The Nine Provinces Continent.
High above Dayan Mountain, Teng Qingshan, nearly five hundred years old, stood in midair.
"Five hundred years. It's time to leave."
As he spoke, Teng Qingshan stretched out his right hand. Space before him roared as a black hole appeared. Smiling, he stepped into it, dressed all in white.
"Earth, I'm coming!"
Wrapped in Primordial Chaos Force, Teng Qingshan was unafraid of the tearing force of space, even though he wore nothing but white.
"I couldn't uncover the secret of the Nine Provinces Cauldron on the Nine Provinces Continent. Now that I'm returning to Earth, I should be able to figure it out."
Wrapped in the hazy Primordial Chaos Force, Teng Qingshan thought to himself.
After becoming a Supreme Powerhouse on the Nine Provinces Continent, he had long been invincible.
Most of the time, he kept his family company, wrote manuals, taught his disciples, and studied Xingyi Fist.
The rest of the time, he spent studying the mysterious Nine Provinces Cauldron.
Feeling the little black cauldron in his arms, Teng Qingshan was filled with boundless anticipation for his imminent arrival on Earth.
The Nine Provinces Continent actively repelled him.
The hazy figure of Teng Qingshan soon disappeared completely into the black hole.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—
"Complete darkness. I wonder how much longer it'll take."
Teng Qingshan's powerful soul sensed the area around him, but aside from the utter darkness and the extreme tearing force of space, he couldn't detect anything.
Suddenly!
A mysterious streak of blood-red light appeared in the dark space.
Moving at a speed Teng Qingshan couldn't begin to comprehend, it engulfed him.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—
The Primordial Chaos Force that had protected Teng Qingshan offered no resistance at all against the onslaught of the blood-red light.
In an instant,
the shield formed by the Primordial Chaos Force around Teng Qingshan's body was completely destroyed.
"Oh no!"
Feeling how overbearing the sudden blood-red light was, Teng Qingshan sensed something was wrong.
In the next instant, the blood-red light completely consumed him.
Just as Teng Qingshan's consciousness was about to disappear completely,
the mysterious blood-red light sank into the Nine Provinces Cauldron. The little cauldron, transformed in an instant, suddenly emitted a faint glow and drew Teng Qingshan's consciousness inside.
Then, carried by an unknown force, the little cauldron flew deeper into the dark space.
No one knew how much time had passed.
When Teng Qingshan's consciousness finally regained clarity,
everything before him was beyond his expectations.
"Qingshan, you're finally awake!"
Jiangnan City, Yangzhou City.
Inside a hospital room in Yi'an District,
a delighted voice rang out.
"Mm..."
Teng Qingshan opened his eyes and looked toward the voice.
It belonged to a kindly old man.
Suddenly,
a rush of memories flooded in.
At the same time, the illusory Nine Provinces Cauldron deep in Teng Qingshan's consciousness began to turn slightly, and images of events yet to come appeared in his mind.
"Earth, the Virus, monsters, the Great Nirvana, the Cosmic Starry Sky, the Origin Laws..."
Thanks to the powerful martial arts realm he had attained before Shattering the Void, Teng Qingshan's soul was extraordinarily strong.
He absorbed all those memories and images in moments.
To anyone watching, Teng Qingshan had only been dazed for a moment, but he had already begun to understand where he was.
"I'm Teng Qingshan, and I'm also Teng Qingshan!"
Now Teng Qingshan understood everything. "Only now, I'm Teng Qingshan in the Swallowed Star World."
When he had stepped into the black hole, something had gone wrong along the way, but he had indeed arrived on Earth.
It was just that this "Earth" belonged to another space-time.
In his first life, when he had been an assassin, Teng Qingshan had naturally encountered science and learned about the theory of parallel universes.
Together with the images and scattered information sent by the little cauldron in his consciousness,
he now understood his situation.
His powerful will allowed Teng Qingshan to regain his composure in moments, even though this world seemed entirely beyond his expectations.
"Qingshan!"
The old man named Teng Yongyuan called out again, his slightly clouded eyes full of concern.
"Grandpa, don't worry. I'm fine now." Teng Qingshan, now an eighteen-year-old young man, smiled.
After absorbing the memories of the original owner, who was also named "Teng Qingshan," he quickly adjusted to his new identity.
The original owner had the same name as him, but a strange, mysterious headache had landed him in the hospital.
The original owner had also had a hard life. His parents had died in a car accident when he was three, and he had been raised by his grandfather, Teng Yongyuan.
No matter how many hospitals the original owner visited or how many folk remedies he tried, nothing helped with his strange headaches.
This time, the pain had been especially severe.
In the end, the original owner hadn't made it; his consciousness had vanished completely. Teng Qingshan had benefited from his death, and, protected by the Nine Provinces Cauldron, had crossed endless space and time to arrive here, becoming himself in a parallel universe.
"It's good that you're all right. That strange headache of yours really has been worrying." Teng Yongyuan, now in his sixties, sighed helplessly.
"I'm all right now, Grandpa. Let's go home."
Having gotten used to his body, Teng Qingshan got out of bed. He and his grandfather from this life completed the discharge formalities and went home.
It was an ordinary apartment in a residential complex, with three bedrooms and a living room.
"Qingshan, you've only just recovered. Get some rest. I'll call you when the food's ready."
After saying that, Teng Yongyuan, still in good health, went to the kitchen and began preparing the meal.
A retired teacher, Teng Yongyuan exercised regularly and was in excellent shape.
Looking at Teng Yongyuan's white hair and kindly face, Teng Qingshan thought of his equally kind and gentle grandfather, Teng Yunlong, back on the Nine Provinces Continent.
But over the long years,
his grandfather, his parents, and his wife had all faded away, one after another, into the river of time.
Only his relatives who had reached the Void Realm had been able to stay by his side a little longer.
But even those in the Void Realm had limited lifespans.
After the generation he knew had passed away, Teng Qingshan had ultimately chosen to Shatter the Void in his solitude, journeying to what he had believed was "Earth."
But that mysterious streak of blood-red light along the way had brought him to Earth in the Swallowed Star World.
Back in his bedroom, Teng Qingshan lay on the bed, recalling the dangers of his journey while carefully studying the images transmitted by the Nine Provinces Cauldron, now illusory within his consciousness.
Since waking up, Teng Qingshan had clearly felt that many miraculous changes had taken place in the Nine Provinces Cauldron.
The images of the future that occasionally emerged from the little cauldron left him secretly astonished.
For example, before he was discharged, the little cauldron had shown him what was about to happen.
A few minutes later, Teng Qingshan was stunned to discover that the images had matched reality exactly!
At that moment,
Teng Qingshan was certain that the little cauldron really could foresee part of the future. He no longer doubted the many images it had sent him.
After a long while,
Teng Qingshan had more or less figured out that this body belonged to himself in a parallel universe. His heart was also filled with respect for the grandfather who had worked so hard to raise him.
"This really is Earth—and it's a world called Swallowed Star. Before long, the RR Virus will appear, and humans and monsters will mutate. The Great Nirvana Era will begin, a calamity will descend, and humanity will rise up in resistance. Then the age of Base Cities will arrive, and so will the age of cultivation. After that comes the vast Cosmic Starry Sky, where there are powerful beings capable of destroying stars with their physical strength, as well as great powerhouses who can resurrect the dead from the river of time..."
As he absorbed one image after another from the Nine Provinces Cauldron, the light in Teng Qingshan's eyes grew brighter and brighter!
"According to the information from the little cauldron, it's possible to resurrect the dead by cultivating to a certain level in this world!" Teng Qingshan thought of Little Cat, who had died in his arms, and Zhuge Qing.
Though he had later lived a happy and fulfilling life with Li Jun, and Xiaojun had been wonderful,
she still wasn't Little Cat, who had stayed by his side through countless dark days during his time as an assassin. Nor was she Zhuge Qing, the girl as pure as snow, who seemed untouched by the mortal world.
Those two were regrets Teng Qingshan would carry forever.
Regrets buried for hundreds of years!
But in this world,
there was actually a way to bring them back!
At that moment,
an intense fighting spirit blazed in Teng Qingshan's heart!
"In my previous life, the limits of the world made it impossible to resurrect the people I loved. But in this life, I'll bring everyone I remember back with my own hands!"
Teng Qingshan roared in his heart.
"And in this world, the limits of cultivation are clearly much higher, too. I wonder how far I'll be able to go here?"
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