White clouds took all sorts of shapes and sizes within the small world. Time trickled away in a hurry as the moon and sun shuttled through the sky.
Whether a god existed or not, the will of the world remained the same, operating according to a fixed law. That was the so-called “will of the heavens”.
From a certain perspective, the will of the world was like a lazy owner. He never paid any attention to the various chores at home. With just a daydream, entire eras came and went.
Only when a thief broke into his home would he make a slight response, almost out of instinct. It was basically no different from the state of space-devouring beasts digesting food.
The existence of a god was equivalent to a head caretaker that handled everything without consulting anyone. They could handle the duties in place of the owner.
Li Qingshan had gone from the identity of a thief and finally made his way up to head caretaker after great difficulty.
When he used the tremendous amounts of world fragments and land to satisfy this lazy owner’s most primitive desire, he had gained the further recognition of the owner as the caretaker, or in other words, the “will of the heavens” was now on his side.
Normally, Li Qingshan would do as he pleased as long as he possessed sufficient authority as the head caretaker. He would never care about what the lazy owner thought. As a matter of fact, it would be best if the owner had no thoughts at all, so he could lead the people with the will of the heavens on his side.
But at that moment, he was forced to awaken the will of the world, but even he did not have much confidence in whether it would succeed or not.
Whether the will of the world could cross such a great distance through the Watermirror’s Image like other objects and whether it could fool the space-devouring beasts were all unknown.
Everything depended on this!
Li Qingshan opened his eyes slowly. The space-devouring beasts swam around them as if they were wondering why the food had suddenly vanished.
“It worked?” Gu Yanying and Rāhu Xiaoming both experienced some disbelief.
Li Qingshan did not answer them. He felt the vast, empty will of the world coexist with him. If that was all, then so be it, but even more wondrously, a navy-blue, spore-like bubble was rapidly growing in size, enveloping them inside and giving them a deep sense of peace as if they had returned to the small world.
However, the nature of the “blue bubble” was so similar to the space-devouring beasts in the surroundings, or perhaps it was a space-devouring beast. As it rapidly grew, it developed a long tail that swayed around gently. It seemed like a tiny tadpole.
The space-devouring beasts completely lost interest and gradually dispersed.
“What’s going on?”
Rāhu Xiaoming was astounded as well. Even with his knowledge as a god, he had never heard of something like this before.
“This…”
Li Qingshan had no answers either. He originally wanted to fool them all using the will of the world so that the space-devouring beasts did not treat them as food. He never thought he would actually create a true space-devouring beast.
Gu Yanying said in speculation, “Don’t tell me this is the small world’s original form? But why would it appear here? Don’t tell me it’s because this is the space-devouring beast’s womb? Can you call this a clone of the small world? Qingshan, what’s going on in the small world? Have there been any changes?”
Li Qingshan shrugged. “Everything’s normal. Maybe it’s just a package deal, where you buy a house and get a pet for free!”
“Alright then. We’ve managed to survive yet again.”
Rāhu Xiaoming let out a sigh of relief. This probably touched on the very fundamental laws of the trichiliocosm and the endless space. There were far too many coincidences involved, so probably only the gods and buddhas in the Nine Heavens could give an answer. Perhaps even they would sigh in amazement if they saw this.
After all, world gods had always been very rare. After becoming a god, they would be trapped in the world forever, unable to roam through outer space anymore. There were not a lot of cultivators that would go to outer space either, and if they possessed that ability, they would not be eaten by space-devouring beasts, much less entering the womb of a space-devouring beast.
The chances of each incident occurring was almost non-existent, so together, it was basically impossible.
As they spoke, the space-devouring beast finally stopped growing, also reaching thirty thousand metres long.
Gu Yanying asked, “Qingshan, can you control this small space-devouring beast? Surely it won’t just eat us after it grows up!”
“You can’t call it absolute control, but I do have some influence over it.”
Li Qingshan sensed it slightly. As the god of a world, he could always act in place of the will of the world.
“That’s good then.”
“Alright, now this is what you call great blessings if you manage to escape death! Yanying, stow away your kunpeng’s feather! Let’s try out our new mount!” Li Qingshan waved his hand dramatically. “Let’s go, Navy Li’l Fatty!”
Rāhu Xiaoming said, “Hold on, Navy Li’l Fatty is…”
The space-devouring beast transformed from the small world swung its tail and swam ahead.
The corner of Rāhu Xiaoming’s eye twitched. “Why?”
Li Qingshan said it like it was common sense, “Well, it needs a name, so you know what I’m talking about. Otherwise, we are in the belly of a small space-devouring beast inside the belly of a big space-devouring beast facing a bunch of small space-devouring beasts.”
Rāhu Xiaoming pursed his lips and nodded. “Okay, I was expecting that, but why did you come up with this damned name?”
“Because it’s navy-blue, it likes to eat a lot, and it’s very fat. Don’t you find this name to be…‘’
Rāhu Xiaoming raised hand. “Alright, forget that I asked.”
As a result, the three of them rode “Li’l Fatty” and advanced through the colossal womb of the space-devouring beast.
Li Qingshan peered around with his eyes wide open, studying the shape of every space-devouring beast like he was on a tour beneath the sea.
Gu Yanying asked, “Qingshan, can your new pet take us out of here?”
Li Qingshan said without looking back, “Why would we want to get out of here? Aren’t we going to butcher this space-devouring beast?”
“We have no other choice, don’t we? Killing such a large space-devouring beast probably isn’t an easy feat. Who knows if there is any danger lurking ahead. Why don’t we just find a way to return to outer space? Space-devouring beasts shouldn’t attack their own kind.”
“Yeah, space-devouring beasts shouldn’t attack their own kind,” Li Qingshan murmured. Then he asked, “What do you think, Xiaoming?”
“Of course, or with the power of a herd of space-devouring beasts, who knows how many worlds they would have devoured already.”
“Then I have nothing to worry about.”
Li Qingshan smiled resplendently, and Navy Li’l Fatty suddenly lunged towards a space-devouring beast covered in tendrils nearby. His head split open to form a great big mouth, biting down viciously on one of the tendrils.
“What are you doing!?”
Gu Yanying and Rāhu Xiaoming were both alarmed. The space-devouring beast was more than ten times the size of Navy Li’l Fatty. It was basically a suicide attack.
Li Qingshan laughed aloud. “Revenge is a must! Watch as I butcher its entire family first!”
Gu Yanying and Rāhu Xiaoming were both tense. They said space-devouring beasts would not attack their own kind, but no one knew what would happen when a space-devouring beast attacked another. If he infuriated the entire group, the consequences would be unthinkable.
Sure enough, the space-devouring beast did not fight back. It merely swam away.
However, Navy Li’l Fatty grew a little larger after devouring the severed tendril. Although it had been driven by Li Qingshan to attack its own kind, it showed no intention to resist at all. It continued to munch away with a great appetite.
Li Qingshan also noticed that he had gained even more graces with the “will of the heavens”. “When it’s worth making a gamble, you need to make a gamble, or there’ll be a day when you won’t be able to gamble even if you want to!”
“That’s reasonable.”
“Alright then, nicely done!”
