Chapter 406 - 385: The Secrets of the World, Heaven Beyond Heaven

The Profound Origin Land, the Nine Provinces World, this infinitely vast Mythical Realm—

As Song Ciwan’s divine spirit ascended, flying into the boundless starry sky and entering a mysterious, ethereal space, she discovered, at that very moment, that even a world as miraculous as the Nine Provinces World was situated on a planet.

And this planet, whether in the distribution of its oceans or its continents—no matter how she looked at it—was distinctly, incredibly similar to the Blue Star of her past life!

If there was any difference, it was that the Profound Origin Land was countless times larger than the former Blue Star.

But no matter how much larger it was, the similarities remained.

This resemblance made Song Ciwan suspect several times that she was seeing things.

Having reached her current realm of Cultivation, very few things could still shock her, yet the shock she felt now was endless.

Song Ciwan was clearly undergoing Divine Emergence, yet she felt as if another part of her soul was dazed and detaching from her body as well.

She wanted to see more clearly, to carefully distinguish the seven continents and four oceans. But her divine spirit was ascending too quickly. Apart from that first fleeting glimpse, by the time she collected her wits to look closer, her spirit had suddenly seemed to burst through the sky and into an indescribable world!

’What kind of world is this?’

This world was distorted and bizarre. It had no distinct light, yet it seemed to be filled with countless rays of it.

In this world, it was difficult to distinguish up from down or left from right. All around were endless, Abyss-like vortices.

These vortices were not dead, but alive.

The vortices moved, spun, and careened wildly through the infinite, grotesque light. From their depths, all sorts of strange, twisted shrieks constantly erupted and collided.

Every so often, these soundwaves would crash into each other, instantly creating a world-shattering explosion.

Song Ciwan’s divine spirit, having broken into this place, was as small and weak as a lamb stumbling into a pack of wolves.

She was so small, so weak, huddled pitifully in a corner, stunned.

Her fragile divine spirit couldn’t move. She could only watch as the vortices collided and exploded one after another.

Within the soundwaves of the explosions, countless strange beings were clearly wailing and roaring. The sounds were bizarre—they resembled human voices, but not quite; they resembled human speech, yet not quite.

They were screaming, "Die, die... All of you, die!"

They were crying out in pain, "Ah, no! Let go! Let me go! I won’t dare to again!"

They were also cursing, "We curse you, you Human Race... For all generations, you shall be trapped on this star, unable to leave, unable to achieve Ascension, unable to find your roots, unable to trace back to antiquity, unable to remember what should be remembered, unable to see who should be seen! You will find no release, only eternal resentment, and you will become our sustenance!"

The soundwaves rose like a tide, one cry after another: "Become our sustenance! Become our sustenance!"

"Die! You all deserve to die! Ah... It hurts so much!"

"Hungry, so hungry... Come, all of you! Ascend! I’m so hungry..."

"I want to eat! I want to eat..."

"Hahaha!"

"Heh heh heh..."

"CRUNCH CRUNCH..."

Amidst the chaotic voices, there also seemed to be the sound of chewing.

The tiny Song Ciwan drifted in this infinitely chaotic and terrifying world. It seemed no one could see her.

But then, in a daze, she saw it: upon a vast land, a sky-piercing Divine Tree, striving upward in a boundless, pitch-black world, extending its boughs.

Suddenly, at a certain moment, the Divine Tree’s boughs pierced the membrane of the dark world and reached the Heaven Beyond Heaven.

But in the Heaven Beyond Heaven, there was no pristine Star Sea, no infinitely vast world. Instead, there was a terrifying blockade, endless resentment, and hideous insect limbs extending, waiting for prey!

The scene shifted. The Divine Tree had collapsed.

An epic battle erupted in the Heaven Beyond Heaven.

This was different from the one-sided retreat of the Human Race that Song Ciwan had previously imagined.

In the images that now appeared, every member of the Human Race who had ascended to the heavens had a towering figure and a formidable presence.

Some of these people had empty Dantians, leaving only skeletal bodies. But these skeletal frames were mounted with powerful and terrifying mechanical cannons.

Missile-like turrets on their shoulders, automatically rotating cannons on their arms, gleaming mechanical legs supported by endless steel, and beneath them, at the soles of their feet, propulsion devices spewing fire...

All of it was filled with a fantastical mechanical feel, a bizarre sense of technology.

When giant insects—moving their massive bodies, extending their limbs, and opening their hideous maws to bite—spun rapidly toward these flesh-and-metal hybrids, the hybrids bared their bone-white teeth and roared with abandon, "Die, you vile beasts!"

BANG!

BANG! BANG! BANG!

An overwhelming barrage from the giant cannons opened fire.

The brilliant light from the blasts nearly engulfed the entire distorted world.

Spiky insects were blown apart, their limbs flying everywhere as they screeched bizarrely.

The Ancient Divine Insect Race was in retreat!

Song Ciwan’s blood boiled with excitement as she watched.

...

Of course, it wasn’t just these flesh-and-metal hybrids shining brightly and mowing down insects in the distorted space.

There were other figures, too—dressed in magnificent brocades with colorful silks fluttering, some wearing ornate crowns, others holding treasured artifacts. They all clearly possessed god-like visages.

These figures, who seemed to have stepped out of myths and legends, brandished various powers: one scattered water from a Purification Bottle, another sent a lotus pod flying, another swept down a sheet of colored light. Some hurled flying daggers, others swept with staves, some let their fists do the talking, and others could Call Wind and Rain, spewing fire and swallowing gales...

In short, all sorts of methods were deployed.

Every one of them was utterly spectacular.

The insects were beaten into a steady retreat. Song Ciwan was so captivated she didn’t know where to look.

Suddenly, a figure holding a lotus flower stood still in the void for a moment. That figure abruptly turned its head, and a pair of wondrous eyes gazed forth.

Across the vast, endless river of time, it seemed as if they made eye contact with Song Ciwan!

Those eyes seemed to speak. The woman clearly hadn’t made a sound, yet her eyes seemed to say, "Don’t give up. Find... the way home!"

Across distant spacetime, amidst endless light, a soundless voice...

This time, Song Ciwan was certain she hadn’t misheard. Her heart pounded in her chest, and her divine spirit flew forward involuntarily, as if trying to reach out and touch those speaking eyes.

’She had to ask her—what was the way home?’

Just then, a gigantic insect limb suddenly shot out.

The illusory and the real intersected. The distant past collided with the concrete present.

BOOM!

Song Ciwan’s divine spirit was blocked by the limb. In that instant, it was violently jolted and began to fall from the sky.

In the Nine Provinces, in Guangling City, inside her Cultivation Room, Song Ciwan’s body suddenly trembled as she jolted awake.

She opened her eyes, only to find herself drenched in sweat.

Everything that had just happened was like a dream, yet not a dream; real, yet not real.