Departure

Xu Changqing had long since lost all human appearance. His entire body was covered in red and black hair, and an unbearably foul stench emanated from him.

His skin was ulcerated, as though it were crawling with maggots, and black blood kept dripping from it.

"Is this me?" Xu Changqing raised his hand and stared at the black blood flowing amid the dense red hair on his palm. His pupils contracted as he found it difficult to accept.

His flowing white hair had long since been corroded by black blood. It gave off a foul stench and clung to his back, which was covered in red hair.

"Strange... ominous..."

His face was covered in dense red hair mixed with silver and black strands. His pupils were somewhat unfocused, his body was wracked with intense pain, and his consciousness was hazy.

Xu Changqing examined his body from within, using the Emperor's Scripture Emperor Daoyan had given him to inspect every part of himself.

He discovered that his chromosomes, genes, cells, internal organs—everything—were shrouded in black blood and gray mist. They were ulcerated and emitted a foul stench.

Even his stark white bones had gone moldy.

In the dark, freezing universe, a monster stood frozen in place, staring at his hands as black blood continuously dripped from within his body.

The Heavenly Tribulation above his head had yet to descend. It seemed to be gathering strength, yet also seemed to be waiting.

Rumble!

A deafening clap of thunder rang out. It was incomparably vast, like the tolling of a great bell, reverberating throughout the universe. Even the Eternal Star Domain countless light-years away heard that earth-shaking thunder.

Xu Changqing abruptly raised his head. His muddy, weary eyes were strangely calm. Though he wore the body of a monster, he said nothing and could only face it in silence.

Sizzle!

A massive streak of white lightning flashed through the sky, setting heaven and earth ablaze. Before it had even descended, it already made Xu Changqing tremble, as if he were facing a supreme existence.

Boom!

The next moment, the Heavenly Tribulation descended. Heaven and earth turned into a vast expanse of white, and nothing could be seen.

This place was completely destroyed. Wherever the white light passed, all matter vanished. The rivers of stars, celestial bodies, and meteors all turned to nothingness.

Xu Changqing watched helplessly as the white light engulfed him. He was incomparably calm and accepted it without resistance.

The white lightning was exceedingly unusual. It pierced straight through Xu Changqing's crown.

With a final boom, his entire body exploded and ultimately turned into specks of light that vanished.

Before disappearing, he felt no pain and no sensation of contact. He simply vanished naturally.

His Nascent Soul turned into specks of light and scattered around him. His previously hazy consciousness unexpectedly became extremely clear, as though nothing had happened to him.

Moreover, he sensed a special kind of energy around him. Following his instincts, he approached those vague sensations.

Once he drew near, he understood without doing anything that it was new life left behind by the Lightning Tribulation.

Lightning Tribulation represented ultimate destruction, yet it also preserved a sliver of vitality.

Xu Changqing's consciousness began comprehending that new life, ultimately achieving Nirvana. The flesh and blood scattered throughout the Starry Sky began to squirm, while the bone ash and shattered bones drifting through space began to piece themselves back together.

When the two Saint Kings saw Xu Changqing turn into feathers of light, they revealed relieved smiles. Tears still streaked their faces as they wept and shouted, "Wuu... He is dead! But we did not kill him—the heavens avenged us!"

Just as they were about to turn and leave this place of sorrow, they sensed that person's aura once more.

They turned around and saw Xu Changqing's back.

His flowing white hair draped over his shoulders. Dressed in a cyan robe, his tall, slender figure stood quietly in the Starry Sky with his hands clasped behind his back, head raised as he gazed at the place where the Heavenly Tribulation had been.

Yet they discovered that the Heavenly Tribulation had already ended.

Xu Changqing stood there and thought for a moment, but still could not understand why he had triggered such a Heavenly Tribulation.

Forget it. Why think so much? Once I reach a certain level, I will naturally know.

He no longer concerned himself with the Heavenly Tribulation, nor did he pay any attention to the enemies rapidly approaching him.

Hum!

A bloodstained spaceship suddenly appeared beside him and drew Xu Changqing inside. Then, a massive black hole appeared in that place, and the spaceship carried Xu Changqing away.

The two Saints collapsed when they witnessed this scene.

That person had not even spared them a glance before directly leaving aboard the bloodstained ship.

"No! Even the heavens could not kill him?!"

"Did those people die for nothing..."

"That bloodstained ship must be a weapon of the gods. Otherwise, how could I have sensed such a vast, boundless aura? It vanished in an instant."

"Why would the gods help that devil?!"

The two Saint Kings roared where they stood, their voices filled with unwillingness. They realized that they seemed to have been toyed with.

Like monkeys, they had kept jumping and screeching before Xu Changqing, yet he had not bothered to acknowledge them at all.

Xu Changqing piloted the spaceship. In the cockpit, he stared at the coordinates Emperor Daoyan had left behind and fell into thought.

After considering it, he decided to head to the Human Race Ancient Trial Path first.

This spaceship had also reached the Saint King level. The reason he had not chosen to kill the two Saint Kings was simply because it was too troublesome.

Killing them would bring him no benefit and would only waste time.

"This trip has yielded an incomparably abundant harvest. I cannot even count how many kinds of Evolution Liquid I have. There are three bottles of Strongest Evolution Liquid in total. They can be of some use to me, though not much."

"Immortal Gold alone came in four kinds: Eternal Blue Gold, Divine Mark Purple Gold, Dao Tribulation Gold, and a fingernail-sized piece of Immortal Tear Green Gold."

There were countless cultivation methods alone, too many to count. From methods for opening the Sea of Bitterness to Emperor's Scriptures, he now had them all.

The only Emperor cultivation method was still Emperor Daoyan's.

"Next, I need to recuperate properly, enter seclusion, and prepare to face even stronger enemies."

Xu Changqing knew that he could not underestimate the powerful experts of the myriad heavens. There were countless special constitutions on the Emperor's Road alone, such as the Overlord Body and the Innate Dao Embryo.

In this era, aside from the Saint Body, nearly every type of constitution existed. This was the Golden Age.

The Chaos Body belonged to that woman. Although she had not yet transformed into a true Chaos Body, the signs had already begun to show.

If she absorbed the origins of every constitution on the Emperor's Road, then by the Quasi-Emperor realm, she might transform into a Chaos Body.

When the time came to battle her, it would be hard to say what his odds of victory would be.

Xu Changqing sat in a silver chair and allowed the spaceship to travel through the various star domains.

He was considering his own shortcomings.

He still had far too few escape cultivation methods. He only had the Blood Escape passed down to him by the two Demonic Great Sages.

As for healing cultivation methods, they basically consumed his life force. At best, they still required some time.

In the midst of a great battle, if he could not quickly recover from his injuries, he would gradually fall into a disadvantage.

Therefore, he needed to create a Divine Movement Technique and a Healing Technique.

If any of the cultivation methods I collected involve divine abilities of time or space, I can combine them with various movement techniques and the Divine Movement Technique to create an escape secret technique suited to me.

As for healing, I only need to remove the negative effect of consuming life force. But after removing it, how can I ensure instant recovery?

If only I had the Secret of the 'Zhe' Character. Then I would not need to fear injury at all.

Xu Changqing did not immediately sort through his gains. Instead, he contemplated various feasible methods in his mind.

In the end, he took action, using the time spent traveling to the Imperial Pass to create secret techniques and divine abilities better suited to himself.

As for how to deal with those Immortal Golds, naturally, he would extract their essences and fuse them into the Bone Saber.

That way, the Bone Saber would not change color because of it, yet it would become stronger and possess the traits of all four kinds of Immortal Gold.

Once he decided on it, Xu Changqing immediately began spending time extracting the traits and essences of the Immortal Gold.

The extraction method came from the scriptures Emperor Daoyan had given him. After all, Emperor Daoyan was an expert in this field.

Following his method could not go wrong.

After Xu Changqing left the Eternal Star Domain, the entire Eternal Star Domain fell into dead silence.

No sooner had he left than an outsider entered the Eternal Star Domain.

It was a woman of peerless grace, dressed in white. Her beautiful black hair flowed behind her, her face could not be seen, and she stood quietly in the Starry Sky.

"A familiar aura. It is him..."