Chapter 760: 758: The World is Declining
Time flowed on.
Qin Changqing’s ascendancy created a brand-new situation for this era.
All remaining “Great Terrors” deeply concealed themselves.
They didn’t dare to even let a single thought peek through, let alone show their faces.
This era began to move towards prosperity.
In the blink of an eye, another ten billion years had passed.
On this day, the number of Saints in the Qin family, excluding him and the Ancient Emperor, had also broken through to more than ten.
On this day, someone within the Immortal World finally certified the Great Dao.
It was too difficult to go from Saint to Great Dao Saint.
The Ancient Emperor, once an Immortal Emperor, took more than a hundred million years to return to that status.
In her era, it had taken her tens of billions of years to become an Immortal Emperor.
The one who certified as a Great Dao Saint this time was still a woman of Qin Changqing’s.
She was Ling Yuyan, the first person Qin Changqing brought out from the Small Spirit Realm.
Ling Yuyan had surpassed everyone else.
After becoming a Saint, it became even harder to grow; who could certify the Great Dao depended on many factors.
Many Saints couldn’t certify the Great Dao throughout an entire era.
Ling Yuyan’s Sword Dao was indeed powerful; even during her Deifying stage, she could split the heavens with a single strike.
Even though she split the heavens of the Small Spirit Realm, it was enough to showcase her exceptional genius.
Otherwise, why would Qin Changqing choose to bring her out first?
“It’s becoming more and more monstrous.”
Within the Chaos Sea, a Great Terror of Immortal Emperor level sensed it but was powerless to do anything and could only hide deeper.
In the Devil Immortal Realm, Youyue finally became a Saint as well.
The whole world was thriving.
Qin Changqing’s footprints became even more distant.
One by one, worlds kept appearing in the Chaos Sea, and with the guidance of Qin Changqing, they grew stronger.
Unsurprisingly, the most outstanding women from these worlds all became Qin Changqing’s women.
His offspring were spread throughout the heavens.
Interactions between the various worlds in the entire Chaos Sea became more frequent.
Many worlds essentially had Teleportation Arrays leading to the Immortal World.
Of course, these Teleportation Arrays were generally too expensive for ordinary people to use due to the long distances involved.
Within the Chaos Sea, the footholds of the Immortals also became deeper.
Some regular Immortals even dared to venture into the Chaos Sea for exploration.
And so time went by, year after year, incessantly flowing by.
Soon, several billions of years had passed.
On this day, Qin Changqing once again stood before the World Tree.
After billions of years, this World Tree had fully grown.
The World Tree was so tall, so large, that it nurtured boundless worlds within it.
The most magnificent of these worlds was now comparable to an entire universe.
It could even support beings of Semi-Saint level.
The entire Chaos Tree continued to draw energy from the Chaos Sea unceasingly, growing ever larger.
Only the Chaos Tree could draw energy like this.
After a few more hundred million years, on this day, in the Divine Spirit World, the Goddess of Life finally became a Saint.
The Divine Spirit World had also become mighty enough to give birth to Saints.
If given time, the entire Divine Spirit World would continue to expand, catching up with the Immortal World might be impossible, but growing to match the Immortal World of several billion years ago was plausible.
Qin Changqing’s gaze drifted to the distance.
“If every world is comparable to the Immortal World, how would this era ever decline?” Qin Changqing murmured.
The transition of eras, if it were a replacement of worlds, the reason many Saints chose to become “Great Terrors” after the past era’s transition was probably because there were no other worlds left in the Chaos Sea.
Worlds were consumed to nothing, leaving only a sole survivor.
But if every world is comparable to the Immortal World, if one world withers, there’s still another world.
Although power is not so easily transferred, what if the cycle of another world is perfected? What if one is reincarnated into another world?
Wouldn’t that mean an era could maintain eternal prosperity!
No matter what power system you’re under, whether it’s Becoming Immortal, Becoming a God, Becoming a Martial God, Mechanical Ascension, or even Becoming Buddha.
As long as the power can be maintained, existing in the world forever, why not?
After all, not everyone can ascend to heaven.
“You’ll see, I couldn’t stop it once before, but this time, if I can ascend to heaven, let’s see if we can prevent it,” the Ancient Emperor said.
She was also close to ascending to heaven.
When Qin Changqing reached the full age of eighty billion years, on this day, the Ancient Emperor was finally about to ascend, to surpass even the Immortal Emperors.
Her process of ascending was much harder than Qin Changqing’s.
It took her tens of thousands of years, but she eventually succeeded.
“Another one has come!”
In the depths of the Chaos Sea, the remaining “Great Terrors” despaired.
One wasn’t done yet, and now another had arrived!
Once one ascended, they were no longer bound by their era, how the hell is one to cope with that?
“Mother, does the Chaos Sea truly have no end?”
“I don’t know, in my era, I never found its end,” replied the Ancient Emperor.
In the Chaos Sea, Qin Changqing, the Ancient Emperor, and their two daughters were searching for the end of the Chaos Sea.
At that moment, Qin Changqing sensed something and led the three women in a certain direction.
In just a thousand years, he had traversed a distance that would take a Saint hundreds of thousands of years to cross, and arrived at a place.
But he was still too late.
The other party had slipped away through a dark portal, and not only had they escaped, but they also destroyed that portal.
“Evil Spirit Immortal Emperor.”
The Ancient Emperor sensed the residual vibrations and whispered.
Yes.
A “Great Terror” on the Evil Ghost Dao had become an Immortal Emperor!
The Evil Spirit Immortal Emperor!
“The Evil Ghost Dao continues to grow stronger.”
Ancient Emperor said,
He’s indeed become stronger—who would’ve thought that the Evil Ghost Dao could sustain the existence of an Immortal Emperor!
Evil Spirit Immortal Emperor!
If it weren’t for Qin Changqing’s rapid growth, this era would have been doomed without a doubt.
Because this Immortal Emperor does not need to use Forbidden Origin Force to exert the power of an Immortal Emperor. Who the hell could stop him?
Even if the many Saints in the Immortal World could put up a fight within the Immortal World, the adversary doesn’t fear attrition; they could simply grind you to death through sheer endurance.
With the help of the power of the Immortal World, the Saints can indeed experience a surge in battle strength, but if the fight drags on, the Immortal World will also start to decay as a result.
Luckily,
this era has Qin Changqing, whose growth has been swift for the whole era.
Even with the Evil Spirit Immortal Emperor, there is nothing to fear.
Of course, it would be best if the matter could be resolved.
Qin Changqing began his pursuit.
However, that guy is too cunning and extremely evasive. Qin Changqing has searched for many years and has not found him.
The guy is probably fleeing as far away as he can.
Even as an Evil Spirit Immortal Emperor, he doesn’t dare show his face and is still suppressed by Qin Changqing; he must be extremely frustrated inside.
Seeing that he couldn’t be caught, Qin Changqing didn’t pay it too much mind and continued his own rhythm.
Time continued to pass.
Soon, a hundred billion years had gone by.
Within the Chaos Sea, there was even more flourishing growth.
There were already some worlds that had grown comparable to the Immortal World during the time that Qin Changqing had traversed.
No, they were still weaker.
The currently strongest world had but two beings at the Saint level.
“In the eyes of an Immortal Emperor, an era is defined by his own world. However, in my eyes, an era encompasses the Myriad Realms of the Heavens. Such an era should never wither,”
Qin Changqing thought.
If it were not for the “Great Terror” causing trouble, the Chaos Sea filled with worlds would continuously see new worlds grow even as one decayed.
Considering the grand scheme of the entire Chaos Sea, of the Myriad Realms of the Heavens, such an era should indeed never wither.
If that were the case, even if the Immortal World declined, Qin Changqing could let his women and descendants enter other worlds.
Of course, this is not the best option.
During these hundred billion years, Qin Changqing had already been making multiple preparations.
He had already begun to create his own realm—not a common one, but an Eternal Realm.
The Eternal Realm, with his power as its source, would never wither so long as he lived.
This could provide a haven for those among Qin Changqing’s women and descendants who could not step into heaven.
Creating such a realm was not difficult; the real challenge lay in extracting the marks of his women and descendants from the Immortal World.
But for now, Qin Changqing was not in a hurry.
He would first let them grow.
If they really couldn’t improve and the world began to decay again, he’d consider it then.
“Decay has come.”
Several billion years later, on this day, the decay of the world arrived.
For cultivators or even ordinary Immortals, this decay would go unnoticed, being extremely gradual.
But Qin Changqing distinctly felt it.
It didn’t require a time scale of a hundred million years; even looking on the scale of ten million years,
a Spirit Domain saw a continuous decline in the number of cultivators who ascended.
It was a very smooth downward trend.
And if looked at from a time scale of a billion years, this decline became even more alarming.
The spiritual Qi of the entire world was also in continuous decline.
Although the current Immortal World now had four Great Dao Saints and nearly a hundred Saints,
the world’s origin was incredibly robust, but the whole world was decaying.
“Where does the problem lie?”
After observing for a billion years, Qin Changqing murmured softly,
“I don’t know.”
The answer from the Ancient Emperor was very simple.
“Sovereign, what’s going on?”
“Yes, the world’s origin has not dried up; in fact, it’s becoming increasingly robust. Yet, the entire world is in unceasing decay.”
In the Immortal World, all the Saints had gathered together.
Over the past hundred-plus billion years, thanks to the strengthening of the Immortal World, aside from the multitude of Saints born to the Qin family, many Saints had also emerged from the Immortals of the Immortal World itself.
The number of Saints native to the Immortal World had reached 15.
Every Saint was somewhat bewildered.
Besides them, the Demon Saints had also come. They were concerned as well because the decay affected them all together.
The Three Realms were an entirety.
But the other worlds were not decaying yet.
Worlds like the Divine Spirit World were still doing well and in their ascending phases.
The decay of the Three Realms was also quite strange.
From a layman’s understanding, the decline might be due to not enough spiritual Qi to sustain the abundant number of Immortals and Saints in the Three Realms—this wasn’t the case.
In fact, as the Three Realms prospered and strengthened, the spiritual Qi within them became even richer and the origin even more robust.
Regarding where that energy came from, and why the spiritual Qi didn’t diminish but increased despite the immense consumption by the Immortals, these questions involve the complex principles of the operation of heaven and earth.
The root cause lies with the Chaos Sea.
The Chaos Sea was full of chaos that Immortals simply couldn’t utilize.
However, this chaos also represented a form of energy, but only Passage Lands could harness it.
Take the World Tree, for instance, which draws energy from the Chaos Sea to continuously grow and bear worlds.
There’s also a type of life, like that huge serpent that turned into the Chaos Snake, that can make use of it.
So, under normal logic, it would stand to reason that the stronger and more prosperous a world becomes, the more energy it would draw from the Chaos Sea.
The entire world would then become further strengthened.
But now, after the Immortal World reached an unprecedented peak of prosperity, it unexpectedly began to decline!
This defies common sense.
“Things will develop in the opposite direction when they become extreme, prosperity will lead to decline, but why is this happening?”
A Saint murmured to himself,
He, too, was at a loss.