Chapter 517 - 485: Myriad Worlds, Endless Aeons

Song Ciwan lifted her cup at the Jade Table and took a sip of Yongxing Tea.

The wondrous sensation this sip of Yongxing Tea brought indeed far exceeded her expectations.

The tea was less like tea and more like a river of stars.

It was like a splash from a starry river, the turning of the sun and moon, the vastness of the heavens and earth, the endless flow of a passing stream.

In a trance, for a single moment, Song Ciwan felt her entire Divine Soul become ethereally light. Her physical body remained seated on the floor across from the Grand Elder of the Spirit Star Race, her gaze meeting the white-haired woman’s in the water. Her Divine Soul, too, was still within her body—

But her consciousness had clearly traversed an infinity of time.

No, it was more as if she had ascended above time itself.

In that infinite river of stars, as a single droplet splashed up, she saw a land where all of creation blossomed.

It was a world of ultimate prosperity. She couldn’t tell how vast it was, much less where its edges lay. She only knew that in this flourishing world, there were myriad races, countless civilizations, and dazzling luminaries rising one by one like brilliant stars...

’And... and what else?’

Song Ciwan didn’t get a clear look. In just a fleeting glimpse, she saw what looked like towering mechanical Puppets speeding through a concrete jungle of ornate, interlocking high-rises. She also saw the figures of the Spirit Star Race...

Those exceptionally beautiful figures weren’t dwelling in seclusion amidst groves of flowers, content in some corner of the world. Instead, they were companions to those towering mechanical Puppets.

Suddenly, in one of the images, the chest cavity of a mechanical Puppet split open.

From within the opened chest, a Human leaped out!

Yes, the Human Race!

It was a long-haired youth dressed in strange attire that looked at once classical and fantastical.

The Spirit Star Race accompanied them, clearly allies of the Human Race.

The next moment, the image shifted, and that prosperous world suddenly shattered!

It shattered without warning, as if from beyond the highest heavens, an endless barrage of meteorites was suddenly unleashed.

The meteorites rained down, as violent as a torrential storm.

The mountains trembled and the earth split asunder.

The mechanical Puppets lost power, and the ornate high-rises toppled in an instant.

The vast changes that turned seas to mulberry fields—the very transformation of the land—were all caused by the meteorites.

One after another, hideous and terrifying giant insects burst from the cracked meteorites, thundering toward this prosperous world.

Amidst the splashing river of stars, Song Ciwan saw one particular giant insect whose body was as vast as a great mountain—

It had ten thousand legs and three thousand compound eyes.

With every gouge of its legs, the earth boomed and split apart. With every turn of its compound eyes, a great Dao itself would shatter.

The giant mechanical Puppets fell. The people inside screamed in agony, bleeding from all seven orifices, but it was all to no avail.

They couldn’t even escape the mechanical bodies of the Puppets, much less fight back against those terrifying otherworldly invaders.

Song Ciwan’s consciousness involuntarily turned toward the giant insect. For a single instant, her gaze locked with one of its compound eyes!

A fleeting glimpse, across thousands of worlds and infinite time.

Song Ciwan was sure she hadn’t heard a sound, yet at this moment, a shriek so terrifying it defied description rang in her ears.

She shouldn’t have been able to understand the meaning behind the shriek, yet she felt she understood it perfectly.

The terrifying shriek seemed to reverberate through the endless river of time, across thousands of worlds: "Across all the heavens and myriad realms, for infinite eons, I alone am God! I alone am supreme!"

Across all the heavens and myriad realms, for infinite eons, I alone am God, I alone am supreme—

AHHHH—

It was a grandiose voice, one that resounded through antiquity, yet it was also distinctly a piercing shriek, a harrowing cry, a tyrannical proclamation, a chilling warning!

Song Ciwan almost shrieked along with the voice. But just as her consciousness wavered and her body began to tremble, the seedling of the Heart Demon Seed in her Sea of Consciousness suddenly gave a gentle upward push.

Yes, Song Ciwan’s Heart Demon Seed had sprouted.

Ever since the moment she had used the Void Illusion Demon Sword to kill Zhang Ping, Song Ciwan’s Heart Demon Seed had finally sprouted.

Not only had it sprouted, but the small shoot growing from the seed’s tip had silently produced a slender stalk, from which three new leaves had unfurled.

Fine rootlets had also probed out from beneath the seed, taking root in the void, entwining with Song Ciwan’s Divine Soul in an intimate, co-dependent bond.

At this moment, the Heart Demon Seed’s seedling pushed upward again, and a tiny new sprout emerged from its tip.

Song Ciwan’s consciousness returned in an instant, and the impulse to scream vanished.

Everything she had just seen was like a phantom dream.

The starry river, the past and future, the giant insect’s compound eye—it all seemed like a fleeting illusion, as if it had never existed.

Only the gentle swaying of the Heart Demon Seed’s seedling in Song Ciwan’s Sea of Consciousness, and the frantic pounding of her own heart, proved that none of it had been a hallucination.

’That must have happened in some corner of the river of time and space!’

’But when did it happen?’

’Was it from the same era as the scenes I saw on the Demonized Jian Wood?’

’And what is the exact connection between them?’

Song Ciwan didn’t have the answers yet. She could only rein in her wildly pounding heart and open her eyes.

As her eyes opened, they immediately met a joyous face.

Across from her, in the pool of steaming mist, was the Grand Elder of the Spirit Star Race!

The Grand Elder of the Spirit Star Race was still sitting cross-legged upon the Jade Platform. Her normally cool and pristine face now showed an expression of joy that bordered on excitement. She leaned forward slightly and asked urgently, "Xing Lan, what did you see when you drank the tea?"

Song Ciwan’s mind snapped back to the present. She immediately countered with a question of her own, "Grand Elder, what do you mean? Does your question imply that one is guaranteed to see something when drinking this tea?"

As she spoke, she couldn’t help but lean forward slightly as well.

Neither Song Ciwan nor the Grand Elder paid any mind to their posture. The Grand Elder’s eyes were locked on Song Ciwan as she answered earnestly, "Yes. Any living being, upon first drinking this tea, will inevitably glimpse the starry river.

It is just that most people are mundane. Ordinary people, at most, can see the outline of the starry river and perceive the differences between worlds. Glimpsing the river might increase their spirituality by a point or two and benefit their Cultivation. But Xing Lan, I know you are different!"

She looked at Song Ciwan, her gaze scorching.

Song Ciwan fell silent for a moment under that scorching gaze. ’I’m not sure if I can directly mention the Ancient Divine Insect Race in this Giant Spirit Realm,’ she thought.

’If it’s like before—if the name itself is taboo—then a direct description would likely be a waste of this opportunity to meet with the Grand Elder.’

Thus, she chose her words carefully. "I saw a vast world where the Ten Thousand Races thrived. The Human Race excelled at forging mechanical Puppets. May I ask, Grand Elder, when you first drank this tea, what sort of vision did you see?"

As she said this, she saw the Grand Elder’s breathing suddenly become shallow and quick.

The Grand Elder leaned even further forward, saying rapidly, "I, too, have seen the mechanical Puppets!"

Song Ciwan couldn’t help but tighten her grip on her Jade Cup. She immediately followed up, "Grand Elder, the Spirit Star Race and the Human Race... they were once close friends."