Chapter 2005: Launching the Plan In Advance
As she spoke, a mountain shot out from her forehead to pin Qing Ping down.
Shaman God let out its disturbing laugh, but instead of attacking Qing Ping, it was arranging something.
Undying God shook his head and sighed. "The universe is going to lose another peerless talent. How tragic. This is a matter that deserves to be mourned."
Ring ring ring!
A blood-red bell rang out. Qing Ping’s expression remained steely as he spoke to Ancient God. "You cannot defeat me. So what if your cultivation is a realm above my own? As long as your true body doesn’t appear, you can forget about defeating me. No one can do it.”
The crack in the scales grew wider, but the scales did not break.
Ancient God turned back to look at Qing Ping, his eyes dancing with specters. "I must admit, your innate gift is truly one-of-a-kind, and your talent is even comparable to Xia Shang and Ku Jie’s when they were alive. Unfortunately, it all ends now.”
He then raised his right arm and pointed forward with an incredible amount of force. A beam shot through the void and stabbed into Qing Ping\'s body, causing blood to spill into space.
Blood leaked from the side of Qing Ping\'s mouth. The coldness in his eyes changed as his pupils shrank. The piercing cry of an eagle rang out, and an illusory eagle appeared behind the man.
The Seven Skygods were shocked by the sight. "The Mother Tree’s eagle?”
As the eagle cried out, Qing Ping\'s eyes transformed into yellow rings that surrounded black pupils, looking just like the eyes of an eagle. A terrifying aura erupted, and the cracks on the scales mended at a visible speed. At the same time, cracks started to appear on Ancient God\'s body, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. He had been Judged.
Forgotten Ruins God was astonished. It was already an extraordinary accomplishment for an Envoy to cross realms and challenge a Semi-Progenitor, but for an Envoy to go toe-to-toe with Ancient God’s Semi-Progenitor incarnation was simply inconceivable.
Ancient God was the chief of the Seven Skygods, and his strength was limitless. From ancient times to now, the only ones who could call themselves Ancient God’s opponents were Progenitor Chen, the Rune Progenitor, and a few other famous individuals. In ancient times, those few had included the Progenitors from both the Yōu Clan and the Ce family. At this moment, Qing Ping had added his name to that list as well.
However, there was one important detail: Ancient God had not yet revealed his inner world. Thus far, he had only used the Corpse King Transformation battle technique, which meant that he had only revealed a tenth of his full strength.
While Qing Ping confronted Ancient God, the Arbitration World was facing a massacre.
Undying God wept as he went about slaughtering indiscriminately, leaving the Arbitration World in a bloodbath.
"Lord Chief Justice-" A desperate howl broke through the noisy melee. Qing Ping looked towards the voice, only to witness Judicial Commissioner Shadow of Death be shredded to pieces.
Qing Ping\'s expression did not change at all, but his eyes grew much colder.
"Hehe, your Chief Justice can’t even protect himself!" Forgotten Ruins God struck Qing Ping with a palm strike, and her towering mountain put even more pressure on him.
The eagle behind Qing Ping’s back spread its wings. "I know what you want, so let it be destroyed."
As the Chief Justice spoke in a calm tone, he stopped his attack and turned around.
Ancient God’s eyes widened as his pupils transformed yet again, and his body suddenly vanished as he instantly disappeared from the scales and reappeared behind Qing Ping. Spots of some sort of purple-black substance had materialized over Ancient God’s hands. "A mere child dares to act so arrogantly in front of me?"
Qing Ping completely ignored Ancient God\'s attack and instead lifted a hand. "Skyless."
As the Chief Justice’s voice faded, the darkness surrounding him instantly vanished, and space shattered. The entire Arbitration World started to disintegrate.
Somewhere within the depths of the hidden world, the planet-sized black crystal shattered.
Ancient God struck Qing Ping’s forehead, but his attention was no longer on the Chief Justice. Instead, Ancient God was completely focused on the shattered crystal. There was a bubble with a drop of some sort of strange liquid that appeared within the shards of the shattered crystal.
Undying God, Forgotten Ruins God, and Shaman God all turned to stare into the depths of the Arbitration World. The bubble popped, and the drop of reddish liquid was exposed. Instantaneously, all of the Skygods present looked completely horrified. “Not good!”
Everything had happened so quickly that they had been unable to stop this events from unfolding, not even mentioning how Qing Ping had been determined to shatter the black crystal regardless of the cost.
People would normally avoid Ancient God\'s attack, but Qing Ping had not.
“It’s out!" Forgotten Ruins God muttered under her breath.
Ancient God clenched his fists. The scales beneath his feet vanished. He watched as Qing Ping\'s body fell and felt the urge to strike the human once more. Ancient God had underestimated this person.
Suddenly, Qing Ping’s eyes opened back up, and the injury that Ancient God had considered fatal disappeared. At the same time, Ancient God’s body mysteriously vanished as well. This was the Ce Secret Art’s Board Manipulation.
Qing Ping had assumed that Ancient God would continue to press his attack, but Ancient God instead remained frozen in place. All of the Skygods in the Arbitration World did the same. They were simply staring into the depths of the hidden world. In that place, within the shattered ruins of the Arbitration World, a tremble started to spread out. In the outside world, on Mt. Microcosms, a drop of reddish liquid emerged from the entrance of the hidden world.
The next moment, that seemingly ordinary liquid stopped in the air, and then something unimaginable unfolded. The true universe started to twist and boil, and the drop of liquid began absorbing stellar energy at an ever-increasing rate until a powerful vortex was formed. The distortion enveloped the entire Arbitration World before continuing to spread out, visible to the naked eye.
Qing Ping could not believe what he was seeing. This liquid was absorbing stellular energy faster than he was capable of, and even faster than what Arch-Elder Zen could handle. How was this possible? This liquid was absorbing stellular energy as fast as a Progenitor!
The drastic changes occurring within the Arbitration World caused distortions to appear on Mt. Microcosms, and even the wider Neoverse was affected.
Endless amounts of stellular energy surged across the Neoverse towards Mt. Microcosms to be absorbed by the drop of liquid. Despite being a mere drop, it seemed to hold an entire universe.
Countless people looked up, but none of them could understand what was happening.
The Seven Courts’ Xia Ji shot to his feet. "This much… Could there be a new Progenitor breaking through?"
The Cosmic Sect, Aurora Fortress, Gods\' Origin, and the other Neoverse powers all had people turn and stare in the direction of Mt. Microcosms.
The Mavis family’s Ancestor Tortoise also turned to look. No one noticed that there was no longer any dullness to its eyes, and complicated emotions appeared that made the creature look as though it felt slightly uncomfortable.
The Arbitration World completely shattered, and once everyone was exposed on Mt. Microcosms, Shaman God shouted, "Get ready!"
Ancient God gave Qing Ping a severe look. "You’ve destroyed humanity with your own hands. be launched in advance."
His body then disappeared. He reappeared close to Shaman God, who had been preparing a sourcebox array. It was a super long-distance Teleportation Formation, just like the one that Highsage Grandmaster was setting up at the same time.
The scales beneath Qing Ping\'s feet spread out as he attempted to stop the Skygods from leaving. He hoped to buy some time so that Arch-Elder Zen could arrive and eliminate all of the Skygods in one fell swoop.
Shaman God’s doll blocked the scales. "Kid, I\'ll play with you, gagagaga."
Blood dripped from Qing Ping’s mouth as he glared in frustration at Ancient God, Forgotten Ruins God, and Undying God as they disappeared into the Teleportation Formation.
The same moment the Skygods left, Arch-Elder Zen suddenly appeared. His face went pale when he saw the liquid hungrily consuming all of the stellular energy. What was that thing?
Shaman God just shrugged when it saw Arch-Elder Zen appear. "Well, that’s another avatar that’s done for. It’s a pain to create a Semi-Progenitor incarnation, you know. What a pain…”
The doll then self-destructed before Arch-Elder Zen could even move.
Arch-Elder Zen met Qing Ping’s eyes. "What happened?"
Qing Ping’s expression tightened as he stared at the droplet of mysterious liquid that was ravenously devouring all of the stellular energy. "I don\'t actually know. Ancient God just said, ‘The plan will be launched in advance.’"
Arch-Elder Zen instantly grew nervous. Just what sort of plan was this?
He was the guardian of the Fifth Mainland and the master of the Hall of Honor, but all of the Seven Skygods were Progenitors, and truly ancient ones at that. Their plans were not things that ordinary people could even begin to fathom.
The Neohuman Alliance had existed in the Fifth Mainland for countless years, and Arch-Elder Zen and the other Semi-Progenitors were aware there was some underlying reason. The Fifth Mainland had recently managed to avert one catastrophe, but who could have imagined that there would still be another plan in the works?
At this moment, the stellular energy throughout the entire Neoverse roiled and churned. If the stellular energy throughout the entire universe was like a sea, then the drop of liquid above Mt. Microcosms was the center of a vortex that was madly swallowing all of the seawater.
Arch-Elder Zen attacked the droplet in an attempt to stop things, but nothing happened.
At the same time, Undying God appeared at the Neoverse’s Black Street. This was the place where all of the Neoverse’s trash gathered, and it was also the headquarters of Azure Mansion.
Throughout the years, an unimaginable amount of debris had accumulated here.
Undying God raised a hand, and a mass of garbage large enough to bury an entire planet separated from the rest to reveal a black crystal. He then casually waved his hand, shattering the black crystal and revealing a bubble with some kind of liquid within it.
The liquid drifted into space and immediately began to madly devour stellular energy. The Neoverse’s stellular energy was suddenly pulled in two separate directions.
Ming Yan looked over from the distance, and she saw the liquid that was devouring stellular energy at a frightful pace. What was that?
Ancient God suddenly appeared in the Cosmic Sea, also transferred there with the help of Shaman God’s Teleportation Formation. He raised a hand and pressed down, causing another black crystal to rise up from the deep seabed below. Ancient God frowned as he looked at the crystal, but he still waved his hand as well. The black crystal shattered to expose another bubble with the same liquid. "Too soon, but it should still work."
There was a bang as the bubble erupted, and the liquid slowly floated upwards. The void then warped as the liquid started absorbing stellular energy. A maelstrom formed from the surging energy, and the entire Cosmic Sea changed.
At the Tower of the Fifth, Liu Ye and Fei Hua emerged and stared at the center of the vortex in amazement. "What\'s going on?"
Only people who were at least Envoys were able to sense the changes that were occurring within the true universe.
In the Outerverse, Forgotten Ruins God shattered another black crystal that was in the Morrow Weave.
Stellular energy was now being sucked from the true universe in the Neoverse, the Cosmic Sea, and the Outerverse at a frightening speed by the various droplets. It was no different from three Progenitors absorbing stellular energy from the true universe.
Naturally, the commotion taking place in the Fifth Mainland was noticed by Ni Huang and the other Semi-Progenitors from the Perennial World, but none of them had any understanding of what was happening.
Typically, cultivators absorbed star energy as they trained, but after becoming Envoys, they would instead absorb stellular energy. To cultivators, the true universe held the same concept as the sky was to a primitive civilization. On this day, it was as though the sky had collapsed. This was completely different from when the Sixth Mainland had replaced the Fifth Mainland’s sky, as no matter what the Sixth Mainland might have been capable of, they could not do anything to the true universe.
At this moment, Ni Huang and the other Semi-Progenitors were all able to sense that something was horribly wrong. The true universe had become extremely turbulent, and all of the stellular energy was being drawn to something.
Furthermore, the entire process was only just beginning. The Technocracy was far away from the droplets, so only Ni Huang and the other Semi-Progenitors were able to feel the change. None of the Envoys could sense a thing.
However, half an hour later, a similar droplet appeared at the western edge of the Outerverse, and it also began to frantically devour stellular energy.
Right after that, another droplet appeared to the north of Chaos Flowzone within the Innerverse.
Another appeared in the Cosmic Sea.
Another appeared in the Technocracy, not far from Ni Huang and the others. They hurried over to see what was happening.
A droplet appeared in the Astral Wilderness.
Multiple droplets of strange liquid appeared throughout the Fifth Mainland, and their influence spread across the universe as they continued to absorb stellular energy.
Even Envoys were able to sense what was happening now.
“What is this? That thing is absorbing stellar energy at a speed comparable to a Progenitor!" Xia De was shocked.
Ni Huang\'s face grew ugly. He tried to absorb stellular energy, but nothing entered his body. Everything was wrested away by the droplet of strange liquid. He then tried attacking the liquid, but that also proved useless. The attack had no effect whatsoever. "All of you, try to absorb stellular energy."
Wang Si and others immediately did so. "It’s no use! We can’t fight it!"