Chapter 901: At Long Last, Void Returning!

Chapter 901: At Long Last, Void Returning!

The grand steward was experiencing godly ascension and the three gods were skipping an entire stage of cultivation.

However, there were five portions of authority over the god domain.

Inside the black hole in the god domain, the Captain laughed madly; the opportunity he had been waiting for was finally here now that this god domain was rising to a higher level.

“What do you think about this destined opportunity, little Ah Qing? Believe me, everything in heaven and earth, in fact, everything in the universe, exists for us to use. Even that son-of-a-bitch broken face!

“Back when Crimson Mother’s moon rose to a higher level, I was so jealous it’s impossible to describe. But I wasn’t fully prepared, and also, things happened so suddenly that I couldn’t possibly have predicted how they would turn out.

“But this time...” The Captain’s heart raced with excitement. “This time, we need to get on board and enjoy the scenery!”

Xu Qing’s eyes glittered.

“And now, little Junior Brother, the time has come for me to tell you one of Revered Ancient’s biggest secrets! It has to do with you, and with me, and with Master!”

When Xu Qing heard the Captain mention their Master, his heart pounded.

“Given your path of cultivation, you surely realize that in the cultivation realm of the gods, you start with godliness, then move to godfire. After you become a Flawless God in the Godfire level, you reach the Altar God level. But do you know what’s after that?

“Well, I’m going to tell you. It’s something equivalent to the personhood of a Summer Immortal. It’s... a True God!”

The Captain’s words slammed into Xu Qing’s mind like lightning bolts.

“After True God is God Lord. After God Lord is God Paragon. And after God Paragon is Living God! [1]

“It’s a very neat and orderly progression. And whether you talk about Crimson Mother or the three gods, all are walking the same path.

“Li Zihua was first in line. Back in the day, he reached the Imperial Sovereign level of the cultivator path. By converting Crimson Mother’s flesh into karma, he leaped tens of thousands of years from the past to the present and reached the peak of the Altar God level in a single step!”

Some of these things Xu Qing knew already. Some conformed to speculations of his. But most of it was new information. At long last he had an understanding of the cultivation system of the gods.

Having finished his explanation, the Captain took control of the emperor’s head and turned it up to look out of the black hole, past the god domain, and at the broken face.

“See the broken face, little Junior Brother? Do you know why Sunfire’s sacrificial chant included the line: He who commands the Ancient is not empty; he is the Living Desolation. Why did hīs essence cause time to scatter? Why did hīs arrival cause Dark Serenity, the last Summer Immortal in Revered Ancient, to turn tail and run?

“It’s because hīs name is Desolation! And hīs level? He’s half a step into Living God! Put precisely, after failing to break into Living God, hē went to sleep until now!

“Now, why aren’t cultivators able to compete with gods...?”

The Captain stopped talking for a moment.

Xu Qing didn’t respond, though he already had an idea of the answer.

“Little Junior Brother, do you know what the first thing the broken face did upon arriving? Hē devoured the number one ancient heavenly dao! That was the most powerful heavenly dao in Revered Ancient, who was originally... the strongest of the Summer Immortals who came from the lower worlds to slaughter the Brilliant Heaven Godfolk in Revered Ancient!

Xu Qing closed his eyes to gather his thoughts. There wasn’t really any need for a lot of consideration. It had been years since he knew that he wanted to walk his own path! His time in the Imperial University with the Xeno-Immortal School had made that absolutely clear. His path... was to use gods as kindling. By burning gods, he could strip out their godly authority and turn it into godsource.

Then, he could burn godsource as kindling to form Xeno-Immortal soul threads. Soul threads could be used to create just about any god body imaginable. In fact, the imagination was the only limit to this dao.

What was more, by gathering godly authority, it was possible to become like a god among gods. Thus, his decision was to use his own ideas to create a path that borrowed elements from both gods and cultivators!

That was what it meant to be a Xeno-Immortal!

In that case, my Void Returning really is going to involve a void... by assimilating gods into nothing![3]

Xu Qing’s eyes widened.

His five trove gates, which had been immobilized, suddenly came back to life, rumbling loudly and erupting like massive volcanoes. A heaven-rending, earth-crushing rumbling filled Xu Qing as volcanic ash started filling his sea of consciousness.

Though that volcanic ash seemed to be the same as the ash that ordinary cultivators would generate when stepping into Void Returning, the reality was that it was different. Xu Qing had god troves and godsource, therefore, his Void Returning was going to be fundamentally different. The volcanic void ash he was generating had a godly aura. But right now... the godly aura he had wasn’t sufficient for the path he wanted to walk.

Xu Qing didn’t hesitate for an instant. A wail of grief echoed out from D-132 as the god’s finger exploded, turning into nutrients that Xu Qing quickly absorbed and sent into the five volcanic trove gates. After it was ignited, more volcanic void ash spewed out, filled with an even stronger godly aura.

Next, he used his god domain authority over the emperor’s corpse to start absorbing terrifying power from the outside. As it entered the corpse, it was split into two parts, one of which went to Xu Qing and the other to the Captain. Xu Qing’s portion went right into the void ash.

It was god world power. And since god worlds corresponded to god altars, it was correct to say that it was... Altar God power! That power turned into void ash, which was a void where it was possible to bury assimilated gods!

RUUUUUUUMMMMBLE!

Intense rumbling filled every inch of Xu Qing, reaching heaven-shaking, earth-toppling proportions as his entire sea of consciousness filled up with void ash. In fact, his sea of consciousness was no longer a sea. It was so full of void ash that it had become... void soil!

It was boundless, never-ending, majestic, and spectacular!

If another Void Returning cultivator could see the void within Xu Qing, they would be astonished, and that was because the extent of Xu Qing’s void soil was many tens of times larger than that of ordinary Void Returning cultivators.

And the quality was astounding. When the void ash became soil, it formed a foundation that Xu Qing’s heavenly palaces and five trove gates could drop down and occupy. The moment they connected to the void soil, Xu Qing’s cultivation base experienced a breakthrough!

He was stepping into Void Returning! Put precisely, his Void Returning featured a completely unique void that conformed to his path. It could even be called Void God!

Terrifying fluctuations rose up from Xu Qing as he reached a higher level, and his battle prowess increased dramatically. That said, his Void Returning wasn’t complete. He had void soil, but still didn’t have dao lineaments.

Because his void soil was so astonishing, his dao lineaments would be different from those of ordinary cultivators. And the reason for it all was the substructural difference. Whether it was Xu Qing or the Captain, the grand steward going through godly ascension, or the three gods skipping tribulation fire and going right to Flawless God... they were all trying to do something incredibly dramatic.

And when things like that happened, it was a given that something would try to stop them. That was when a powerful force of resistance rumbled outside the black hole!

1. Hundreds of chapters ago, Xu Qing’s brother mentioned the term ‘living god.’ Back then, it wasn’t clear what that meant, either in the setting itself, or to me the translator. Chapter 901 didn’t even exist at that time. That’s why I didn’t capitalize it back then. Even still, I’m not going to go back to capitalize it, as I think it would be too much of a hint that it’s a cultivation level, which the author obviously wanted to keep vague until this point. ☜

2. Just to reiterate what I mentioned in the footnote in chapter 807, the words I’m rendering as ‘summer’ and ‘lower’ are pronounced exactly the same in Chinese, but are completely different characters. For more details, see the 807 footnote. ☜

3. This is the point where the author really goes in on the Void Returning terminology situation that I mentioned a while back. Whether it was an oversight or intentional, he switches from the character that means ‘void’ to the one that means ‘ruins.’ In other words, if I followed the same naming pattern, the level would actually be Ruins Returning. That said, at least ruins and void are similar enough that virtually all of the explanations still make sense. The reality is that, though I think Er Gen is amazing, he does make a lot of mistakes (no knock on him, I do the same in my original writing). In many cases I can fix the mistakes without anyone realizing it. For instance, if this chapter had been in existence when I first coined the cultivation levels, I could have planned ahead. In this case, it didn’t work out, and I don’t feel like going back to change the hundreds of previous instances of Void Returning, especially after the name has already become part of the lexicon of the translation. So... Void Returning it is. Just know that in most instances in this chapter as well as in many subsequent chapters, the actual character means ‘ruins.’ And to further complicate things (or perhaps... uncomplicate them?)... he actually does go back to using the ‘void’ character later, so take that for what it’s worth.... ☜