Jing Qiu stood by, watching as Dongbo Xueying sat cross-legged in meditation for half an hour before slowly opening his eyes, his gaze now noticeably sharper.
“Xueying, what happened?” Jing Qiu finally asked.
Dongbo Xueying rose to his feet and looked at the corpse of Divine Emperor Tianyun, whose lifeless eyes still stared fixedly at the array diagram. “The heart is like a mirror,” he said. “Cultivating the heart means polishing this mirror until it becomes clearer and brighter, constantly wiping away the dust and reminding oneself to stay vigilant. Otherwise, even the slightest speck of dust can gradually dim its radiance. Divine Emperor Tianyun’s unwavering pursuit of the Dao has made me realize that my own resolve is still lacking.”
“Understanding is one thing, but true cultivation of the heart requires steady, step-by-step progress to prove my Dao-heart,” Dongbo Xueying continued.
Jing Qiu felt a shiver run through her as she sensed the sharpness in Xueying’s eyes. Her own Dao-heart was firm, but it lacked the unyielding, indomitable edge that both Xueying and Divine Emperor Tianyun possessed—that sense of ‘charging forward without hesitation’ and ‘who else but me?’
“My willpower may not match his now, but who knows about the future? After all, he has endured over ten billion years of tempering,” Xueying said with a faint smile. He then stepped forward toward the pavilion, carefully examining the floating orb of light. The orb was composed of white and red hues, its countless intertwined rays forming a spherical array diagram with ever-shifting nodes.
Xueying surveyed the surroundings before remarking, “Jing Qiu, this array diagram must have been activated by Divine Emperor Tianyun’s formation.”
“Indeed,” Jing Qiu agreed. “I observed it for a while earlier—it’s unfathomable.”
Xueying nodded and focused intently on the array.
*Hum—*
The moment his consciousness touched it, he felt himself rapidly shrinking, becoming a mere speck within the vast diagram. Looking around, he saw countless distant stars rotating in the void, hundreds of millions of them shifting in slow, deliberate motion. Though each star moved at a glacial pace, their collective dance exuded an extraordinary beauty, creating an overwhelming sense of grandeur.
It was as if he were facing the entire material world, watching countless mortal realms revolve in harmony.
Yet this formation carried an even more domineering presence than the material world—an unyielding, crushing force that seemed to declare its immovability to all who dared confront it.
If the vast rules of the material world were akin to an ordinary person, then this formation was like a warrior clad in armor, wielding a weapon.
“Hmm?”
As Xueying observed the celestial movements, a sudden realization struck him—a terrifying aura of *destruction* lurked within. Even the destructive presence he had sensed from his master, Bloodblade Divine Emperor, paled in comparison. The slow drift of those hundreds of millions of stars concealed an unimaginable killing intent, brewing like a storm.
Once unleashed, it would shatter heaven and earth.
One of Xueying’s three secret techniques was precisely the ‘Destruction’ technique, and he found himself utterly absorbed in this revelation. Lost in contemplation, he lost all sense of time.
—
Days passed.
Jing Qiu, too, immersed herself in the array diagram, occasionally awakening from her trance. As a Four Heavens Realm God, she perceived even more within the formation, leaving her awestruck. *No wonder Divine Emperor Tianyun chose to study this array in his final moments, making one last desperate attempt. The formation of hundreds of millions of meteorites in this Heartlake Island ruins is beyond comprehension.*
Over a month slipped by as they remained engrossed.
“Xueying… Xueying…”
A distant voice called out to him.
*Thud.*
Xueying jolted awake, immediately wincing from the searing pain coursing through his body. Beside him, Jing Qiu withdrew her hand, her face etched with concern. “What happened?”
“Ah—” Xueying clutched his head, agony splitting his skull. Blood trickled from his nose.
Not only was this avatar in pain—his white-robed true body in the Xia Clan World’s Redstone Mountain was also bleeding from the nose, his head throbbing. Almost simultaneously, the artifact spirit of Redstone Mountain roused him.
“I discovered the aspect of ‘Great Destruction’ within the formation and delved deep into its mysteries,” Xueying explained, shaking his head. “The more I comprehended, the more I sensed. But unknowingly, the formation’s terrifying killing intent wounded my true divine heart, and the injuries manifested physically. Not just this avatar—even my true body in the Xia Clan World was harmed. The killing intent is too dreadful. Merely studying it inflicted such damage.”
Jing Qiu was stunned. “Injuring the divine heart and the body? Even your true body in the material world was affected? Supreme beings can slay distant enemies with a single thought through karma, but this formation didn’t deliberately trigger a karmic attack. Yet it still harmed your true body.”
“It’s not karma,” Xueying said. “Both my avatar and true body were studying the formation, so both were wounded. The formation is too powerful—I believe it rivals the operational laws of the entire material world. I can’t continue studying it. My comprehension of its ‘Destruction’ aspect has reached its limit. Any further, and it would cost me my life.”
“I’m still fine,” Jing Qiu said. “Perhaps because I wasn’t studying the destructive aspect. I plan to leave a Realm God avatar here to continue.”
“Good. I won’t study it further—we should set out for Heartlake Island immediately,” Xueying said.
He then turned to Divine Emperor Tianyun’s seated corpse and waved his hand. Earth and stone gathered, enveloping the emperor’s remains in an unseen force before burying them beneath a mound.
“Divine Emperor Tianyun, may you rest in peace,” Xueying murmured softly.
—
Xueying and his wife left the meteorite behind, using his Taihao Force to probe the endless currents as they flew forward at high speed.
The colossal silver-white water sphere spanned over eighteen trillion miles in diameter—an unimaginable expanse.
With spatial teleportation impossible within the currents, they could only press onward through flight. Along the way, the couple faced countless perils, from swarms of ‘Purple Swordfish’ to other aquatic creatures native to the Heartlake Island ruins. At times, they were forced into desperate retreats, even deploying divine avatars to mislead their pursuers.
They encountered numerous undercurrents, but with experience, they learned to anticipate their approach by observing the water’s flow. They even grew adept at sensing the presence of terrifying creatures from afar.
Eleven years—
That was how long it took.
From the surface of the massive silver-white water sphere, through the endless aquatic obstacles, Xueying and Jing Qiu spent over eleven arduous years before finally nearing the island at its core.
*Boom—*
Passing through an invisible barrier, they left the currents behind.
The black-clad youth and silver-haired woman gazed in awe at the colossal island before them. Encased in frost, the entire landmass gleamed silver-white, its biting cold making the couple shiver involuntarily. Though far smaller than the water sphere, the island still spanned trillions of miles.
“Jing Qiu, we’ve finally made it to Heartlake Island,” Xueying said with a sigh. “More than once along the way, I thought I’d lose my life.”
Jing Qiu nodded—the journey had been grueling.
“We’ve arrived at a fortunate time,” she noted. “With the island frozen over, it’s relatively safer. We must act quickly—find my father and retrieve that true artifact. But we can’t take the usual paths; the Withered Tree Matriarch and the Nine Suns Palace Master are watching. We must avoid them.”
“You lead the way,” Xueying said.
“I hope we can rescue Father before Heartlake Island turns scorching,” Jing Qiu murmured. The island’s temperature cycled between extremes—freezing cold and blistering heat.
Even mighty experts hesitated to enter during the ‘scorching’ phase, when dangers multiplied exponentially.
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