<h4>Chapter 654: A Kingdom of Gods</h4>


    Perhaps using the word ‘like’ wasn’t appropriate.


    That was because the memories of the past really were transforming from illusory into reality. And if those scenes became truly real, they would rece the present. As of this moment, time was elusive. It no longer flowed forward. Yet it didn’t flow backward either. It was like a spinning vortex.


    Within that vortex existed Xu Qing’s past, present, and future. However, the scenes of the future were blurry and impossible to see clearly. And that was even truer now as everything was mixing together. Even the word ‘time’ seemed to be losing meaning. Perhaps ‘time’ was really just an invention of intelligent beings to give meaning to life. Maybe ‘time’ didn’t even need to be defined. After all, any such definitions couldn’t be trulyprehensive.


    Xu Qing’s mind spun as this strange notion urred to him. Everything was being turned upside down. To his eyes, the world was transforming again.


    Everything seemed blurry at first, but then he saw a host of indescribable gods moving through the void, stirring up numerous vortexes that were defined as time. Thēy all looked different, and though Xu Qing could see them, thēy couldn’t be described with words. It was almost as if it wasn’t permitted to describe thēm.


    Xu Qing saw innumerable stars, all of them in the process of copsing. There were also suns and moons forming. However, all of them ended up being taken by the gods and ced onto thēir bodies as decorations, or turned into weapons or tools that boggled Xu Qing’s mind. The colors and shapes of the times were beyond his ability to understand.


    It was the same with the starry sky. Xu Qing saw one god using a star like a brush to paint it. In the areas being painted, the starry sky expanded and gotrger. It was an outrageous scene, and it seemedpletely unrealistic. A momentter, everything blurred away. It was almost as if everything from before had only existed in Xu Qing’s mind.


    It was unfathomable and impossible to understand. Xu Qing’s sea of consciousness trembled. He felt like he couldn’t trust what he had just seen. He had seen some sort of imperial figure wearing an emperor’s robes, their face a mask of pain and struggle. However, in the presence of gods, resistance was meaningless. It was as if the chanting of the god, the enchantment, had opened up a grotesque and variegated world.


    In that ce... what he understood as time had a different meaning in the hearts of the gods. What he knew about space had another definition in the senses of the gods. What he grasped of consciousness wasn’t actually real in the eyes of the gods. In fact, everything he could see was simply what the gods subconsciously allowed him to see. It was subconscious because thēy wouldn’t do so on purpose.


    All of it was causing Xu Qing’s consciousness to crumble. Suddenly, a figure appeared in front of him, like a towering mountain. The figure blocked out everything, covering the chaos, and breaking his line of sight.


    Finally, Xu Qing’s senses began to recover. He mmed down onto the ground, his heart racing as waves of shock assailed his mind. Unable to stand in ce, he staggered back, blood spraying out of his mouth. His expression flickered wildly as he looked up and saw Princess Brightblossom standing protectively in front of him.


    “Did you sense it?” she asked, looking over her shoulder at him.


    He took in a shaky breath. His mind and heart still felt like they were being struck by countless lightning bolts. Eyes flickering with shock and amazement, he took a moment to recover. He nodded. “What was hē saying? I feel like the things I saw... were things I didn’t see. I can remember them, but it also seems like I’ve forgotten. All of the images. Everything. It was all turned upside down.”


    Xu Qing shivered as if from cold. As he thought about what he had just experienced, he felt a coldness that seeped into his bones and seemed to freeze his soul....


    “Hē’s counting down,” Princess Brightblossom said softly. “After the broken face of the god arrived, cultivation became helplessly bitter. And also a dead-end path.


    “In this world, mutagen is everywhere. In some cases you can sense it, but in other cases it’s impossible to discern. It invades all living things and transforms them inside and out. Sometimes it turns things into ashes. Sometimes it turns them into a font of evil.


    “The mortals... have it just as bad. Their lives are changed, and they have no choice but to adapt. For cultivators the situation is even more serious. At low levels, once you reach the tipping point of mutation, you either die or turn into a mutant beast. In the middle levels, cultivators feel blessed because they think they can keep the mutagen under control. Ignore it. But the reality is that they only feel blessed because their perceptions are limited, and they don’t understand the truth.


    “Eventually, when your cultivation reaches a high level... your perceptions are altered, and everything changes. Like us.... What you saw now for just a moment is what we deal with constantly.”


    Princess Brightblossom seemed very tired as she spoke. Next to her, the Heir Apparent sighed. Looking at Xu Qing, he shook his head.


    “It is what it is. And who knows, maybe it’s not real after all. Years ago my father said something interesting. ‘We believe thēy’re outsiders. But is that really the case? Maybe to thēm... we’re the outsiders. Perhaps this ce has always been... a kingdom of gods.’ Not even I know for sure.” The Heir Apparent shook his head.


    Xu Qing didn’t say anything.


    “You don’t need to worry about such questions right now. It’s good enough that you just got a taste. That will help you understand the world more clearly.” The Heir Apparent sped Xu Qing’s shoulder. “Remember, going forward, until you’ve made all the proper preparations, don’t use your taboo poison gaze on the broken face. Hē... is paramount above all, and should not be looked at directly. Now, let’s go home.”


    Nodding silently, Xu Qing left the valley with the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom. Together, they returned to the Green Spirit Pharmacy.


    For the next half a month, his experience in the valley continued to remain in his thoughts. He still couldn’t wrap his mind around what it all meant.


    One day, the Captain told him that the ‘oil’ had arrived.


    The red moon was getting closer and closer to rising, making it even more prominent in the sky above Moonrite Region. The redness of the sky was only growing more intense, and the light it cast down made the entire region a bright red color. The tideflow power exerted by the moon grew stronger. Mountains copsed constantly, causing loud rumbling sounds to echo out.


    The cathedral cultivators who exercised faith in Crimson Mother experienced blessings to their cultivation base, and their god magics grew more terrifying.


    The five resistance armies led by the five vice-bishops of the Moonrebel Congregation were no longer able to maintain a deadlock with the Red Moon Cathedral. The resistance armies were starting to crumble. The situation was getting anxious.


    And to <i>add hail to snow</i>, the closer the red moon got to rising, and the stronger the tideflow power grew, something very gruish happened to the Moonrite Region.


    It got bigger. Thends cracked apart, and then new bs ofnd rose up, while simultaneously, huge chasms opened up. It was the same with the mountains. Mountains crumbled, but new mountains rose up. Such new locations abounded with the aura of a god.


    What was more, in the new mountains, newnds, and new chasms, a group of unique entities awoke. They were physically repulsive, resembling monsters like demons or devils. Theycked intelligence, and were instead governed by madness. They were like bugs or beasts, and they came out in great numbers. Every single one pulsed with the fluctuations of a god. Even the smallest of them was a few meters tall, with some being dozens of meters in height, and others, hundreds. They were absolutely ferocious, and also hungry. Wherever they went, they ate everything they could, even dirt or rocks. Of course, it went without saying that they preferred devouring living flesh and blood. They simply couldn’t not eat. And they began to spread throughout the Moonrite Region. It seemed that, to them, they were attending a banquet. As all of these things happened, death was the order of the day.


    The Moonrebel Congregation was even more bleak and deste. Temples were going dark as their owners perished. Medicinal pills were now more important than ever before.


    Although Xu Qing was in his little paradise in the Bitter Life Mountains, he continued to distribute pills. He wasn’t charging anything for them now.


    Unfortunately, there was no way to meet the demand. He was just considering a way to mass-produce more pills when something unexpected happened.


    The Bitter Life Mountains trembled, causing huge rock slides as numerous mountain peaks copsed. Vast chasms opened up. The epicenter was none other than the church temple of the Red Moon Cathedral. The locations that experienced such tumult throughout the region were always close to the church temples.


    And though the desert wind stopped people from entering, it couldn’t stop this. Then, countless vicious beings poured out like tidewaters. Insane howling filled the air.


    The cultivators native to the desert who wanted to survive had no choice but to fight back. That was especially true of the Wind Guardians. Their entire species was on the move. Countless other organizations, bothrge and small, fought together against the insane monsters.


    When the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom noticed that the mountains were trembling, they walked out of the medicine shop. Apparently, they had been waiting for this moment. Xu Qing followed.


    “Xu Qing, do you see those monstrous entities? It’s not a coincidence that they showed up. They’re children of Crimson Mother who haven’t developed intelligence yet. They represent chaos. They’re formed from superfluous aspects of Crimson Mother’s physical form that were shed during godly ascension.” As the Heir Apparent flew toward the chasms, he coolly said, “These are the real godchildren.”


    Xu Qing looked down into the mountains.


    This was not his first time learning about this. Before leaving the Paramount Temple in the Moonrebel Congregation, the Captain had mentioned it. And this... was the oil he had talked about.