qing’s fate.

After it was gone, Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed.

You want to use Eminent Desolation to gain freedom, huh...?

A few breaths of time passed, then Xu Qing retracted his gaze. He could sense all the fighting going on in the distant Violet and Cyan Region, as well as in the capital.

Ultimately, his eyes glittered as he lifted his right hand and... revealed a beam of light! The color of light was the same as daybreak. It was daybreak light, the very same mysterious light worshiped by the Brilliant Heaven Godfolk.

After producing the light, Xu Qing took a deep breath, and his heart and mind filled with determination. He was ready to try to open the door to the primeval motherworld! Just like Mi Ming, he wanted to use the primeval motherworld to achieve a cultivation base breakthrough.

He knew time was limited, so without any hesitation, he waved his hand. The beam of light shot up into the sky, spreading dazzlingly until it was like a huge rainbow. The light glittered, like a huge, rippling river. As it spread, it was within the daybreak light that... a very unique aura appeared. It gradually turned into a rift in the light!

Xu Qing’s gaze hardened as he spotted something within the light. It was a location that was not completely isolated, something just barely visible through the rift! This was not something that existed in the memories of the gods, nor in the memories of other living things. It was a dream world of Brilliant Heaven!

Astonishingly, there were two mysterious and illusory primeval motherworlds there! One was black, the other was white. The moment they became clear, Xu Qing shot into motion, entering the rift! After he was inside, the light and the rift had accomplished their purpose, and they vanished.

The primeval motherworld of the Fourth Star Ring existed only in the memories of the living beings in that star ring. In the Ninth Star Ring, the primeval motherworlds existed in a dream realm of the will of Brilliant Heaven itself. The world of Brilliant Heaven existed in the ancient past. Later, Deep Earth came along and established Revered Ancient, with its cultivators linked to the heavenly daos. As a result, the will of Brilliant Heaven had gradually faded.

Then the broken face came, and that fading turned into a pure shattering. Ultimately, as the dream world drifted into nothing, the world of Brilliant Heaven issued a final call for salvation, which entered Revered Ancient and became humankind.

Later, Zi Qing shouldered the responsibility of humankind, and thus the salvation of Revered Ancient and Brilliant Heaven came to be born.

Xu Qing understood all of that the moment the primeval motherworlds formed.

At the moment, he was in a realm of fantastic light and unending color. In the boundless light off in the distance were two huge primeval motherworlds, one black, one white, endlessly orbiting each other. They pulsed with the colors black and white, which intertwined with the colorful surroundings to deepen the dreamlike feeling.

Xu Qing looked at the primeval motherworlds, his eyes gleaming.

He had picked a path thanks to the inspiration from Mi Ming! Mi Ming’s breakthrough had come thanks to the Fourth Star Ring’s primeval motherworld. He had inserted himself into the motherworld and ultimately fused with it. By using the power of the motherworld, he became a God Lord. Only after leaving his true name behind did he convert from god to immortal. Because Mi Ming had used that method, he could be considered both god and immortal! That also gave him a unique power of suppression over gods.

After later analysis, Xu Qing came to the conclusion that there was actually a superior way to break through than to rely on a primeval motherworld. And that was to... devour a primeval motherworld!

Mi Ming might have considered that, but what ended up happening was that he just temporarily fused with it. He did not actually devour the motherworld! The reason was that there were too many obstacles to making such a path a reality. The Fourth Star Ring’s God Paragon could have tried to stop him, not to mention that the primeval motherworld itself would have fought back. There was also the simple fact that he would have risked losing himself in the process.... The slightest mistake in any of those regards could have resulted in him losing himself.

It was like walking on a thread of spider silk! That was why Mi Ming had chosen the safest option, and the one most likely to lead to success. After using the state of fusion to succeed at the breakthrough, he took the initiative to break apart.

Xu Qing’s plan used Mi Ming’s idea as the starting point. But he pushed it to completion to do something that Mi Ming had not done!

There are three areas of difficulty. They can be divided into the internal and the external aspects.

There are going to be two difficulties externally. First, the other God Paragons of the Ninth Star Ring might provide opposition. Second, there’s no way to know what the broken face of Eminent Desolation will do.

Third is the internal difficulty. And that will be resistance from the two primeval motherworlds!

Xu Qing looked at the motherworlds, his eyes shining.

Due to the unique location of the two motherworlds, plus the existence of the broken face, Xu Qing actually didn’t think that the first external difficulty was anything to worry about. The other God Paragons of the Ninth Star Ring couldn’t reach this place. Besides, the broken face would make it difficult even to approach.

But the broken face could be a problem....

Without any hesitation, Xu Qing made all the appropriate preparations, including for if he failed. Regardless of anything, he was going to try to make it work! With that thought in mind, he unhesitatingly blurred into motion, heading directly toward the twin primeval motherworlds!

***

The ancient wind dispersed the daybreak light from the dome of heaven, leaving behind only a lingering aura that fell to the ground. It passed shattered mountains and rivers, as well as the ruins of cities. Eventually, it reached the middle of the Holytide Region, and the capital city which was the pride of humankind.

It was... the capital of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan! Outside of the kingdom, whether in the sky or land, countless cultivators from innumerable species had facial expressions of brutality and madness. Killing intent surged as they converged on the city from all directions.

The city walls had already been breached! Inside the city, the nonhuman cultivators smashed everything in their path. Their opponents... were the cultivators of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan. None said a word. They just fought and died. It didn’t matter how badly they were injured, or what emotions they felt. None of them cried out.

That was not the custom of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan. No matter how many companions died next to them, they did not feel despair or grief. They were unyielding. And that was because their crown prince was still around!

A figure stood in the imperial palace behind them. As powerful experts from the countless species converged on the palace, his personal guard fought to the death.

Deaths occurred constantly.

Corpses littered the ground everywhere.

Blood flowed like rivers.

1. Mask of Wishes references: chapters

1037

,

1038

,

1042

,

1050

,

1060

,

1090

. ☜