Chapter 1611: In the Fairy Tale
Editor: Atlas Studios
The wind blew in from afar, stirring the mist formed by immortal energy, which spread throughout the Immortal Palace.
Eventually, it settled on the Immortal Welcoming Platform within the palace.
It flowed around the gathered cultivators.
This platform was a ma.s.sive black stone slab, with moss growing across its surface, exuding an ancient aura and a sense of time’s pa.s.sage. Standing upon it felt like stepping into the flow of time itself.
In the center of the platform stood a stone monument, inscribed with information about three paths, though the writing had become blurred from the countless years that had pa.s.sed.
At this moment, dozens of figures stood upon the Immortal Welcoming Stage.
All cultivators who entered the Immortal Palace from the outside world would appear here first.
It was from this point that they would choose their path forward.
When Xu Qing, Li Mengtu, and the Earth Spirit Ancestor appeared, the cultivators here were flying toward the left.
As they approached, it seemed they lost the ability to remain airborne and gradually descended to the ground. One by one, they moved forward cautiously, keeping some distance from one another.
The area they headed toward had thinner mist, yet the s.p.a.ce there appeared different, much darker compared to the Immortal Welcoming Platform.
At the same time, a gentle drizzle was falling, softly soaking everything around.
The ground had become muddy.
But it was evident that many had walked this path before, as a faint trail had formed through the mud.
It was quiet and dark.
Only the light rain continued to fall, gradually devouring all the cultivators who had walked far away in this direction.
Xu Qing didn’t move immediately. Instead, he retracted his gaze and observed the other directions in the surroundings.
Firstly, Xu Qing checked the stone platform and discovered that it really existed.
The fog was the same. When it landed on his body, he could clearly sense it. When it touched his robe, it condensed into tiny water droplets.
Immortal energy was also real.
At this place, Xu Qing could sense that his cultivation base was improving much faster than in the external world.
In addition to this, faint sounds of music drifted toward him.
It seemed to be coming from the direction of the Dao Discussion area deep within the Immortal Palace, which he had observed earlier from the outside.
Xu Qing raised his head.
From his position on the Immortal Welcoming Platform, due to the vastness of the Immortal Palace, his gaze couldn’t reach the far end. All he could see was the thick, pervasive mist that shrouded the void ahead, concealing what lay beyond.
Amidst the blurriness, there seemed to be a bridge.
On the bridge, there appeared to be a figure, walking forward through the dense mist.
“That’s Star Ring. Just a moment ago, when he appeared, I saw that he was heading toward this bridge.”
Li Mengtu spoke in a deep voice.
At that moment, other than them, there was no one else on the Welcoming Immortal Platform they were on. All other entrants had already chosen their paths into the Immortal Palace.
“I wonder what path Brother Xu will choose. If you opt for the small path, we can travel together.”
After Li Mengtu finished speaking, the Earth Spirit Ancestor immediately looked over expectantly.
Xu Qing fell silent and looked at the figure walking further and further away on the foggy bridge. The words of the Earth Spirit about these three paths surfaced in his mind and he slowly spoke after a long time.
“I want to walk across this bridge.”
The Earth Spirit Ancestor was shocked.
Li Mengtu wasn’t too surprised. He only cast a deep glance at Xu Qing. After cupping his fists and bowing, he walked toward the small path on the left.
He sighed softly inwardly.
He wasn’t sighing at Xu Qing but at himself.
As a star, he naturally wanted to go further. However, he knew that… even though he had inherited an Ordinance, he still wasn’t confident that he could survive that bridge.
“Since ancient times, those who could take that path are extremely rare. As for those who survived… all of them comprehended their own Ordinance and didn’t rely on the pa.s.sed down inheritances.”
Li Mengtu gradually walked away.
Earth Spirit Ancestor wanted to say something but hesitated. In the end, he bowed and chose to walk into the small path.
Very soon, the two of them disappeared.
Xu Qing was the only one left on the Immortal Welcoming Platform.
But instead of walking toward the path ahead, Xu Qing turned his head, his eyes flickering with a strange light as he looked toward the right side.
To the right, the mist was so thick that it had reached its peak—his gaze could not penetrate it, revealing nothing inside.
All he could see was the churning fog, and the sound of flowing water coming from within
There, on the right, lay a black river. It was said that anyone who entered faced certain death.
Although the writing on the Immortal Welcoming Platform’s stone monument had faded over time, the information recorded on it had not vanished. Through generations of word-of-mouth, it had become one of the vital clues regarding the Aurora Immortal Palace.
This was how the Earth Spirit Ancestor had come to know of it.
“There, I feel the pull of an Ordinance…”
The instant he appeared on the Immortal Welcoming Platform earlier, Xu Qing had already sensed his s.p.a.ce-Time Ordinance resonating with the direction on the right.
It was like a call.
This resonance, this pull, this calling gathered in Xu Qing’s heart, giving him a deep, instinctual feeling.
In that thick mist, within the black river, lay a Dao that shared the same origin as his own Dao.
“The earliest feeling this Immortal’s Fall Land gave me was that it wasn’t within s.p.a.cetime.”
“And once it opened, that sensation only intensified.”
“This place clearly… contains the same s.p.a.ce-Time Ordinance as mine!”
Xu Qing narrowed his eyes. Normally, encountering this situation in another place would be extremely dangerous because it was hard for two similar powers to coexist.
It often led to the stronger Dao devouring the weaker.
However, with the Aurora Immortal Lord having already perished, the situation was different.
“But his Ordinance was clearly the Ordinance of Aurora. Could it be that the deeper one progresses in the s.p.a.ce-Time Ordinance, it eventually becomes aurora? Or perhaps… this Aurora Immortal Lord changed his Dao?”
Xu Qing pondered for a moment, considering that the s.p.a.ce-Time Ordinance he sensed had no clear source. In his view, it was highly likely that the Aurora Immortal Lord had once changed his Dao.
After a brief contemplation, a decisive look appeared in Xu Qing’s eyes.
If he wanted his s.p.a.ce-Time Ordinance to go further, he needed to understand its essence fully. One way was through comprehension, and another was by tracing the remnants of others who had walked this path before him.
Both were opportunities.
Hence, at the next instant, Xu Qing stepped into the dense fog on his right.
In the blink of an eye, he disappeared.
Only the fog continued to surge.
It became everything in front of Xu Qing.
It concealed the senses of his body, including the perception of his cultivation. In fact, as Xu Qing moved forward, even the sound of the river gradually disappeared.
Everything was pitch-black.
He couldn’t tell if it was fog or if he had already walked into the river.
Everything was pitch-black.
There was also no sense of danger.
However, this darkness had no beginning or end.
Time seemed to have no meaning here. After maintaining his vigilance for an unknown period of time, Xu Qing finally reached the end.
It was still pitch-black.
The reason why it was the end was because there was an invisible barrier in the darkness.
It stopped him from moving forward.
Spells couldn’t penetrate.
Even Dao arts couldn’t break it.
Even the physical body was completely blocked.
At this point, standing before the invisible barrier, Xu Qing tried various methods but to no avail. After a brief moment of silence, he closed his eyes. In the next instant, the eighth extremity within his body, the s.p.a.ce-time state… was activated.
His state of mind ascended.
It was as if Xu Qing had transcended the darkness, stepping out from within the painting to see the world from an external perspective. With this s.p.a.ce-Time Ordinance, he reexamined his surroundings…
Here, it turned out to be just a black dot.
However, this dot was incredibly vast.
Moreover, there was more than one.
Moreover, it was not a single dot.
Countless black dots existed, arranged together to form a line.
An invisible pull enveloped him, making Xu Qing realize that in this s.p.a.ce, movement was seemingly restricted to forward or backward, with no possibility of lateral motion.
In Xu Qing’s perception, he discovered that the line composed of these countless black dots lacked a concept of height.
The dots themselves were similarly formless.
The sides of this line seemed to lack any concept of void or nothingness, as if the supreme rule here only allowed for the existence of this line.
Attempting to look to the sides resulted in distortion, which in turn affected him.
Even though Xu Qing had the Time and s.p.a.ce Ordinance and could see some variations, such as countless s.p.a.ce-time fragments, prolonged observation led to increasing discomfort.
Only by sensing the forward and backward directions did everything feel normal.
This was an extraordinarily strange and fundamentally simple world.
After some time, Xu Qing’s thoughts returned, and he opened his eyes within the black dot.
“The s.p.a.ce-Time Ordinance allows my thoughts to leave this black dot, but my physical body cannot.”
Xu Qing fell silent.
His body could be said to be his greatest weakness when he was in the Ordinance state.
Given this, he had devised a few strategies.
For instance, during brief skirmishes, he could forcibly cover his body, though it would become withered; as long as the battle ended quickly, the impact was manageable.
However, exploring this place would clearly take more time than a short skirmish could handle.
Thus, after careful consideration, Xu Qing decided to place his physical body within the Holy Heaven PaG.o.da and then send it to a safe temporal location.
This method had its drawbacks. Safety was only relative, not absolute.
The time spent away couldn’t be too long.
Otherwise, the withering would still occur.
After completing these preparations, Xu Qing’s s.p.a.ce-Time Ordinance mind was freed from any constraints. He gently swayed toward the end barrier.
He instantly shuttled through.
Reappearing in this strange world, he followed the line, allowing the force of this realm to pull him forward in an endless continuation.
He wanted to see the end of this place.
In this realm, time indeed lost all meaning, or more accurately, time did not exist.
s.p.a.ce itself had become a thing of the past.
Continuing forward was the only path here.
Fortunately, Xu Qing was not alone in this realm; others with similar states of existence were also present.
Along the way, he encountered a figure resembling his state..
It was a peculiar creature, a medicine jar with limbs and a white beard.
It looked strange, almost grotesque.
Standing on the line, it occasionally released some elixirs from the jar, which fell onto the black dots forming the line, darkening their color further.
Upon noticing Xu Qing, the medicine jar smiled gently and spoke softly.
“Welcome to the fairy tale.”
After saying this, it pointed toward the distance and fell silent.
Xu Qing gazed for a moment before continuing forward. He soon encountered another bizarre figure.
It was an octopus, with each of its eight tentacles bearing a different face, all of which were cursing and shouting.
Upon sensing Xu Qing, the faces exhibited strange expressions and gradually began to weep.
Xu Qing remained silent, observing the weeping octopus, unable to understand it. He continued on his way.
Further along, he saw a finger with the head of a lion.
It called out to him.
“Run, run…”
There was also a frog that identified itself as a fish, swimming back and forth. Upon encountering Xu Qing, it trembled and became immobile with fear.
…
On the way, Xu Qing encountered ten grotesque creatures who showed different reactions upon seeing him.
Finally, he saw the eleventh one.
It was an old woman dressed in black, leaning on a cane. It had an enormous face, with a small body and limbs, and a fierce expression. Occasionally, it would grab a black dot and swallow it.
Upon seeing Xu Qing, it grinned widely and said.
“Good death, good death!”
Xu Qing remained silent and eventually moved on.
He didn’t encounter any other bizarre ent.i.ties for a long time after that.
Finally, he saw a mirror.
That was the end of the line.
Countless small black dots were queuing up and disappearing into the mirror.
As Xu Qing gazed at the mirror, he pondered.
“A line composed of countless black dots has turned into this first realm with only forward and backward directions. I think I might have understood something about the state of the Aurora Immortal Lord’s s.p.a.ce-Time Ordinance.”
“As for the eleven grotesque ent.i.ties…”
Coupled with the ident.i.ty of the Aurora Immortal Lord, Xu Qing could only think of the current eleven Immortal Lords in the Fifth Star Ring.
“There’s a high chance that they were formed from Aurora Immortal Lord’s thoughts upon his death!”
“The reason why they are so bizarre…”
Xu Qing didn’t understand but he recalled that Aurora Immortal Lord had been killed by the Venerable Immortal.
“Is it possible that it has something to do with the Venerable Immortal’s Ordinance?”
“Then what is the Venerable Immortal’s Ordinance…”
Xu Qing suddenly recalled the words spoken by the first bizarre thing he encountered, the medicine jar.
“Fairy tale?”