Li Qingshan continued his journey along the Starry Sky Ancient Road, activating the Five-Colored Altar one by one, traversing one desolate star field after another.
From the sixth altar to the ninth—these ancient teleportation nodes, like scattered lighthouses in a dark ocean, guide the way home.
The journey was not without its challenges.
Some of the Five-Colored Altar are incomplete due to their age or past damage, and cannot be used directly.
Fortunately, Li Qingshan had made preparations before leaving Big Dipper, taking a lot of rare divine materials from the treasure trove of Jade Pool Holy Land, specifically for repairing this kind of ancient formation.
As a powerful and influential force, Jade Pool possesses profound resources, and although such materials are precious, it has a considerable reserve.
With his profound understanding of the principles of formations, he repaired each of the damaged altars he encountered along the way, ensuring the smooth passage of the sea route.
Time slips by silently amidst the shifting stars and the leaps of space; three years have passed in the blink of an eye.
Since leaving Big Dipper, this long journey home has lasted five years.
Five years may not seem like a long time to cultivators who often live for hundreds or thousands of years, but when Li Qingshan reflected on his own path, from his initial arrival on Earth to the Big Dipper, starting in the Dragon Transformation Secret Realm, and climbing all the way to the Saint Realm of the Immortal Platform Fourth Layer, it only took him five years.
In contrast, this journey home is similar to his rise in time scale, which makes people feel sad.
As they get closer to the star system where Earth is located, planets with signs of life begin to appear along the way.
These planets have diverse environments, giving rise to bizarre and varied life forms, but most of them are not human.
During a traversal of a certain star system, an unexpected change occurred.
Hundreds of grotesque creatures suddenly took flight from a dark red star below.
They varied in size, resembling ants in appearance, but were covered in metallic carapaces, and their compound eyes gleamed with a cold, ferocious light.
The leading ones possessed formidable auras, comparable to those of Saint Lord level figures.
Their divine will, imbued with undisguised ferocity and hatred, surged forth like a tidal wave, converging into a single, clear thought, "Humans, the race, die!"
Clearly, this alien race harbors deep hostility towards humanity.
However, they chose the wrong opponent.
Li Qingshan is now Saint, and his combat power is unmatched under the stars.
Faced with this sudden attack, he remained calm, simply raising his right hand and pressing it down in mid-air.
A gigantic hand, formed from the condensation of laws and divine power, appeared out of thin air, Shrouding the Heavens, like the legendary Five Fingers Mountain descending, pressing down with unparalleled might.
Dao patterns flowed between his fingers, sealing off the Void. Those ferocious "ant" creatures that pounced at him, regardless of size or strength, were like real ants under this giant palm, easily crushed and exploded into clouds of blood mist and carapace fragments, without even having time to scream.
Li Qingshan casually captured the remains of an "ant king" with the strongest aura, equivalent to the peak of a Saint Lord, and invaded its fragmented primordial spirit with his divine sense, forcibly reading its memories.
A moment later, a look of understanding flashed in his eyes, and he sneered, "So they're descendants of invaders, whose ancestors participated in the war to conquer Earth. No wonder they hate humanity so much."
Now that the reason is clear, there is no need to show any mercy.
Li Qingshan shouted in a low voice, "Bring the banner!"
The Pangu Banner, which had been suspended above the Bitter Sea, responded and instantly soared into the air, fluttering in the wind.
On the ancient banner, the mysterious runes originating from the Heaven-Opening shone brightly under the light of the sun and moon, exuding a terrifying aura of destroying chaos and resetting the earth, wind, water, and fire.
The flagpole trembled slightly, and boundless chaotic energy surged forth like a tsunami, sweeping across all directions.
The remaining alien races were swept away by this chaotic energy. No matter how hard their shells were or how condensed their souls were, they were like ice and snow meeting boiling water, rapidly melting and annihilating amidst their mournful screams.
Let alone the fact that these are just ordinary descendants of Ancient Saint among the invaders, with varying strengths, even if their ancestors, those true Ancient Saint, were to be resurrected, Li Qingshan could suppress them with a flick of his hand given his current cultivation level.
Although the universe is vast and there are many Ancient Life Star, not every one is as profound as the Big Dipper or the Primordial Ancient Star, which often have Quasi-Emperor lying in wait or even Ancient Supreme proclaiming themselves.
Of the vast majority of stars that give birth to life, it is already rare for the strongest to reach the Saint Realm. Moreover, they often either seal themselves in the Divine Source to delay the passage of their lifespan, or they travel far into the starry sky to pursue greater opportunities and breakthroughs.
Such groups, relying on the legacy of their ancestors, occupy a remote star and eke out a living, are not uncommon in the vast cosmos.
Li Qingshan made a grasping motion with his right hand, gathering the remaining flesh and blood essence and carapace origin of the crushed "ant" creatures into a ball, and casually tossed it into a gourd of medicinal wine that he had brewed from star herbs he had collected along the way to pass the time while traversing the starry sky over the past few years.
These alien bodies contain considerable energy, making them a perfect ingredient for refining medicinal wine.
Next, he captured several relatively intact primordial spirits, circulated his profound power, and instantly refined them, extracting clearer and more complete memory information.
From these fragmented memories, Li Qingshan confirmed his judgment.
These ant-like creatures call themselves the " Flying Immortal Remnant Clan," but their ancestral home is not here; it is an ancient star called " Flying Immortal Star."
In the distant past, when the exact era is difficult to pinpoint, a group of powerful sages emerged from the Flying Immortal Star.
They led the elite sons of their respective tribes to form an allied army, intending to cross the boundless starry sky and attack Hangu Pass, the gateway to Earth.
However, that expedition ended in a crushing defeat.
The Qi cultivators and sages of the pre-Qin period on Earth rose up in rebellion, not only annihilating all the invading enemies at the pass, but also turning defense into offense, pursuing and killing them all the way, and turning the flames of war back to Flying Immortal Star.
This war and reckoning that spanned across star systems lasted for an extremely long time, and it is said that it has not yet been completely quelled. There are still powerful figures from Earth "blocking the gate" outside the Flying Immortal Star to settle the Cause and Effect.
Speaking of this "blocking the door" style, one can't help but think of another legendary figure with a deep connection to this place and an even more "thorough" style.
Thinking of the legendary Desolate Heaven Emperor, whose former Nine Heavens and Ten Earths transformed into the Primordial Ancient Star we know today, the origin of which lies in Earth.
In this light, the spirit of "pursuing the enemy with the remaining strength" is a consistent characteristic, which has been confirmed once again.
After the Flying Immortal saints who embarked on their expedition to Earth perished in the starry sky, some of their descendants were trapped in this vast expanse outside Hangu Pass.
Unable to return to their ancestral planet or invade Earth, the Star Road region could only eke out a living in this desolate star field, gradually transforming into its current state, and passing down their deep-seated hatred for humanity from generation to generation.
Li Qingshan further sorted through his memories and discovered that these " Flying Immortal Remnant Clan " had an even more illustrious identity in an older lineage: they belonged to a collateral branch of the " Kunlun Remnant Clan ".
The Beginningless Bell emitted a mental fluctuation at the opportune moment, adding, "Before the Great Emperor attained enlightenment, he traversed the ancient Starry Sky Ancient Road and encountered some adversaries. I remember that among them were two Quasi-Emperor from the Kunlun Remnant Clan, whose cultivation had reached the ninth level and who possessed so-called ' Immortal Blood,' making their physiques extraordinary, almost as strong as those of Sacred Body of the same level. They were ultimately defeated by the Great Emperor."
Li Qingshan, of course, wouldn't let the question fall flat, and promptly asked, " The Kunlun Remnant Clan?"
" The Kunlun Remnant Clan," the thought of the Beginningless Bell slowly recounted, carrying the weight of history, "As the name suggests, their ancestors once lived on the Kunlun Immortal Mountain for generations. It was not a single race, but a vast group composed of multiple near- Immortal Seed."
Because they lived near a sacred mountain and possessed Immortal Bell, they considered themselves to be of near-immortal lineage, extremely arrogant, and disdained to associate with the mortal world, constantly looking down upon humanity. This arrogance eventually angered the Lord of the Heavenly Court of the Mythological Era, the Emperor Zun.
" The Emperor Zun desired to seize their Immortal Bell and coveted the supreme immortal land of Mount Kunlun. A great war broke out, the Kunlun Remnant Clan were defeated, and the Emperor Zun banished them from the immortal mountain to the Cosmic Frontier. From then on, they called themselves the Kunlun Remnant Clan,' harboring deep hatred for the Emperor Zun and everything related to Earth."
"As for the Emperor Zun, he used his great supernatural powers to move the entire Kunlun Immortal Mountain away and eventually placed it on his homeland, which is the Earth you mentioned."
Upon hearing this, Li Qingshan nodded slightly. He already knew these ancient secrets from the mythical era, and now that they were spoken by the Beginningless Bell, they provided even more evidence and detail.
What stirred something within him was that the Great Emperor Wushi had even explored and understood such deeply buried past events.
Indeed, every being who can prove themselves to become an emperor is not to be underestimated; their methods and vision far exceed what ordinary people can imagine.
Great Emperor Wushi, who has thoroughly studied the supreme Dao of time, is probably even more capable of tracing back the long river of time and glimpsing many truths that have long been buried in the dust of ancient history.
A year passed like flowing water. Three days after passing the thirteenth Five-Colored Altar, the Beginningless Bell of the Beginning suddenly spoke again, "Ahead, a star system has been detected. Only one relatively empty galaxy belt remains to be traversed to reach the target star field."
Upon hearing this, Li Qingshan's heart skipped a beat.
He knew that the Milky Way Milky Way, where the Sun System is located, is situated within a giant cosmic structure known as the " KBC Void ".
This void has an astonishing diameter, approximately two billion light-years, and the density of galaxies inside is far below the average level in the universe.
Beginningless Bell said meant that the teleportation path of the Five-Colored Altar was extremely precise, directly sending them into the interior of this giant void, and it was not far from the Sun System!
My hometown is now in sight, and this six-year journey across the stars is about to reach its end.
Li Qingshan's eyes suddenly shone with a dazzling divine light. He activated his Heavenly Eye, and his gaze seemed to pierce through the endless Void, heading towards the center of the galaxy.
Against that backdrop of a dazzling sea of stars, he "saw" a familiar star, the Sun, and eight planets orbiting it.
One of the planets, a deep blue with a hazy, life-giving halo, stands out as unique and precious in the cold, dark universe.
Earth!
"Based on the positions and distances of the stars, it's about three light-years," Li Qingshan murmured to himself, his heart pounding slightly. "We've reached the edge of the Sun System."
Over the past six years, apart from relying on the Five-Colored Altar for ultra-long-distance jumps, Li Qingshan has mainly relied on the "Travel" Secret Speed to travel through interstellar space, supplemented by his understanding of the Space Great Dao from comprehending the " Space Scripture " in the Yang God World. This has allowed him to reach a state of perfection in his control over speed and space.
While ordinary Saint can barely reach the speed of light in the desolate universe and replenish their energy by drawing upon the primordial power of the universe, Li Qingshan's speed has long surpassed this standard.
His understanding and application of the laws of space have reached a state of perfection. He often uses the technique of spatial folding to travel through the universe. Combined with his supreme movement technique, when he unleashes his full power, his speed can reach twenty-five times the speed of light!
Even when traveling normally and maintaining a regular cruising speed, the speed can remain stable at an astonishing level of seventeen times the speed of light.
In addition, his divine power is as vast as the sea, and his cultivation techniques are extremely profound. Even in the seemingly energy-sparse Void of the universe, he can forcibly extract the power of the Void, the chaotic energy, and even the various radiant divine energies emitted by stars and convert them into his own power. He hardly needs to worry about his divine power running out.
Li Qingshan made a rough estimate that if he traveled to Earth at near full speed, it would only take about two months to truly set foot on his hometown soil and return to the river Jiangcheng of his memories.
Upon thinking of this, even with his unwavering resolve, a complex mix of trepidation and heartfelt joy welled up within him.
My return is imminent, and my heart is filled with joy.