Within the crack in ti and space, atop the black glacier, after hearing the goddess' exclamation, Xu Qing's expression darkened. He raised his right hand and made a grasping motion in the air.
Instantly, the goddess' figure appeared, lifted by the neck and placed before Xu Qing. He loosened his grip slightly, allowing Her to speak normally, and then calmly said, "Tell everything you know."
Faced with Xu Qing's cold gaze, the experiences She had endured since being captured, and the thods of the clay fox, the goddess' ntal defenses had long been utterly destroyed.
She understood that hiding anything would bring Her no benefit. After a brief silence, She conversed in a low voice, "Everything here matches a mysterious place I know of… the Primordial Ho Planet of the Fourth Star Ring."
"Continue," Xu Qing said indifferently.
The goddess' voice echoed softly.
"The so-called Primordial Ho Planet is said to be the birthplace of the first god in the Fourth Star Ring, in ancient tis."
"Legend has it that before this Primordial God, there were no gods in the Fourth Star Ring. It was through Its ergence that gods ca into existence."
A dark glint flashed in Xu Qing's eyes.
The goddess trembled under his gaze. After a mont of hesitation, She continued, "This tale is too distant from the present. I only heard fragnts of it from my father, and even among the gods of the Fourth Star Ring, it is not universally accepted."
"It concerns the origin of gods. One could say that the Primordial Ho Planet is one theory of their origin."
The goddess hurriedly explained.
"Tell sothing you can confirm!" Xu Qing's voice turned cold.
The goddess nodded quickly.
"One thing is certain: gods in the throes of divine decay, when their divine bodies are on the verge of withering, will sense the call of the Ho Planet. They will then drift through the cosmos along a specific trajectory, like leaves returning to Their roots, to reach the Ho Planet."
"However, this process of return is untraceable and unknowable. Thus, over countless years, very few gods have known the location of the Ho Planet."
"Only in death do They arrive here."
Xu Qing suddenly interjected, "Divine decay?"
The goddess hesitated but then revealed a secret of the gods.
"Below the level of True Gods, gods do not possess the concept of immortality. Only after becoming a True God and obtaining a True Na can They achieve immortality."
"But this immortality refers only to the True Na, not the divine body. The bodies of gods, whether True Gods or not, will naturally decay over ti."
"Eventually, They wither…"
"When They are summoned back to the Ho Planet, gods without True Nas beco nourishnt, while those with True Nas… for Them, the Ho Planet acts like a womb, nurturing new divine bodies."
"Thus, the True Na is summoned, and the god is reborn."
"This process is slow and is one of the rules of True God resurrection."
Xu Qing frowned upon hearing this.
"This contradicts what I know about resurrection!"
The goddess quickly explained, "That's because there are two other thods of god resurrection. One is returning within the body of Their death, and the other is through the summoning of a Lord God. However, both of these thods can only resurrect gods who did not die of divine decay, such as those who fell in battle…"
"Those who die of divine decay can only be drawn to the Ho Planet."
The goddess conversed softly.
Xu Qing fell into thought. This was the first ti he had heard such a description from the goddess. Recalling the True God resurrections he had witnessed, they had indeed all been gods who died in battle.
However, he remained skeptical and silently consulted the clay fox in his mind.
But the clay fox, being a postnatal god and not having reached the level of a True God, nor possessing the noble status of the goddess, was equally ignorant of such matters.
Unable to provide a definitive answer.
After so thought, Xu Qing pointed to the black glacier below with his left hand.
"What are those bizarre entities beneath the glacier?"
"They are Origin Sin…" the goddess imdiately replied.
"Origin Sins are unique life forms of the Ho Planet. They feed on divine corpses and are part of the Ho Planet. They are born here, die here, and ultimately form new divine bodies."
Xu Qing narrowed his eyes, pondering for a mont, then questioned in a low voice, "Can Origin Sins depart the Ho Planet?"
The goddess shook Her head.
"In my knowledge of the Ho Planet, I have never heard of Origin Sins leaving, nor have I ever seen one outside."
Xu Qing fell silent. After a while, he suddenly asked,
"Is the Primordial Ho Planet unique to the Fourth Star Ring, or does every one of the upper thirty-six star rings have one?"
"Each has one," the goddess uttered softly.
She had nothing left to hide. Although this information was a secret of the gods, known only to True Gods and above, who could sense it through Their bloodline, She, being the daughter of a Lord God, knew more comprehensively.
"Then how do we leave this place?" Xu Qing's eyes glead with a cold light as he stared into the goddess' eyes.
The goddess trembled and quickly shook Her head.
"I don't know… I only know that this is not a place for the living…"
She left unsaid the imnse confusion in Her heart about how Xu Qing had managed to co here.
Xu Qing frowned and was about to press further.
But at that mont, sothing happened that shook him to his core.
The goddess before him, perhaps due to having been in this place for a bit too long, began to show signs of aging. Her skin gradually decayed, and a sense of rot emanated from Her.
At the sa ti, the clay fox's exclamation echoed in Xu Qing's mind.
"Young Master, I feel my body weakening, and my divine source is disappearing!"
The goddess also sensed the change in Herself and trembled in fear.
"It's the Primordial Ho Planet, absorbing and decomposing all life that cos here!"
Xu Qing imdiately checked himself but found no abnormalities. He glanced at the terrified goddess and asked again, "Are you sure there's no way to leave?"
The goddess trembled even more, desperately recalling everything She knew, but in the end, She had no answer.
Seeing this, Xu Qing waved his hand and put the goddess away. He then gazed into the distance, monitoring his own divine source while analyzing the information he had obtained.
"The Primordial Ho Planet!!"
"Allegedly the birthplace of the first god in the Fourth Star Ring."
"The place where all gods in divine decay return…"
"The living cannot co here… So, what was the Venerable Immortal's purpose in sending here?"
"And… those so-called Origin Sins bear a striking resemblance to what's inside Senior Brother. If what's inside Senior Brother truly is an Origin Sin…"
Xu Qing fell silent. He had long suspected that Senior Brother harbored secrets, but even now, he knew little about them.
This was not the ti to dwell on such matters. Xu Qing looked up at the sky.
"Regardless of why the Venerable Immortal sent here, finding a way to leave is my top priority!"
"I've already tried the bronze door in the temple, but it doesn't lead out."
"Perhaps there's a way to leave through the sky above."
With this thought, Xu Qing's body shot into the sky.
His speed was astonishing, tearing through the void as he ascended higher and higher.
Ti flowed by.
But the sky here seed infinite. No matter how high Xu Qing flew, he remained in mid-air, unable to reach the end.
As for the ground, even as he ascended, all he could see was the black glacier, as if it truly stretched on forever.
This sight made Xu Qing's heart sink.
"At my speed, under normal circumstances, I would have already flown out of a universe by now."
"But here, I'm still only in the air!"
Xu Qing murmured inwardly, simultaneously noticing that the weakening of the clay fox and the goddess had intensified.
He ignored the goddess, but for the clay fox, Xu Qing transferred so of his own source energy to alleviate Her condition.
After a mont of contemplation, he concluded, "It's not about height. The longer one stays here, the more intense the weakening becos."
Having made this judgnt, Xu Qing increased his speed and continued his ascent.
But this ti, before long, Xu Qing's body suddenly halted, and his pupils contracted.
A bone-chilling sensation surged through him, accompanied by an overwhelming sense of danger.
It was as if every inch of his flesh and every strand of his divine sense were screaming warnings.
This feeling ca from the infinite sky above, which had no visible end.
It was as if continuing to ascend would lead him to encounter an unimaginable horror.
"I can't go any further!"
Xu Qing's thoughts raced. His body abruptly descended, and only when he reached a certain altitude did the terrifying sensation begin to fade.
But his mind remained tense, for a new crisis had erged.
Following the goddess and the clay fox, Xu Qing's own origin essence had begun to disappear!
Upon discovering this, Xu Qing's expression darkened.
Although the rate of disappearance was slow, and Xu Qing's origin essence was abundant after absorbing the black tumor from the secret realm, this loss was unstoppable, no matter how he tried to seal it.
The clay fox, sensing that Xu Qing was also losing origin essence, grew anxious.
"Young Master, the loss is accelerating. If this continues…"
"I know," Xu Qing replied. His body shot downward, heading for the glacier below at breakneck speed, creating sonic booms that echoed in all directions.
His destination was the place where the True God's corpse had fallen from the sky.
Before long, a massive divine corpse, half-sunken into the glacier, ca into view.
This was the corpse Xu Qing had seen earlier. Half of It was subrged in the glacier, while the other half was slowly sinking further.
This sinking did not cause the glacier to break but seed to rge with it, seeping in eerily.
Beneath the glacier, countless Origin Sins could be seen devouring the corpse.
As Xu Qing approached, he acted without hesitation. Raising his hand, silver light flashed in his eyes.
In the next mont, a faint stream of origin essence was extracted from the True God's corpse and flowed toward Xu Qing, replenishing the loss in both him and the clay fox.
This thod of refining origin essence was none other than the Mystic Nether Soul Refinent Art!
"Indeed…"
Xu Qing murmured, a glint of silver light in his eyes.
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