My Golden Core is a Star, do you call this cultivating?

The crimson light shone upon the snow-capped mountains, making them appear exceptionally enchanting.

The North Sea was a deep blue, where the water met the sky, creating a tranquil horizon with gentle waves.

In the endless forest, lakes interconnected, and within one of them, a dragon lay dormantFor a day, Qi Yuan accompanied the Foodless Holy Mother on a tour of the Mortal Heart Realm.

Standing under the sunlight, Qi Yuan gazed at the distant snow-covered peaks, thinking, "It seems like this really was just a sightseeing trip. My cultivation didn’t improve, but my mind feels much more open."

In the game, Qi Yuan had never stopped for even a moment, always taking things seriously. But now, for the first time, he was truly relaxing, experiencing a different kind of journey.

"Honestly, this might be the first proper vacation I’ve ever taken in my life. Although we only skimmed the surface, it was quite meaningful," Qi Yuan said.

A hint of a smile appeared in the beautiful eyes of the Foodless Holy Mother. "It’s not bad to have one last look at this land with you."

"You’ve already reached the peak of the Great Master level. What is the realm beyond True Gods like?" Qi Yuan couldn’t help but ask, filled with curiosity about the Yang God. Unfortunately, he had never encountered one before.

The Foodless Holy Mother was the most powerful being in the history of the Mortal Heart Realm, and she was the closest to becoming a Yang God.

"The realm beyond True Gods…" The Foodless Holy Mother fell silent. "I don’t know either."

Although she had reached the pinnacle of the Yin God stage, she had not fully grasped the Yang God’s realm.

Qi Yuan felt a bit disappointed upon hearing this. "I guess I’ll have to see the final boss myself to understand just how powerful a Yang God really is."

As soon as Qi Yuan finished speaking, a deafening sound erupted.

Suddenly, his vision was filled with a blood-red light.

He quickly looked up at the sky.

From the crimson star that seemed to hover above the Mortal Heart Realm, a massive hand emerged. This colossal hand was as large as a planet. With a slight push of the hand, the enormous Heavenly Pillar, stretching tens of thousands of miles high, collapsed like a fragile tower of blocks.

"The Heavenly Pillar… has fallen!" Qi Yuan exclaimed, watching the pillar crumble as if witnessing the sunset.

He hadn’t expected to witness this historic moment.

As the Heavenly Pillar fell, the Mortal Heart Realm quaked, and blood-red rain filled the sky.

It was as if the heavens themselves were weeping!

"Go!" The Foodless Holy Mother took a deep look at where Qi Yuan stood and shouted.

Qi Yuan quickly followed.

He knew the Foodless Holy Mother was going to confront the Yang God, and he was about to witness the most devastating battle of the Great Flood War.

All the myths of the Mortal Heart Realm would meet their end today.

Blood rain poured down as Qi Yuan followed the Foodless Holy Mother to the top of the shattered Heavenly Pillar.

"Foodless Holy Mother, twenty breaths!"

"Hold on!"

Six of the myths communicated through divine transmission before their figures disappeared into the Heavenly Pillar.

They had begun the process of condensing and sending out the world seed from within the pillar.

At that moment, Qi Yuan looked up at the sky.

He saw the place from which the terrifying giant hand had emerged had turned into a dense sea of blood.

The blood sea churned, devoid of water, filled entirely with crimson light.

The intense blood-red glow was so blinding that even a mere mortal glance at it could be fatal.

A cold, emotionless voice echoed from the high heavens.

"Annihilate."

The terrifying blood-colored figure was impossible to see clearly.

It was as if the Foodless Holy Mother was nothing more than an insignificant ant in the eyes of this figure—or perhaps she didn’t even register at all.

Qi Yuan also looked at the terrifying silhouette.

[Projection of the Devouring Form of the Blood Sun Saint, Yang God. This form can devour all things, swallowing stars whole.]

The figure stood high in the sky, descending at an unimaginable speed.

It wouldn’t take twenty breaths. In just one breath, the figure would reach the Heavenly Pillar.

"Who is that?" The Foodless Holy Mother gazed up at the terrifying figure in the sky. Her blood-red robes, under the crimson light, looked even more enchanting and alluring.

"Projection of the Devouring Form of the Blood Sun Saint…" Qi Yuan, without any worry, relayed the information he had seen to the Foodless Holy Mother.

"Devouring, huh?"

The Foodless Holy Mother seemed to have received crucial information.

Her red robes fluttered in the wind as she raised her head and screamed at the terrifying figure in the sky.

"Chaos without limits!"

"The one and only!"

Her snow-white hand shimmered with endless light.

The Foodless Holy Mother charged toward the terrifying figure with the determination of a warrior heading to their death, without a trace of hesitation.

Qi Yuan’s voice echoed through the sky.

"The upper jaw has been injured."

"Divine energy is concentrated mostly in the head."

Even though this was merely a projection of the Yang God’s devouring form, it was enough to affect Qi Yuan.

He could feel his body trembling, his divine apertures quaking, as if he were facing a mortal enemy.

If even a projection of the Yang God was this terrifying, how powerful would the true form be?

Qi Yuan could hardly imagine it.

He kept observing every detail of the Yang God’s projection, gathering useful information to share with the Foodless Holy Mother.

This was a battle they were destined to lose.

In the sky, two streaks of blood-red light collided as the Foodless Holy Mother burned all her divine energy to block the descending projection.

A surprised voice rang out. "How do you know who I am? How do you know about the wound on my upper jaw?"

The terrifying figure pondered, her gaze sweeping across the land as if trying to find someone.

Wherever her gaze passed, mountains and earth turned to nothingness.

For miles around, only the lonely Heavenly Pillar remained.

But since Qi Yuan wasn’t in this world, even such a terrifying attack couldn’t harm him.

The Foodless Holy Mother’s exquisite face was covered in blood, her powerful divine domain shattered.

Blood-red energy like a dragon tore through her divine domain, ripping it apart.

Wounded, the Foodless Holy Mother shouted once more.

"Tell me about her eyes…"

The terrifying figure looked down, puzzled. "Who are you talking to?"

Qi Yuan quickly observed the projection’s eyes and relayed the information to the Foodless Holy Mother.

"Chaos without limits!"

"The one and only!"

The Foodless Holy Mother attacked again.

Although her attacks couldn’t harm the projection of the Yang God, they slowed its descent.

"Wretched insect!" The terrifying figure grew more agitated, seemingly more frustrated by the unseen presence than by the Foodless Holy Mother.

For the Yang God, the unknown and uncontrollable were the most infuriating.

"Who is it?"

The figure raged, but her fury couldn’t reach Qi Yuan.

All of it was unleashed upon the Foodless Holy Mother.

A barrage of terrifying attacks shattered the Foodless Holy Mother’s divine domain and tore her body apart.

Her body was broken, her divine apertures shattered, blood dripped from her mouth.

The twenty breaths seemed to stretch on endlessly, but they eventually passed.

The Foodless Holy Mother’s bloodied face bore a smile.

She seemed to glance at Qi Yuan, her voice tinged with both melancholy and relief.

"I kept my promise to guard the Heavenly Pillar."

"I finally found the end I always wondered about."

"This life is without regret."

She gave Qi Yuan one last look, her gaze filled with complexity.

Even after all the people Qi Yuan had encountered and all the emotions he had seen, he couldn’t decipher what her look meant or the emotions behind it.

"The rest of the journey… is up to you."

With those final words, the Foodless Holy Mother could hold on no longer.

Her body shattered into countless fragments.

Infinite divine energy, like countless stars, scattered in all directions.

Qi Yuan reached out, trying to grasp a fragment.

But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t catch it.

The terrifying figure roared in frustration.

"Who is it?"

But she was destined never to find Qi Yuan, the outsider.

She wasted no time, crashing into the Heavenly Pillar with a thunderous roar.

The entire Mortal Heart Realm trembled violently.

The six mythic figures reappeared, only to vanish within three breaths, as if they had never existed.

As powerful as myths were, in this tragic story, they had only a brief moment on stage, barely a footnote in the grand narrative.

It took a full hundred breaths for the area to finally calm down.

Qi Yuan looked at the devastated land and muttered, "I should have known it would end in tragedy. Maybe I shouldn’t have watched."

To be honest, Qi Yuan felt a twinge of regret, but also a sense of fulfillment.

He took one last look at the terrifying figure within the Heavenly Pillar, then glanced at the glow of the Lost Glow Stick.

"The time is almost up. It’s time… to go back."

The Foodless Holy Mother had long since perished. Qi Yuan had come to witness her end, nothing more.

…

Near the entrance of the Ancestral Land, a burly man was humming a tune, looking smug. "I think I must have had the biggest haul this time, right?"

This time, the burly man had stumbled upon several fortuitous encounters, opening three divine apertures in total. Such a harvest could easily be considered significant, even among those who had ventured into the Ancestral Land before.

"Are they still inside? If they knew how much I gained, they’d be so envious!" The burly man thought to himself, waiting expectantly. However, a sense of unease grew as he noticed the somewhat hostile gazes from the three Great Venerables nearby.

As time passed, about an hour later, more commotion came from within the Ancestral Land.

The three Great Venerables perked up immediately, their spirits lifting as they eagerly looked toward the source of the disturbance.

"I hope it's Origin Heavenly Venerable!"

"It better be him!"

"Don’t let it be…," one of the Great Venerables began, casting a sidelong glance at the burly man.

The burly man, too, was filled with anticipation. He didn't care who emerged as long as he could show off his accomplishments.

Soon, the mist at the entrance of the Ancestral Land parted, and a group of twenty-one people appeared.

These twenty-one individuals all wore expressions of joy and satisfaction.

The burly man, who had been ready to boast, suddenly froze.

Because… he realized he couldn't discern the strength of any of these twenty-one people.

Even the ordinary villagers, who had previously been mere mortals, now seemed unfathomable to him.

Those ancient gods whose cultivation levels had been lower than his own now felt completely out of reach.

What had happened?

"Origin Heavenly Venerable!"

"Is that really you?"

"You finally came out!" The three Great Venerables immediately turned their attention to Qi Yuan, their gazes filled with genuine relief and excitement.

"Who are you?" Qi Yuan asked, surprised.

"I am the master of the White Dawn Venerable and a friend of Thunderbolt Great Venerable. He asked me to look out for you," replied the Lishan Great Venerable quickly.

"Oh, I see. I didn’t expect Old Man Thunderbolt to be so considerate." Qi Yuan nodded, thinking about whether Thunderbolt Great Venerable had finished off all the pigs back at the village.

At that moment, the Lishan Great Venerable’s eyes fell on Zhu Zhuangshi and the other villagers, his pupils narrowing in shock. "Did you give them your Divine Visualization Techniques?"

"Yes," Qi Yuan answered nonchalantly.

"Did you give them… the ones you just visualized?" Lishan Great Venerable’s voice trembled slightly.

"Yeah. There were eight villagers, and I visualized eight techniques, so I gave them one each," Qi Yuan replied casually.

Lishan Great Venerable felt a deep pang of sorrow. Those were Divine Visualization Techniques at the mythic level… and they were just given away so easily?

Zhu Zhuangshi, sensing his rising power, couldn’t help but feel a bit cocky. "What’s the matter? Don’t you think Old Zhu is worthy of a Divine Visualization Technique?"

Now that he had ascended to Step Two of the Heaven-Treading realm and had used the serum to awaken his Divine Domain Seed, his power was growing every moment. He felt infinitely strong.

He even believed that dealing with the Great Black Dog would no longer require a finger—just a strand of hair would suffice.

Even in front of Lishan Great Venerable, he felt no fear.

Lishan Great Venerable looked at Zhu Zhuangshi, his thoughts racing. The techniques have already been used… There’s no turning back.

After a moment, Lishan Great Venerable noticed something unusual. His pupils contracted sharply. "Divine Domain Seed… How is this possible? You… no, all of you, how did you all awaken Divine Domain Seeds!"

Lishan Great Venerable was deeply shaken.

The ancient gods before him seemed to have only recently awakened their Divine Domain Seeds, which were still unstable, allowing a wisp of energy to leak out that he had detected.

"They were underdeveloped and took some oral fluid, so they grew stronger," Qi Yuan explained offhandedly.

"Oral fluid?" Lishan Great Venerable was puzzled.

The ancient god Wangsong spoke up, "The Lord refers to the Divine Realm Elixir. Hehe, following the Lord this time, we really struck gold in the Ancestral Land."

Upon hearing "Divine Realm Elixir," the burly man’s eyes turned red with envy.

Opening three divine apertures was impressive, but it paled compared to awakening a Divine Domain Seed!

How had all these people awakened Divine Domain Seeds?

It wasn’t fair! He was consumed with jealousy and resentment!

Lishan Great Venerable was also stunned, but soon a smile appeared on his face.

This meant that the ancient gods now had several more combatants who were comparable to Great Venerables. And among them, eight had mythic-level Divine Visualization Techniques.

The future looked promising.

"We need to head back through the teleportation array. Farewell, everyone." Qi Yuan, uninterested in further conversation, casually waved his hand.

Only then did Lishan Great Venerable remember his original purpose. He quickly called out, "Origin Heavenly Venerable, please wait!"

We can’t let him go back just yet!