With Hua Qingying no longer around, Yun Wuji started losing interest in fighting. The battle had been good; he managed to blow off some steam, test his sword skills, and he truly enjoyed the time he spent playing with the Qilin God.
He pulled some distance from the raging Qilin God and put away his sword. A dense layer of profound light, resembling yellow jade, spread across his body.
In the blink of an eye, a palace of gold rose around Yun Wuji. It was the Qilin Sacred Palace.
Compared to the palace built by the Qilin God in the Qilin God Realm, Yun Wuji's Qilin Sacred Palace was dozens of times larger. It enveloped not only Yun Wuji but the Qilin God as well.
Upon seeing the sacred yellow light, the Qilin God's raised hoof, which had just been about to strike Yun Wuji, froze in place as its entire body went still.
Its aura was still terrifying, but it seemed as though it was no longer a destructive aura that contained just violence alone. Instead, there was a strange emotion of confusion that absolutely should not come from an abyssal beast.
A pair of terrifying eyes looked his way, but those strange eyes, corroded by Abyssal Dust, were actually inexplicably quivering like a dark flame being blown by a chaotic wind.
Yun Wuji walked forward at a steady pace, the yellow Qilin light wrapping his body. As he drew closer, the Qilin God gradually lowered its hoof to the ground, staring at him with those still quivering eyes.
"Your descendant had always been worried about you and felt guilty toward you, and even his final wish was for you to be saved." Yun Wuji stopped in front of it and spoke calmly, though he knew it probably would not understand him. After all, hundreds of thousands of years ago, its body and soul had already been completely eroded by Abyssal Dust. How could it possibly still possess its original consciousness?
The only reason it still reacted to the Qilin Sacred Palace was that Abyssal Dust had eroded its original consciousness and taken over its soul, but it could not erase the words "Qilin God" or its bloodline from its basic instincts.
Its instinct to protect the Qilin light of its own kind and its descendants had surpassed the destructive urges it had gained after becoming an abyssal beast.
The Qilin God's final wish in the Qilin God Realm had been to end his ancestor's life and release him from his suffering.
The Qilin God Ancestor had been a merciful Qilin who never wavered from his beliefs, his dedication to protection, and his kindness throughout his life. Even at the height of his power, he refused to harm the smallest or weakest of innocents. Today, only the Gods knew how many innocent profound practitioners he had killed against his will.
He had fallen so low that mortals like Hua Qingying had been using him as a mere training dummy.
Yun Wuji had promised to help him grant his ancestor the slumber he deserved.
Unlike Yun Che, Yun Wuji did not need its help, so instead of keeping it around, it was better to let it go on its own way.
He reached out and placed his palm on its forehead. A streak of gentle Qilin light shot forth, touching the Qilin God between the brows.
This Qilin light was not offensive, but it contained his soul power. When the light touched the center of its brows, the soul power penetrated its body.
During the entire process, the Qilin God remained motionless; it just raptly stared at the Qilin light shining around it, as if it had fallen into a dream it was unwilling to wake up from.
Yun Wuji located its Abyssal Core, and his soul power penetrated it directly.
When his consciousness entered the core, the density of the Abyssal Dust within was beyond description. Its concentration was so extreme that it surpassed all the Abyssal Dust Yun Wuji had ever encountered.
As the primal power of extinction, Abyssal Dust was also separated into levels like profound power. What existed in the Land of the Living was basically the lowest level of Abyssal Dust. As for the highest level… it was undoubtedly the primal Abyssal Dust of the past that could instantly devour a True God.
Before Yun Wuji updated his Unfettered Profound Veins, subduing Divine Limit Realm Abyssal Beasts had been extremely difficult, but now he could manage it with enough effort.
Unlike other beasts, the Qilin God offered no resistance, letting him easily channel his soul power to take full control of its abyssal core.
In less than half an hour, the Qilin God was entirely under his control, like an obedient slave capable of carrying out anything he desired. After securing this dominance, Yun Wuji did not withdraw his hand; instead, he began absorbing its cultivation.
The reason he had subdued the Qilin God was so that it would allow him to devour it without resistance. Otherwise, it would be irritating if it started thrashing while he was enjoying his meal.
When Yun Wuji began cultivating the Law of Nothingness, he found he could absorb the energy inside the Purple Veined Divine Crystal, aka the Purple Profound Crystal. Later, after a few ancestral lessons with Xiao Lingxi, he discovered he could do the same with the profound cores of beasts.
Recently, after updating his Unfettered Profound Veins, his understanding of the Law of Nothingness had reached a new height. He could now absorb the cultivation of others, and if he wished, he could go around robbing other people's cultivation to further his own.
The Endless Fog occupies 99% of the Abyss, and it teems with abyssal beasts. There are countless times more Divine Extinction Realm and Divine Limit Realm beasts here than the profound cultivators living in the remaining 1% of the land. To Yun Wuji, this place is the greatest resource point in the entire universe, and it is all his for the taking.
Two hours…
Three hours...
Four hours passed before Yun Wuji finally retracted his hand. The moment he did, the Qilin God's body strangely dissolved, like sand scattered by the wind.
Yun Wuji had not only devoured its cultivation, but he had also absorbed all the Abyssal Dust inside its body and abyssal core, intending to transform it into more aura of Nothingness.
Nothingness is the foundation of everything in this universe. Profound energy, the power of extinction, the elements, and the laws themselves all originate from Nothingness. By this logic, if Yun Wuji's comprehension of the Law of Nothingness reaches a high enough level, he could create things out of nothing using the aura of Nothingness.
Perhaps he could even do it without that aura.
He could create new worlds out of nothing, new races and living beings, unparalleled items. And just as he absorbed the cultivation of others, he would be able to bestow it upon them as well.
Devouring the cultivation of a former True God, now one of the strongest existences in the Divine Limit Realm, Yun Wuji felt his own cultivation surge by quite a bit. He immediately sat cross-legged on the spot, waving his hand as thousands upon thousands of Abyssal Crystals appeared around him. He closed his eyes and focused on cultivating.
...
In a secluded spot near the Endless Fog, Hua Qingying sat cross-legged with her eyes closed, the Immortal End Sword resting across her lap. Her exquisite face was slightly pale.
The fight with Yun Wuji had left her with several injuries, most of them caused by the clash of their swords. His sharp sword aura had seeped into her body, wreaking havoc within and leaving her with serious internal injuries.
Time passed quickly. Three days later, Hua Qingying opened her eyes, color returning to her face as most of her injuries healed.
"A heavy sword user… who in the Abyss is he?" Hua Qingying took off into the air, flying back toward the Heaven Breaker Kingdom of God. However, all the while, the image of that handsome man wielding a silver-black heavy sword lingered in her mind.
As the world-renowned Sword Immortal and the publicly acknowledged strongest person below the True God Realm, her knowledge far surpassed that of others. Even if she did not want to, she knew every strong and prominent figure in the Abyss. Yet even after running through her memory countless times, she could find no one resembling Yun Wuji.
Though this did not surprise her, for just his appearance alone guaranteed that she would have remembered him even if she had glanced at him once, she hated to admit it. That man was the most handsome she had ever seen, and she had seen countless handsome men in her long life, many of whom had spent a long time simping for her.
"To be able to push me to this point, I will make sure to pay him back soon..." Curiosity, frustration, and a hint of anger filled Hua Qingying's heart. No matter how open-minded she was, being defeated was unpleasant, especially when the defeat came so unexpectedly.
After traveling for a few days, Hua Qingying returned to the Heaven Breaker Kingdom of God.
"Qingying, you are back," the Heart Painter Divine Regent, Hua Fuchen, said as his sister entered his study without knocking. His head was bent over official memorials, but when he looked up and saw her, his expression froze. "You are injured?!"
Hua Qingying's injuries may have greatly improved, and no one else would have noticed, but how could this escape the perception of a True God, and her brother no less? "What happened?" Hua Fuchen sprang from his seat and asked gravely.
His sister was unbelievably talented and strong. Her gift was so extraordinary that even the High Priest had said that if there was anyone who could reach the True God Realm through cultivation, it would be her. Her battle talent was equally unparalleled. She could defeat all the Divine Sons of her era without difficulty. If it were not for her refusal to be tied to worldly affairs, she would have inherited the rule of the Heaven Breaker Kingdom of God, not her brother.
Because of all this, he found it incredible that his sister was actually injured. Had she recklessly fought multiple Peak Divine Limit Realm beasts in the Endless Fog?
"I fought someone in the Endless Fog," Hua Qingying said calmly. She stretched out a finger, and a wisp of light shot forth, entering Hua Fuchen's forehead.
The scene of Yun Wuji fighting the Qilin God, followed by her own battle with him, played vividly in his mind.
"It's this guy again," Hua Fuchen said in a deep voice after finishing viewing the fight. "I knew he was strong, but I did not expect him to be this strong."
Like all the Kingdoms of God, Hua Fuchen had heard of Yun Wuji, the one who defeated two Knight Commanders. But just like Meng Kongchan, he had not taken him seriously.
The Abyss was under the absolute rule of the Pure Land, and the Kingdoms of God were largely its subsidiaries, helping the Pure Land govern the Abyss. There had never been any major conflict between them, nor had they ever faced a true crisis. The only concern the Kingdoms of God ever had was finding a suitable successor to carry on the divine inheritance.
Because of this, the Divine Regents never paid much attention to Yun Wuji. To them, unless he became a True God, he posed no threat.
"You know him?!" Hua Qingying's cold expression changed to shock and anticipation. She demanded quickly, "Tell me about him. Who is he?!"
...
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