Chapter 1 Qiqiu Star, Lianyi Sea

Qiuqiu Star, Lianyi Sea.

At the center of the vast body of water that occupies forty percent of the planet's surface, above a fault in the ancient bedrock thousands of meters deep, lies a rolling underwater volcanic mountain range.

The vibrations deep within the planet shake the land and sea, shifting tectonic plates, but these are events measured in tens of millions of years. An immeasurably long time for humans, but only a fleeting moment for a celestial body.

But for some reason, the usually vibrant underwater volcanic mountain range is deathly still, showing no signs of activity.

And just below the largest of these underwater volcanoes, in a vast underground cavity.

Layers upon layers of countless ice-blue crystal pillars serve as beams, supporting the entire cavity. Bright, dazzling radiant light crisscrosses, illuminating every corner of the cavity, forming a dense and intricate web of light that penetrates all the crystal pillars in the seawater.

Each crystal pillar is engraved with fine and smooth rune patterns, which flicker and are connected by the light network. Nearly endless information is transmitted in the flashing of runes and light currents, forming an extremely complex and magnificent three-dimensional rune matrix that is almost art.

And within this Heavenly Devil Grand Matrix located at the bottom of the ocean, an urgent communication from the Southwest Heavenly Devil Nest is being transmitted rapidly.

[Alert: A high-risk individual has appeared. Based on the element 'Heavenly Flying Shuttle,' the probability is extremely high that it is the 'Return of the Central Divine Court.']

[The Southwest Branch is applying to temporarily suspend the current mission 'Soul Integration.' Suggest taking 'Crisis Response Measures.']

[--Application Approved--]

[Activate the Primordial Corrosion Entity]

Amidst the extremely urgent warning sounds, it can be seen that the light of the huge crystal pillars dims one by one, and then their color turns into a deep red full of oppression. All the ice-blue spiritual power escapes from the crystal pillars like flowing water, and then transforms into rivers of energy, merging into a huge hole at the bottom of the cavity.

As if leading to Guixu (the mythical primordial void).

The hole is winding and long. After the vast ice-blue energy travels along the tunnel for an unknown amount of time, it finally reaches its destination - another 'cavity' located deeper underground, even reaching the mantle region.

And this cavity is so vast and expansive that it seems to have been created by hollowing out an entire mantle lava area. After arriving here, the energy released by the Heavenly Devil crystal pillars releases its bright light in all directions, spreading towards the depths of the darkness, but no matter how it shines, the end of the cavity cannot be seen.

And the ice-blue spiritual power continues to spread, like a waterfall falling from the topmost hole, finally pouring to the bottom, and then illuminating the bottom of the cavity, those deep and incomparable纹路 (wén lù, lines), as if carved by ancient giants.

These lines seem to come from the ancient era hundreds of thousands of years ago. They are simple, profound, and so huge that they are beyond human comprehension. The depressions in each line are enough to fill a mountain or a city.

It is located at the bottom of the continental plate, as if leading to the deepest part of the planet.

It can be vaguely seen that this seems to be a huge and unimaginable, extremely profound and mysterious sealing formation - this seal is located in the center of the crack between two continental plates, like a seal, forcibly merging the plates that should have been constantly expanding towards both sides, sealing a certain existence suppressed at the bottom.

And on this super-giant sealing formation built on the basis of planetary plates, there is a stone coffin that is so small that it can be ignored.

The spiritual power of the Heavenly Devil crystal pillars descends, accurately entering the stone coffin, and as if receiving some spiritual power information and permission contained in this spiritual light, the dust on the surface of the stone coffin falls off, and streams of rune light flow over it.

Silently, the stone slab slides to the side.

It is open.

Inside the stone coffin, a handsome black-haired Qingqiu (a mythical nine-tailed fox race) person is lying on his side. He is wearing a black robe, his long hair reaching his waist, his skin is as white as snow, and his temperament is almost like a celestial being. Nine black fox tails flutter due to the water flowing in when the stone coffin opened, concealing the body of this Qingqiu person.

It can be seen that on this Qingqiu person's robe, there is a light golden nine-tailed fox totem emblem.

Since the era of the Five Emperors, blue, yellow, red, white, and black have been the true colors of heaven and earth. Those who can transform using the five colors are all members of a certain royal family, or descendants of celestials and gods.

And this Qingqiu person with black nine tails seems to have already died - there is a huge wound on his chest that penetrates his chest and abdomen, his heart is completely destroyed, and the center of his forehead is also pierced by an ice-blue long nail.

But now, as the spiritual power of the Heavenly Devil crystal pillars gathers, the void in the black-haired Qingqiu person's heart is rapidly filled with majestic spiritual light.

"...Ugh."

Expelling a series of bubbles in the seawater, the massive spiritual power is poured in, and the black-haired nine-tail gradually opens his eyes, but there are no pupils in his eyes, only a piece of dazzling blue light remains.

As the light flickers, there is no emotion, only some memories remaining from a long time ago.

The past of a great civilization and its small vassals.

That was a long war spanning hundreds of spacetime realms and nearly a thousand worlds, lasting for hundreds of thousands of years. That war affected every blessed land and secret realm, every world and realm, that thought it could stay out of it.

It was so chaotic that god systems needed to fight their ancient enemies, former allies, and even internal turmoil and rebels in different directions, and their enemies were the same.

This chaotic war lasted for a long time, and the races and god systems that finally survived controlled almost all spacetime realms.

And one of them was a powerful god system called the 'Central Divine Court'.

This was an extremely large civilization community with countless celestials and gods belonging to it. Fearing the war that spanned multiple spacetime and worlds, the factions of the celestials and gods gradually stopped their internal disputes and began a long period of prosperity.

Many celestials and gods developed their own worlds and secret realms, enjoying eternal life and the power to distort reality. Several Dao Venerables and Heavenly Venerables suppressed everything, and no one in the civilization dared to disobey. Even if there were occasional disputes, they were quickly suppressed.

And in the gap of this long period of peace lasting hundreds of thousands of years, many small kingdoms belonging to them were born.

Qingqiu was one of them.

It was born in an era long after the end of the war. At that time, the celestials and gods of the Central Divine Court were too lazy to rule those distant worlds and were happy to see those uninhabited planets and worlds being developed, as long as the residents above still sang their names and glory, then they could get their legal and powerful protection.

How fortunate were the Qingqiu people who belonged to the Central Divine Court! Their suzerain was a super civilization that had subdued ancient beast clusters, defeated many competitors, and conquered dozens of spacetime, countless secret realms and worlds. They continued to improve in internal reforms and reached the highest peak of culture and material. Their very existence was feared by thousands of civilizations in the entire galaxy outside of distant spacetime.

Their power could tear apart countless worlds. Any mythical feat was itself a description of what they had done in the past. Even the most exaggerated imagination could not exceed their historical records.

And they were so generous and benevolent, so fond of the Qingqiu people.

The Qingqiu people discovered that as long as they spoke to the celestials and gods, as long as they prayed to the celestials and gods, then no matter what exaggerated requirements, what incredible wishes, even without any reason, just willful requests, would all be granted.

The entire race did not need to kneel before the celestials and gods. What other people could have this level of privilege?

--We are a race favored by the First Emperor, and Emperor Yu once married a woman of our race!

Therefore, the Qingqiu people cheered and shouted. They regarded this allowed asking and demanding as the highest glory and gift of the celestials and gods to them. The First Emperor's act of sealing the remnants of the Soldier Lord's body on Qingqiu Star set off a huge frenzy here. This was undoubtedly the highest glory, making all Qingqiu people more worshipful of the celestials and gods.

However, compared to the Qingqiu people's fanatical worship and offerings, the celestial and god side had always been extremely calm. In addition to always agreeing to the requests from the Qingqiu Kingdom and occasionally accepting a few nine-tailed Qingqiu people to go to the Central Divine Court, there was not much response to the Qingqiu Kingdom itself.

No matter how fanatical, it will gradually extinguish. No matter how huge the desire and demand, it will be extinguished under endless satisfaction. As the entire Qingqiu Kingdom was transformed into a fairy-like beautiful world under the gifts of the celestials and gods, all the Qingqiu people gradually began to be confused, even the Qingqiu King of that generation began to find it incredible.

"Why... why are all our requests being granted?"

"Our offerings are clearly not many, and Qingqiu Star has no special products. The First Emperor has been retired for a long time, and Emperor Yu has long since ignored worldly affairs. The current Heavenly Emperor has nothing to do with us. Why do the celestials and gods still love us so much? We offer one point, and the honored ones give back thousands of points?!"

This endless request and response even broke through the natural desires in the hearts of living beings, causing the Qingqiu people to feel fear, especially the last generation of Qingqiu King, he even went crazy to apply to the celestials and gods, requesting to transform a dead world next to the Qingqiu Kingdom and use it as a new home for the Qingqiu people.

There must be oceans, there must be forests, there must be an atmosphere, everything must be the same as Qingqiu Star, warm and comfortable, a perfect world.

--This huge and meaningless request will definitely be rejected, right? Even the celestials and gods, even the celestials and gods, should not agree to this absurd request...

"Is that all?"

On that day, the messenger of the celestials and gods, a Thunder Department Celestial, calmly listened to the Qingqiu King's request, while the Qingqiu King was uneasy, waiting for the other party's rebuke and rejection, expecting to be scolded by the other party, or even be executed as an object of 'great disrespect'.

--Compared to the gifts of the celestials and gods for thousands of years, my life is nothing...

Thinking like this, the uneasy Qingqiu King heard the Thunder Department Celestial's faint reply.

"No problem. Construction will begin tomorrow."

After saying that, this Thunder Department Celestial was about to turn into thunder and leave.

However, the Qingqiu King who heard the calm reply of 'no problem' did not feel the honor of being loved.

He only felt fear.

Therefore, he hurriedly got up, stopped this celestial, and then knelt on the ground, piously and fearfully asking.

"Honored one, why do you favor our race so much?"

"Is it because of our reverence and piety? Or is it our offerings and art?"

The celestial who was stopped showed a rare confused expression after hearing the Qingqiu King's words. This Thunder Department True God glanced at the Qingqiu King, and then looked at the many fearful Qingqiu people who were also kneeling on the ground, and could not help but smile helplessly and dotingly.

"Ah, why bother? In fact, everything in your Qingqiu Kingdom is useless to us. What you have and what you ask for is not worth mentioning to us. We don't care - and, the fact that there are worlds paying tribute to us can itself be used to show off to other god systems."

"What's more, transforming a dark star is a simple matter. The Divine Court doesn't even need to allocate resources. As long as a notice is issued, there will be celestials and gods who like you willing to take action."

"Like... us?" The Qingqiu King kneeling on the ground was stunned. He lowered his head, looked at the floor, and whispered, "Just like that? Just like..."

"Yes, you are so good looking. Don't kneel, you can't see your face."

In response, this Thunder Department Celestial reached out his hand, and the massive spiritual power instantly made all the Qingqiu people no longer kneel on the ground, but stand upright - He looked around at the faces of the dazed Qingqiu people in front of him, smiled with satisfaction, and then his gaze condensed on the face of the black-haired Qingqiu King. This god only said: "The temperament of the nine-tailed Qingqiu people is special. Especially cute."

"You know, now in the Central Divine Court, all factions hope to have a nine-tailed fox on their side, it's very auspicious."

Such a tone, like wanting to raise a cute cat at home, and bring it to the office to show off one's cat to a group of colleagues.

Yes, what's so strange?

Willing to buy the best cat food for it, buy the most expensive cat climbing frame for it, willing to play with the cat, even willing to let the cat ride on oneself - just looking at the cat's every move, one feels cute, one feels comfortable, as long as it can open its mouth to make a request, any condition can be agreed to.

Why do this?

Because... it's cute.

"Don't worry, even if you want to change a sun, maybe there will be a Heavenly Venerable willing to take action and take you to other stars - but it can't be too far, it's not that it can't be done, but it's mainly difficult to take care of you."

Saying this, this Thunder Department True God was still watching the Qingqiu King, and the Qingqiu King could see a trace of hidden heat in that originally thought to be calm gaze... Before leaving, He reached out and straightened the crown on the Qingqiu King's head, His fingers touched the other person's fox ears unintentionally, and then smiled happily, turning into thunder and leaving.

The Qingqiu King had been touched by other celestials and gods before, there were goddesses, and there were also True Gods. He originally thought that it was because his appearance and charm could not be resisted even by celestials and gods... Now it seems that perhaps they indeed could not resist, but this kind of intimate love was not the kind of love he imagined.

But it's just... a pet.

The original pride and arrogance gradually turned into fear, and a kind of unwillingness that made one breathless.

The expressions of the celestials and gods when they said, "We don't care," and the scenes of other Qingqiu people fanatically worshiping the celestials and gods, turned into the Qingqiu King's true nightmare.

Qingqiu Star, deep in the Lianyi Sea.

The nine-tailed Qingqiu person with a hole pierced in his chest gradually retracted the nine black tails behind him. He had already sat up, and the ice-blue spiritual light patterns on his body became more and more fiery, even causing the seawater to boil and split open, and the whole person gradually placed himself in a gaseous air bubble.

Tens of thousands of meters deep underground, just the sea pressure is enough to make it difficult for all living things to survive, but for him, it is nothing.

Buzz--

A buzz, and then silence, a stream of scarlet light suddenly shot out from the hole at the top of this cavity, and then plunged into the ice-blue spiritual nail on the top of this Qingqiu person's head. Countless information contained in it flickered, as if telling something.

The black-haired Qingqiu person slowly stood up from the stone coffin. The spiritual nail that pierced through his brain seems not to be a kind of seal, but an embedded magical artifact. It flickers with light, seemingly communicating with the matrix at the distant end with some kind of spiritual power band.

[Returned? Celestials and gods.]

He closed his eyes, and the spiritual power all over his body began to slowly circulate, running through every corner, carrying out activation: [Continue to collect data, we need to determine the extent of the celestials and gods' strength recovery after the spiritual energy is cut off.]

[Huh?]

But suddenly, he let out a soft hmm.

[The Southwest Spirit Descent Tower cluster... was invaded?]