Mountains spread through outer space, varying in size. The large ones spanned tens of thousand kilometres, akin to small worlds, while the small ones were only the size of a fist, far too many to count. There was no end in sight, all just hovering there silently and watching the insignificant Li Qingshan on the peng’s back.
Li Qingshan’s eyebrows were firmly locked together. This had not existed when they travelled through outer space the first time, or the kunpeng must have taken a detour with its colossal size. However, the path he had calculated crossed right through it.
“Are you sure you haven’t made a mistake with your calculations?”
“It’s correct,” said Li Qingshan. The mountains basically seemed like they had appeared from thin air.
“Look closely. Is there a star missing in the surroundings,” Rāhu Xiaoming said.
Li Qingshan shut his eyes before opening them again. “There is one missing! Don’t tell me this is it!”
“It’s just a destroyed world, that’s all,” Rāhu Xiaoming said faintly.
He glanced at his own hand again as his face darkened slightly.
“What destroyed the world?”
A chill ran through Li Qingshan’s heart as he gazed at the mountains warily as if a terrifying monster was lurking behind one of them.
“You don’t have to worry. It’s probably just due to natural decline.” Rāhu Xiaoming held his chin and observed.
“Natural decline?” Li Qingshan murmured.
Among the two worlds that Li Qingshan had visited, they varied in size, but both of them seemed like they would exist forever. He never expected to personally witness the demise of a world.
“Everything goes through creation and destruction. Even a world cannot exist forever, possessing its own birth and decline. Stars fall with each passing moment in outer space. There’s no reason to make a fuss.”
“But this star was originally very far away from here.” Li Qingshan furrowed his brows in confusion.
“It’s exactly because of that that I confirmed it was a natural decline. The death of worlds is not a sudden explosion. Instead, it’s like everything else. It gradually falls apart. Often, it will last for a very long time. Once it is no longer anchored in outer space, power will spurt out in all sorts of directions. No one knows where it might be pushed to.”
“I see.”
Li Qingshan sighed. This could be described as a coincidence, but it really could not be considered as a coincidence in such a long journey through such a vast space.
Gazing at this colossal “corpse”, he discovered that it was not still. Even the largest mountains slowly moved. Who knew where it would stop in the end.
Atmospheric winds echoed between the mountains like the last breath of the world. The magnetic field varied in strength, constantly changing in an unstable manner like its spirit that refused to disperse. These two existences were originally located high in the air and underground respectively, but now, they had mixed together, making everything extremely chaotic.
Countless asteroids shot through the surroundings. As such, the smaller the rock, the more powerful it actually was. Even the attacks of great cultivators could only rival them. After all, this was the might of a world. Even the lingering powers were extraordinary.
“Looks like we have to take a detour.”
Gu Yanyin asked, “But Qingshan, once we deviate from the path, can you still find a correct route back? This detour is going to be tens of million kilometres long.”
The dead world was clearly not a small world. The thick earth had completely collapsed and dispersed, filling several million kilometres of space. Any detour would be a journey of tens of million kilometres.
“That would be difficult to say.”
Li Qingshan shook his head slightly. When he had been constantly locating the stars along the way, that was not because he had nothing better to do. Instead, he had been constantly correcting their path according to the stars. If they took a detour like that, then all of their previous efforts would go to waste. There were no clear markers in outer space, and the stars all seemed roughly the same. It might be possible that they would never find a correct path again and become completely lost in outer space.
“I can try shrinking in size and passing through,” said Gu Yanying.
“What do you think, Xiaoming?” Li Qingshan asked.
“No matter what, we need to leave this region as quickly as we can.” Rāhu Xiaoming was stern.
“Why?”
“It’s best if you don’t find out.” Rāhu Xiaoming smiled in a chilling manner.
“Then let’s cross through.”
Gu Yanying sucked in a deep breath. The kunpeng gradually shrank until its wingspan was only three thousand metres across. It would still be a colossal creature in a world, but it had become even more insignificant in the vast outer space as it flew towards the mountains.
She controlled the powers of the kunpeng, fending off the power of the magnetic fields that was present everywhere while gathering the tremendous atmospheric winds to knock away the incoming asteroids. That was not even the most dangerous part. Instead, it was the spatial fragments of various sizes. They were like broken pieces of glass, almost completely transparent. Even the kunpeng had to avoid them carefully, which drastically affected its speed too.
Rāhu Xiaoming became even sterner, but he said nothing. He stared at the surroundings in a daze.
When they approached a great mountain that stretched tens of thousand kilometres, Li Qingshan shut his eyes and reached out with his hand, but he did not sense the strength of the earth. Was it because it was too small, so it still could not be regarded as the earth?
However, even the largest mountains here were of that scale. It was quite difficult to find mountains that large in the nine provinces too. Clearly, they still possessed parts that originally belonged underground.
However, he could clearly sense the strength of the earth, and it was growing stronger and stronger, almost like a calling. He could not help but become filled with curiosity. Just what was waiting for him up ahead?
“Look over there!”
Gu Yanying broke the silence. Li Qingshan and Rāhu Xiaoming followed her gaze and looked over, only to see a colossal structure built into the side of a large mountain. The style differed drastically from anything in the nine provinces, and it was severely damaged, but they could still see some of its past glory.
“That’s definitely not something mortals can build. It must be a major sect.”
Li Qingshan was rather amazed. Buildings by mortals definitely could not survive, but even cultivators had ended up like this, so let alone mortals?
“Yeah, you can even see the layout for the protective formation. It seems to have been swallowed by magma. Hmm? There’s someone there! Oh, it’s just a stone statue.”
Gu Yanying could vaguely make out a figure standing on the top of the mountain, but only when she flew closer did she realise it was a stone statue. It depicted a female, complete with all the minor details like eyebrows and hair. She was lifelike.
“That’s not a stone statue. She petrified herself in an attempt to survive this. Hmph, how foolish. If she had committed suicide a little earlier, she might still have the opportunity to enter sa?sāra.”
Rāhu Xiaoming showed contempt. Once a world declined to a certain level, its connection with the six realms of sa?sāra would be broken, but regular people obviously did not know about that.
Only now did Li Qingshan and Gu Yanying notice the despair on the woman’s face. Clearly, this was a final struggle in the face of death. Outer space did not just devour spiritual qi. It devoured souls as well, so what was the point of turning herself into a stone statue?
Gu Yanying said, “Perhaps she was waiting for someone too!”
Li Qingshan gazed at the woman’s face without a word.
Gu Yanyin said, “Apologies.”
“It’s fine, but the nine provinces won’t be destroyed so easily. The scale of the world doesn’t seem to be any less than the nine provinces’. Do you think there’ll be any treasures left behind?” Li Qingshan felt the calling from the strength of the earth become stronger.
“With the destruction of a world, all of the spiritual qi disperses. Everything that relies on it will be destroyed as a result.”
That image appeared in Rāhu Xiaoming’s head again—on the blood-red earth, a child wielded a slingshot and hunted down the stars under his mother’s guidance.
