NOVGO.NET Chapter 1260: A Foreign Star Ring
Chapter 1260: A Foreign Star Ring
The sky looked like a dark, hazy curtain as far as the eye could see. There was no sun or moon. It seemed like this location existed in perpetual night. However, there were 360 emerald-colored halos above, almost like a gigantic bracelet, that shone with a soft light.
This was a planet in an unknown universe. It had a sea, land, mountains, and islands. The sea was a phosphorescent ocean, the land was made from stellar rubble, and the mountains were made from some mutant amethyst.[1]
As for the islands, they weren’t in the sea. They were actually islands that floated near the cliffs of the amethyst mountains, suspended in the air by means of light-consuming vines. The vines were semitransparent, and their roots dug into the air itself, making it hard to tell where they got nutrients from. And it also made it seem like the islands were suspended from nothing at all.
A person had just appeared above one of those islands. He wore a tattered daoist robe, his hair was disheveled, and his face was splattered with blood. His aura was weak, and he hardly seemed conscious as he dropped down onto the island. When he landed, a space-time breeze seemed to float out from him, causing the vine-covered island to tremble and wither visibly.
The island couldn’t hold the figure that had just fallen onto it. A hole crumbled open, and the figure fell down through the entire island. Down he fell, ultimately landing in the vast forest at the base of the cliffs.
For some reason, even though he didn’t land with much force, all of the trees for 300 meters in all directions collapsed, turning into a dust of starlight that rose into the air and obscured the area. Visible within that glittering dust wasn’t just that one person. He… was holding another person by the throat.
That second person was unconscious, yet the first person maintained a vice-like grip, despite the fact that he was also unconscious.
It didn’t take long for things to become silent again. The dust slowly settled, turning back into trees so that the forest was whole again.
The vegetation in this forest wasn’t actually true and real. It was made from dust! It consumed starlight that drifted in from the surrounding universe. Apparently, the dust operated according to some ancient magical law; it would extract memories from the starlight and display them as moving images within the forest.
Time passed.
Soon it started to rain. However, the rain wasn’t made of water, nor did it behave like ordinary rain. It came in the form of millions upon millions of phosphorescent flying objects in the thin atmosphere of the planet, which would slowly drop down from sky.
From a distance, it almost looked like the result of a god out in the void, ripping up sutra books and tossing the pages down. The ripped pages would eventually catch fire and emit both a bright light and a sound like a godly voice chanting.
“Glorious illumination… glorious illumination….”
As the chanting drifted out, blurry projections appeared in the light cast by the burning sutra pages. Gradually, those projections grew clearer. All of thēm looked exactly the same. Thēy had bodies made of woven light, and were neither male nor female. What was more, each one had twelve wings of light protruding from thēir backs, which produced iridescent vortexes as thēy flapped.
Thēy formed in the sky and then spread in all directions, chanting. Thēir passage caused the dust on the ground to rise up and become a whimpering wind. The amethyst mountain ranges shook, and a sound like the ancient song of a flute greeted
In the phosphorescent ocean, glowing pillars of light rose up, turning into a staircase that thēy could dance upon. The vines suspending the islands began to exude golden sap, which congealed to form hexagonal crystals that conformed to the magical laws of this universe, which then floated up like sacrificial offerings. Down below, the forest beneath the islands was crumbling and turning into a dust storm that swept up to offer worship to
The only thing left behind after that were the two people who lay there unmoving.
However, it didn’t take long… before the young woman whose throat was being held slowly opened hēr eyes. Shē first looked around in astonishment, and then hēr eyes lit up with joy. Next, shē looked over at the person lying next to hēr, and shē seemed to fill with hesitation and fear.
Shē didn’t act rashly. Instead, shē looked up at the glowing figures above, and opened hēr mouth as if to speak in a godly voice. Shē had been sealed, and could not project divine will. But if shē could speak in a godly voice, shē was convinced that the spirit gods above would hear
Yet just as shē was about to speak… the hand on hēr throat clamped down with much more force than before, making it impossible for hēr to produce even a bit of sound.
Starryeyes trembled and looked over at Xu Qing. His eyes were open now. Shē didn’t dare to do anything, not even move. Xu Qing didn’t move either, nor did his facial expression change in any way.
Eventually, the glowing figures overhead disappeared into the distance, and everything went back to normal. Only at that point did he look over at Starryeyes and start extracting some ringsource from
Starryeyes despaired as the terrifying force wreaked havoc and dragged hēr ringsource out of hēr. Shē had only just formed some more, and now it was gone. When the process was over, shē felt weak and limp.
Afterward, Xu Qing sealed hēr voice again, strengthened all the other seals on hēr, and then trussed her up with chains and put hēr away. Having accomplished that, he carefully sent his divine will out to scan the area. Gradually, his expression turned grim. A moment passed.
“Thank you,” he said softly.
“There’s no need to thank me, Young Lord. Have things become that awkward between us now?” Starfire sounded a bit weak, but was just as flirtatious as ever. Shē knew why Xu Qing was thanking hēr. Upon arriving at this planet, shē had noticed the unusual surroundings, and had taken the initiative to cover Xu Qing with hēr godly aura to protect him. Shē had also noticed Starryeyes acting suspicious, so shē had used hēr godsource to wake up Xu Qing.
“Going forward,” he said softly, “you don’t need to keep bolstering me.”
Sitting up, he closed his eyes to meditate and heal. He had some speculations about his current location, but whether it was to simply confirm those speculations or leave, he needed his cultivation base in good shape.
Thus, the most important thing to do now was heal his cultivation base. Whether it was the price he paid to use the dao weapon or the danger of the chaotic spatial flows he had just endured, he was now in an extremely weak state.
Thankfully… he had a nice ringsource stockpile. His reward from capturing Starryeyes was enough to restore his cultivation base, and that wasn’t to mention that he had the god imprisoned in the Aurora Immortal Palace to harvest from. Plus… he still had Starryeyes as well. Considering that shē didn’t seem capable of completely running out of ringsource, shē was like a precious treasure to him.
In that manner, time passed. Half a month went by.
During that time, Starfire kept Xu Qing hidden in the forest of dust trees. Xu Qing continuously absorbed ringsource and used it to heal. There were additional instances in which ancient scenes played out in the forest, and that same rain occurred.
Xu Qing could sense something god-like in those twelve-winged figures of light. However, thēy seemed very different from other gods that he had seen before. That said, he had no intention of deeper study and analysis until he was completely healed.
Ten more days passed.
As Xu Qing sat there cross-legged, he opened his eyes, and they glittered brightly. His cultivation base… had recovered by seventy percent. The reason he hadn’t fully recovered was because of the lingering effects of the dao weapon. It would simply take time. However, Xu Qing could tell that once he had fully recovered, the tempering his soul had gone through would make it purer than before.
Well, I suppose I should look around and determine where I am!
He looked up, his eyes glittering. Next, Starfire’s godly aura swept out, covering Xu Qung, then the entire planet, and then spreading out into the starry sky. Mutagen levels were high, and godly fluctuations filled the area.
There was no way he was in the Fifth Star Ring. Though he had suspected as much when he woke up, after getting a good sense of his surroundings, he sighed. This was a completely unfamiliar starry sky. Given how happy Starryeyes had seemed earlier, Xu Qing could only come to the conclusion that this was the Fourth Star Ring.
As for the specific planet…. Xu Qing’s divine will was telling him that the planet was located on the very edge of a nebula. The planet was emerald-green, and as it slowly rotated, it was possible to hear something that resembled the sound of a subterranean meridian slowly breathing.
On one part of the planet was a crystalline plain inhabited by scaled oxen with wings. Their scales were very special, as it allowed them to form a resonance with the land around them. And when they flapped their wings, they would send out delicate motes of light. Even more strange was that these oxen were apparently intelligent. They actually had formed a civilization. A kingdom.
They also had a temple in which they offered sacrifices to their god. That god looked like a glowing butterfly. Īt was not a True God, just an Altar God.
As Xu Qing observed, he noticed one of the scaled oxen approach a temple. It was dying, and as it prostrated in front of the temple, it gradually transformed into a similar type of glowing butterfly before entering the temple.
That wasn’t the only place where gods could be found.
In a location far, far away from the scaled oxen was a vast field of fluorescent mushrooms! As they chanted into the wind, their roots linked together to form a massive kingdom. When the fire of rain fell from the sky, their bodies would burn and turn into a blue mist that rose into the air. Within that mist was an ethereal mayfly that consumed sound waves. Inside the transparent belly of that mayfly was the god of their species.
The planet also had a humanoid species. They lived in the southwestern part of the planet, where magnetic storms were frequent. They built their homes in roving crystalline forests. The trees in the forests devoured lightning to survive, and the sparks they shed when they broke open were believed by the humanoid species to be a punishment from the gods. Maybe it really was a punishment. After all, Xu Qing’s divine will made it clear that the lightning contained the aura of a god.
What caught Xu Qing’s attention the most were the 360 emerald-green halos in the dome of heaven. That was where the twelve-winged figures of light came from… and it was also where an extremely ancient temple existed. However, it seemed mostly dark.
There is no True God here…. It should be a good place to hide out.
Xu Qing retracted his divine will and thought for a time. In the end, he decided to wait here until his cultivation base was fully recovered. Only then would he consider leaving.
Blurring into motion, he vanished from the forest of dust. When he reappeared, he was in the distant amethyst mountains. There, he hewed out a mansion grotto and sat down cross-legged inside.
Time passed. The planet rotated. Fire from heaven occasionally fell.
The scaled oxen offered sacrifices thirty times. Their god became increasingly glorious. The chanting of the mushrooms became a requiem to calm the soul as the fire fell, and the mist danced wildly.
The forest of dust continued to take the memories of starlight and weave them together. For some reason, the starlight that it had been absorbing lately contained images of some unknown human civilization.
Within those images was a cultivator with white hair holding his dead wife. His sorrow turned into rage, and he threw his head back and cursed heaven. Eventually, he stepped up into heaven and waged war against the heavenly daos! There was no sound in the image. But the madness of it caused the entire forest of dust to turn as red as blood.
A month passed in which Xu Qing’s cultivation base reached a state of ninety percent recovery. He immersed himself in cultivation. And then one day, when he was just on the verge of complete recovery….
Within the sound of breathing that came from the planet’s subterranean meridians, an unfamiliar voice spoke.
“God Emperor Death Departure has issued an imperial order. A human cultivator has fled into one of the millions upon millions of universes here in the Fourth Star Ring. He has taken Goddess Starryeyes captive. All gods will hunt for him. Anyone who provides clues leading to his capture will be given 100 portions of ringsource. Anyone who captures him will be given the dao weapon of a God Lord!”
As soon as the voice rang out, a terrifying stream of divine will swept out of the starry sky and over the entire planet.
1. The literal characters for ‘amethyst’ are violet+crystal. However, this combination is different from the ‘violet crystal’ inside Xu Qing. To be specific, the characters for the one inside Xu Qing are ‘violet+colored+water+crystal’ while here is simply ‘violet+crystal.’ The combination of water+crystal is the common word for crystal (my understanding being that ancient people thought there was a connection between water and crystals). In any case, I’m just rendering these mountains as amethyst because there is not a connection to the violet crystal in Xu Qing. ☜
2. The author transposes the characters that I normally translate as ‘god,’ seemingly to imply that the glowing creatures are not the same species as ‘the gods,’ yet are somehow godly. He did use the divine pronoun for them. This term has never come up before, nor does it come up again, at least not in the chapters I had access to as of translating this chapter. ☜