Under the vast starry sky, the navy space-devouring beast was like a giant whale that had leapt out from the surface of the ocean, opening its abyss-like mouth and swallowing the entirety of Dragonshead mountain from bottom to top, which included Li Qingshan and the Heaven Climbing Vine at the mountain peak.
Li Qingshan stood on the Heaven Climbing Vine, allowing it to branch out in the dark space, rapidly venturing deeper into the space-devouring beast’s body.
A while later, he opened both eyes in exhilaration. “Success!”
On a certain star billions of kilometres away, Li Qingshan’s mirror clone who served as the god of the world observed closely as the Heaven Climbing Vine pierced through space and entered the world. Everything was going as he had expected.
His plan was actually very simple. It was to use the Heaven Climbing Vine to connect the World of the Nine Provinces and the small world to pave a path of life.
Originally, he was not certain whether this could succeed or not. The Heaven Climbing Vine could connect the World of the Nine Provinces and the Human realm because it possessed a natural connection with the six realms of sa?sāra and the trichiliocosm. However, between two stars separated by billions of kilometres of outer space, it was impossible for the Heaven Climbing Vine to connect them no matter how powerful it was.
The reason why it could succeed was all thanks to Navy Li’l Fatty. From a certain perspective, it was the small world’s clone. Their connection was even tighter than its connection with the trichiliocosm and the six realms of sa?sāra. After all, under ordinary circumstances, they were relatively isolated concepts.
However, everything that Navy Li’l Fatty devoured would be transported to the small world through a certain special “organ” within its body, so they were actually one entity. It simply was not a regular creature.
However, transportation required going through a process of “digestion”. Even as the god of the world, Li Qingshan could forget about transporting himself through this process, let alone any other lives. Once they entered its mouth, all that awaited them would be death. Even great cultivators would not survive this digestion.
Now, Li Qingshan had sent the Heaven Climbing Vine deep into Navy Li’l Fatty, right to where the “organ” for transportation occurred, so he successfully established a connection. He could finally cast aside all of his worries and make Navy Li’l Fatty devour the World of the Nine Provinces. That was the only way to save all of the living creatures too.
Li Qingshan flew out from Navy Li’l Fatty’s body. He was in high spirits, no longer dejected at all. “Haha, I sure am a genius!”
“Great genius, what are you trying to do? Do you need our help?”
Gu Yanying had been infected by his emotions as well, feeling strangely joyous inside. It made her think of that big monkey from back then in the small world.
Li Qingshan ordered without any hesitation, “Yanying, contact all the cultivators at the third heavenly tribulation. Make them gather in the South sea. Once I devour the nine provinces, I’ll send them to the other world!”
The cultivations of great cultivators and Daemon Kings were too high, well beyond what the small world could contain right now. However, once Navy Li’l Fatty was basically done with devouring the World of the Nine Provinces, the small world would grow larger and evolve yet again. After that, it would definitely be enough to contain them.
Gu Yanying’s expression was quite strange. Why did that sound so dangerous? However, taking into consideration the fact that he was in high spirits, she did not say anything, immediately flying away.
Rāhu Xiaoming smiled. “What about me?”
Li Qingshan said, “Go to the South sea and maintain the situation. These great cultivators, Daemon Kings, and otherfolk kings have plenty of disputes between them. The great cultivators are even divided into the orthodox and the demonic and all those different sects. There are basically no Daemon Kings of the same species, while the otherfolk go even more without saying. They better not have started fighting and mostly killed one another by the time I get there, or that’ll be a waste of all my trouble.”
He said in thought, “Yeah, once we get to the small world, I can try separating all of them. Humans will still be humans and daemons will still be daemons! If otherfolk want to be godfolk, then they can be godfolk.”
Rāhu Xiaoming said, “Alright, I’ll kill whoever starts fighting!”
Li Qingshan said in lamentation, “Now that you mention it, I kind of can’t bear to see that happen! I’m a qilin of paramount benevolence right now. You ever heard of the qilin?” Then he grinned. “But that is a good idea!”
After Rāhu Xiaoming left, Li Qingshan yelled out, “Bigger! Bigger! Bigger!”
Navy Li’l Fatty swelled up like it had been pumped full of air, reaching thirty-thousand metres across, filling the surroundings. The white clouds floated beneath its body, such that he could clearly make out everything within five hundred kilometres around him.
It opened its mouth to the limit as if it was trying to tear its body apart. Then it began devouring everything, whether it was the earth, the magma, the air, the river, or even the entirety of space.
It made Li Qingshan think of a certain game from his past life called Pac-Man. He could not help but laugh aloud. “Eat! Eat! The glutton saves the world!”
In a single gulp, Navy Li’l Fatty ate everything within five hundred kilometres of Dragonshead mountain. Even the magma underground had been completely swallowed. Then it travelled directly down south, arriving at the boundary between the Green province and the Mist province, stealing food from the mouth of the Hungry Ghost realm.
The Hungry Ghost realm was naturally capable of devouring worlds, but it was not as simple and crude as a space-devouring beast. Time passed quickly. In only a little over a month, Navy Li’l Fatty had already swallowed the majority of the nine provinces, which included billions of living creatures.
With a heart of benevolence, Li Qingshan circulated the Qilin’s Conventions of Longevity, pushing the shred of his qilin bloodline to the extreme. His eyes glowed with a green ripple, screening out all of the living creatures in the process, even if it was only the tiniest mayfly in the water. He used the Heaven Climbing Vine to deliver them all to the small world.
The space-devouring beast also followed his will and selectively digested things. On top of that, Li Qingshan discovered that the small world welcomed these creatures very much.
To the small world, as long as it was a part of its interior, then it was a part of it, and living creatures seemed to be an extremely precious resource. Sometimes, when he transported over a group of people, the feedback from the will of the world was even more intense than swallowing a mountain.
If obtaining the good graces of the intangible will of the heavens made a person the chosen child of the heavens, then Li Qingshan right now could be regarded as the chosen father of the heavens to the small world.
The small world originally had sparse spiritual qi and very little land, even unable to contain first heavenly tribulation cultivators. Ever since Li Qingshan became the god of the world, the world had been evolving at a maddening pace. Now, it was about to reach the level of the third heavenly tribulation. It basically grew even faster than a regular person cultivating to be a great cultivator.
He had basically shown the small world the grace of rebirth. The rapidly-strengthening will of the world basically respected him and loved him like its father, all about, “You can act as you please and do whatever you want!” As a result, his control over the small world’s clone, Navy Li’l Fatty, became so great that it was like an extension of his body. The entire process was extremely smooth. The colossal creature that filled the world was even more obedient than a pet dog.
And throughout this process, he encountered many familiar faces.
In a desert towards the east of the Scarlet province, a man, together with an entire city, disappeared into the space-devouring beast.
Li Qingshan found him vaguely familiar. A sickly face appeared in his head, and he blurted out a name, “Huang Binghu!”
He had stopped being sickly a long time ago. His complexion was much better too, except he was peppered with grey hair and covered in wrinkles. He had already become much older, actually having undergone the first heavenly tribulation to become a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Who knew what kind of fortuitous encounter he had experienced.
Li Qingshan could not help but think of many years ago, during the struggle against the ginseng foragers. The hunters of Drawn Reins village had poured down with arrows as Huang Binghu stood high on the rock, landing every single shot.
Back then, his life was hanging by a thread, so he could not worry about anything else, but right now, he could clearly recall the lush, verdant forests around him and the brilliant sun over his head. He recalled the old ox missing a horn, dragging the carriage and creaking along.
“Hah, brother ox even butted a person to death with his horn! That guy must have felt extremely unfortunate back then, to actually die to the horn of an old ox, but little does he know that it’s basically an honour!”
His memories gradually returned to him, even more vivid than when they first occurred…
