Chapter 1354: I am Xu, I am Wang

## Chapter 1356: My Surname Is Xu! My Surname Is Wang!

The void was boundless, silent as a tomb.

This was still the Ninth Star Ring. However, now, besides the Upper Desolation, no other Divine Sovereigns remained in the Ninth Star Ring. Where the Black Tower, Giant Beast, Paper Man, and Mother River once stood, there was now only void.

Sensing this, Xu Qing walked through the starry sky, into time, and into the fractured dimensional rifts. Guided by the tattered paper in his palm, he advanced step by step.

With each step, countless worlds shimmered with radiant light. A chilling aura, transforming into boundless frost, materialized bit by bit through space-time as he walked, freezing even the most minute spatial ripples in his wake. His gaze, calm yet containing the black and white power capable of forging billions of stars, pierced through layers of space-time turbulence as he proceeded...

Finally, it fixed upon an extremely obscure coordinate, almost indistinguishable from the void.

“Found it.” Xu Qing's gaze paused, and he spoke softly.

There, lay a mortal world. Within this world, in a town's academy, numerous scrolls were piled up. Xu Qing's gaze, peering through space and time, was fixed on the scroll at the very bottom!

The scroll was ancient, made of common materials, utterly ordinary, devoid of any extraordinary essence, as if it were truly a mundane object, perfectly blended into its background world. Indeed, had Xu Qing not possessed the fragment in his palm, and had his own Nomological authority not been extraordinary, he would have been unable to detect its presence.

“Hidden deep enough, Derozi.” Xu Qing's voice was low and devoid of emotion. He took a step, and his figure directly tore through myriad worlds, instantly descending into that particular world. He appeared in the academy, standing before the scroll.

The moment he appeared, he didn't hesitate in the slightest. He spread the five fingers of his right hand and seized the scroll! This grasp was not a common physical contact; rather, it directly acted upon the scroll's embedded concept of a “realm”!

The instant his hand fell, a terrifying roar, as if the very membrane of heaven and earth had been violently torn, thundered forth, echoing throughout the world. It shook the heavens and earth, causing all beings and things in this world to lose their senses and fall into a daze at that very moment. The scroll floated up and suddenly unfurled!

It revealed a painting! Within the painting, stretched an endless expanse of immortal palaces, with carved beams and painted pillars! Jade towers and exquisite pavilions floated above a sea of clouds, bathed in a myriad of glorious lights and auspicious energies. Cranes soared, and divine maidens danced gracefully.

A scene of ultimate bliss. However, this magnificent scene seemed veiled, shrouded in an oppressive, unyielding deathly gray. Under the influence of this color, all other hues appeared eerily dim, as if washed away by time. The cranes within had hollow eyes, and the divine maidens' dance was stiff like marionettes, emanating a suffocating sense of falsehood and stillness.

The entire world within the painting seemed permeated by a meticulously embellished, yet deeply rooted, aura of decay.

And at the center of that painted world, above the solidified, resplendent sea of clouds, sat a colossal figure!

It was a paper man! It was Derozi! No longer a thin sheet of paper, it was now adorned in an opulent, intricate, yet equally lifeless imperial robe, wearing a beaded crown, like an inflated, grotesque, and terrifying emperor. Countless translucent threads of fate, fine as gossamer, extended from every living being, every piece of rubble, and every wisp of cloud and mist within the painting, densely connecting to it, as if providing sustenance.

Almost the instant Xu Qing's gaze fell upon it, the colossal paper man abruptly opened its eyes. Its eyes gleamed with crimson light, meeting Xu Qing's gaze across the painting!

“Xu Qing!” Derozi's expression darkened, and its mind was profoundly shaken. It knew its karmic connection with Xu Qing, but according to its omniscience, it did not believe Xu Qing could find it. Its concealment was such that, unless the Upper Desolation truly awakened, it was confident no one could detect it! Even if a piece of its paper form remained outside, it held no meaning; all of its avatars had long since severed their karmic ties with the main body.

“Something is wrong!” Derozi's mind churned, and what unsettled it was its current state. This was the most disadvantageous moment! Given enough time, it was confident it could restore its Divine Sovereign status, and having acquired the memories of the Divine Umbilical Cord, it felt much more confident about its future path involving the Divine Umbilical Cord. But... everything went awry the instant Xu Qing found it!

“As expected, your divine status has fallen, and you are no longer a Divine Sovereign.” As Derozi's expression changed, Xu Qing slowly spoke and stepped into the painting.

The moment he entered, this false, magnificent world shook violently, like a stagnant mirror-like surface struck by a massive stone! The deathly gray light membrane violently rippled, attempting to repel Xu Qing. Countless stiff divine maidens, cranes, and spirit beasts, like activated clockwork puppets, attacked Xu Qing overwhelmingly with their rigid, eerie smiles!

They were not physical entities, but curses and resentments formed by the painting's rules; touching them would erode the divine soul and pollute the origin.

Xu Qing was expressionless. His Nomological dimension, transforming into black and white threads, instantly encircled his body and spread outwards in layers. Like a world-ending tide, it swept in all directions. Where it passed, the attacking puppets from the painting were torn apart like paper in a gale, shattering into pieces before they could even scream!

The deathly gray light membrane emitted a soul-piercing wail under the black and white storm, violently twisting and deforming. It was forcibly colored, causing the entire painted world's hues to rapidly fade! Xu Qing ignored all obstacles. With one step, he crossed the solidified sea of clouds, appearing directly before the swollen paper emperor, Derozi. He raised his right hand and delivered a punch!

A storm of black and white swirled around him, carrying an irresistible destructive force, hurtling towards Derozi's swollen, distorted chest, clad in its imperial robe! Where the storm reached, space was no longer merely shattered but conceptually annihilated! Time, color, form, rules... all elements comprising this false world within the painting disintegrated and returned to void under this storm!

Then, it violently struck Derozi's paper-thin imperial robe! There was no earth-shattering explosion, only an annihilation that brought all things to stillness! Centered on Xu Qing's fist, Derozi's swollen emperor's body collapsed explosively from within, like a sandcastle sucked into a black hole!

The opulent imperial robe crumbled to dust inch by inch, the beaded crown shattered into nothingness, and the divine might that filled it instantly dissipated. Its body fragmented into countless pieces, transforming into innumerable paper money that sprayed backward.

However, its counterattack simultaneously manifested. The innumerable paper money fragments of its body, scattering just moments ago, abruptly converged, forming a gigantic paper head that lunged at Xu Qing with its mouth wide open, attempting to devour him. Furthermore, countless threads of fate emanated from this paper head, forming a long river of destiny that coiled around Xu Qing. The power of a Divine Lord at its peak erupted at this moment.

But Xu Qing remained expressionless. His raised fist did not drop, and behind him, the void rippled, as a second version of him emerged from the nothingness. After devouring the Primordial Mother Star, Xu Qing's cultivation had reached the peak of the Divine Lord realm, and... he now possessed two main bodies!

Like twin stars! The second body, from the Black Star, suddenly manifested at this moment and also delivered a punch!

It abruptly collided with the approaching paper head. A fluctuation capable of destroying everything surged forth with overwhelming power at that instant!

Booming sounds, laden with destructive force, swept across all directions. The entire world within the painting abruptly collapsed. Immortal palaces and jade pavilions disintegrated into grayish-white powder, drifting away. The solidified sea of clouds evaporated, and the stiff divine maidens and cranes peeled off like fading frescoes. The stagnant splendor completely transformed into a rapidly expanding, empty void.

As for Derozi, its body trembled and disintegrated once more, turning into paper money that reeled back. As for the billions of threads of fate coiled around Xu Qing, they too, under this punch, snapped and dispersed like a destroyed spiderweb.

Next, White Star Xu Qing took over from Black Star, taking another step, and his right fist, without hesitation, plunged down once more!

But just then, an anomaly suddenly occurred! The instant this painted world completely collapsed, it formed a drop of incredibly dense, inky black ink, imbued with extreme decay and malevolence! This ink did not attack Xu Qing; instead, as if alive, it instantly enveloped one of Derozi's scattered paper fragments! Taking advantage of the last chaotic fissure created by the painted world's complete annihilation and the collapse of its rules, it abruptly pierced through the void and vanished, using an arcane escape technique that burned its essence and disregarded all cost!

Its speed surpassed perception! Xu Qing's punch missed. He narrowed his eyes, standing on the remnants of the painted realm, which had completely turned to void. His gaze was icy as he looked in the direction where the drop of ink vanished. Only an extremely faint trail remained there, mixed with the stench of decaying pulp and venomous ink.

Then, he slowly retracted his fist. However, the murderous intent in his pupils became even more concentrated and profound.

“How far can you escape?” Xu Qing spoke calmly, his voice echoing in the void, cold and bone-chilling. Then, he took a step forward, directly stepping out of the annihilated remnants of the painted realm. His figure merged back into the boundless void, silently pursuing that faint wisp of decaying malevolence, which was almost dissipated but firmly locked onto by him.

This pursuit was like a maggot gnawing at bone, relentless and endless. Time became meaningless in this hunt and pursuit between Xu Qing and Derozi. Both Xu Qing and Derozi could traverse time, entering different planes at different periods, and not just ascending... Descending was no different.

In the end, as Xu Qing repeatedly caught up and attacked, Derozi, amidst this extreme peril, chose to divide itself! It split into millions, or even more, avatars, entering different times and spaces. This was its method of self-preservation! Each of its nearly countless avatars could become the main body; as long as one survived, it would not perish. And given enough time, any single avatar could restore itself to Divine Sovereign status. Once restored, all other avatars would turn to dust, making it the sole entity.

However, this method had a drawback: while its avatars gained an advantage in quantity and scope, their cultivation realm would be inferior to the main body's. At its current realm, activating this method meant its avatars would no longer be at the Divine Lord level but would fall to the True God realm. Even so, for Derozi, this was its only method of delay now!

In response to this divine art, Xu Qing's counter-method was also division! His Nomological dimension was inherently unified; now, all that was needed was to scatter it once more. However, mirroring the flaw in Derozi's technique, the scattered avatars could not possess the main body's realm; all of them were... Summer Immortals!

Thus, this pursuit was no longer a one-on-one chase across different times and planes, but rather... infinite against infinite!

### The Roaring Nation.

The air was thick with the mixed scent of rust, coal dust, and cheap oil. In the distance, colossal steam pipes, like coiling steel pythons, hissed and belched scalding white steam through the gaps of towering buildings. The deafening clang of gears meshed, forming an incessant, roaring elegy. This was a small world, devoid of cultivators.

At this moment, a figure stood within this world's steel city, in the shadow of a suspended iron bridge. His long black and purple hair seemed utterly out of place amidst the greasy grime of the surroundings. It was Xu Qing.

His gaze pierced through the pervasive steam and gigantic spinning flywheels, settling deep within an enormous difference engine. There, billions of tiny copper gears meshed and rotated frantically, calculating every breath of this steel metropolis. On the edge of one particular gear, a layer of white residue, thin as dust, was meticulously covering it. It spun with exceptional smoothness, possessing a strange, unnatural fluidity that transcended machinery.

Staring at the white residue, a cold glint flashed in Xu Qing's eyes. Like a weightless specter, he silently descended the iron bridge, in a manner invisible to the world's patrolling guards. He landed on the colossal casing of the precise difference engine, his finger lightly brushing the cold, smooth metal surface, corroding a hole just wide enough for one finger to pass through. Then, he took out a drop of black oil formed by his Nomological authority and, with extreme precision, let it drip down through the hole.

“Hiss!” An extremely subtle yet sharp, piercing sound, enough to cut through the roar of steel, emanated from within. The gear covered with white residue abruptly seized! The layer of “dust” covering it violently trembled, attempting to escape. But the black oil, like a maggot gnawing at bone, instantly enveloped and permeated it. The white residue struggled and writhed within the deep blackness, like an insect trapped in resin, continuously being spread through and permeated. The gear's rotation became sluggish and jerky, emitting painful grinding sounds. Finally, the ripples of struggle completely subsided, the gear ceased its rotation, and not a trace of white remained on its surface. Only an extremely faint divine wail, amidst the roar of oil and steam, was utterly annihilated.

Outside, Xu Qing retracted his finger, and the metal around the hole automatically sealed itself as if untouched. He turned and merged into the pervasive steam, leaving behind only the renewed roar of the difference engine.

### At the bottom of the abyss, a silent graveyard.

Absolute darkness and endless seawater enveloped everything. This was an abandoned abyss, located between the ascending and descending paths.

Xu Qing hovered in the bone-chilling seawater, beneath him the decaying wreckage of a colossal ancient ship. Like the submerged skeleton of a giant beast, it lay sleeping on the seabed. Time seemed frozen here; only the faint, cold blue glow emitted by deep-sea creatures occasionally swept past, illuminating the twisted, deformed carved wooden decorations and scattered artifacts within the ship's cabins.

Xu Qing's gaze swept across it, and he entered the wreckage. His target was in the captain's cabin. It was a half-rolled parchment nautical chart, forgotten on the corner of an oak table.

It was yellowed and tattered at the edges, appearing as ancient and still as the shipwreck itself. But in this gloomy cabin, the ink marks on the parchment's surface, representing reefs and navigation routes, eerily writhed like living veins.

The instant Xu Qing's figure approached, the parchment suddenly stopped moving. Then it abruptly melted, as if trying to escape! But it was too late. Xu Qing abruptly raised his right hand and violently flicked it!

An iron skewer shot forth instantly, like a blunt instrument piercing decaying wood, carrying immense force, violently impaling the half-rolled parchment nautical chart and pinning it firmly to the thick oak panel of the cabin wall! A twisted human face formed by ink marks instantly emerged on the paper's surface. Its mouth silently stretched wide to its limit, and the lines forming the face frantically twisted and trembled, revealing extreme pain and terror. Meanwhile, the seawater, imbued with Xu Qing's unique Nomological authority, seeped thread by thread into the parchment's interior through the punctured hole and the corroded crevices of the skewer's tip.

The ink-formed human face began to twitch violently. The ink dots forming islands blurred and spread, and the lines representing navigation routes twisted and broke like waterlogged earthworms. Finally, only a chaotic and foul ink stain remained, slowly spreading in the cold seawater, merging with the eternal darkness.

Xu Qing remained expressionless. He turned and walked out of the silent coffin of a ship, leaving behind only the eternal silence of the deep sea.

### Cloud Sea Immortal Mountain, ethereal spiritual energy.

An isolated peak, suspended above a myriad feet of cloud sea, was perpetually shrouded in an ethereal, mist-like spiritual aura. Immortal cranes cried out clearly, wondrous flowers bloomed, and jade palaces and exquisite pavilions appeared and disappeared amidst the clouds. This was a Pure Daoist Sanctuary, a Grotto-heaven Blessed Land located within the lower star ring, longed for by countless cultivators.

At this moment, beneath the clear sky and amidst the heavenly winds, Xu Qing stood at the peak of the isolated mountain. His black robe flapped in the wind, and his purple hair danced, seemingly poised to shroud the clear sky, utterly out of place with the surrounding immortal aura. Like a demon.

His gaze, cold, pierced through the ethereal clouds and mist below, settling on a Daoist temple within the Grotto-heaven Blessed Land. Deep within that temple, in a secluded cultivation chamber filled with restrictions, three Xuan Tian Protector Talismans were enshrined, glowing with precious light and densely covered in runes. The talismans were neither metal nor jade, faintly emanating spiritual light. In the corner of one of these talismans, an extremely minuscule rune had a faint, almost imperceptible grayish mark along its stroke edges. It was this talisman that Xu Qing was looking at.

“Getting better at hiding, indeed concealed within the rules, indestructible unless by the rules of this realm.” The instant he locked onto it, Xu Qing stepped off the isolated peak. The sea of clouds beneath his feet automatically surged and solidified, supporting him as if he walked on flat ground, instantly traversing space to land outside the tightly shut jade door of the temple's secret chamber. Ignoring the intricate restrictions swirling on the door, he walked straight through it, as if passing through a curtain of water.

Inside the secret chamber, sandalwood incense curled upwards, and spiritual energy was so dense it almost liquefied. Without a moment's hesitation, Xu Qing raised his right index finger. A faint glimmer danced at its tip, tiny as a needlepoint, yet it contained a destructive aura that caused all the spiritual energy in the chamber to become turbulent and recoil. With a flash, it did not attack the talisman itself, but instantly disrupted the invisible spiritual energy field above the chamber, like a stone dropped into a calm lake, stirring the laws that drew lightning.

“Boom-crack!” Without warning! A thick, pillar-like bolt of blazing white lightning tore through the temple's dome, disregarding all defensive restrictions, and with the majestic heavenly might of divine wrath, struck precisely upon the Protector Talisman enshrined at the highest point! More accurately, it struck the rune with the pale, anomalous color.

Time seemed to freeze for an instant. The next moment, the talisman, overflowing with precious light, suddenly erupted in blinding white light! Instantly charred, carbonized, and disintegrated! Countless tiny burning paper fragments, like startled moths of fire, frantically scattered and splattered from the center of the explosion!

In the confined space of the secret chamber, they flew and collided in despair, attempting to escape the destructive thunder-fire of ultimate Yang and rigidity. Within the rising smoke, Derozi's face appeared faintly, howling at Xu Qing in agony and distortion.

“Xu Qing, I curse you!” Xu Qing gazed coldly, watching the face dissipate until all the talisman fragments turned into black ash with sparks, scattering down onto the cold ground. The rich sandalwood incense in the chamber was now completely replaced by the strong smell of scorching, leaving behind only the stillness and wreckage after the thunder-fire.

Xu Qing retracted his finger, and the faint glimmer at its tip extinguished. He didn't even glance at the layer of black ash on the ground, turning to vanish into the distorted air of the secret chamber. Only now did the Daoist temple's alarmed formations surge agitatedly, tearing through the immortal mountain's tranquility.

Annihilation after annihilation, destruction after destruction. Some worlds were turbulent, others calm. But death was their only commonality.

Derozi's division not only failed to buy it time but instead became the culmination of its ultimate fate. This was strongly related to its own most disadvantageous state and profoundly linked to Xu Qing's Nomological authority. To some extent, Xu Qing's Nomological authority was, in fact... the ultimate counter to Derozi's divine authority!

Thus, as three months passed in the real world, in this boundless starry sky, the very last paper fragment, hidden within a desolate minor world, in the cold shadow of a weathered rock, was struck by a black-and-white flame flicked from Xu Qing's finger. As this paper fragment burned, silently curling, charring, and finally turning into a faint wisp of green smoke that utterly dissipated...

Across myriad heavens and worlds, in all dimensions once touched by the paper fragment's white residue, a final, agonizing shriek seemed to echo through the void, a shriek duplicated a million times, originating from the same core soul! This shriek contained the crushing agony from the Roaring Nation, the viscous despair from being pierced in the deep-sea abyss, the terror of annihilation by lightning in the Grotto-heaven Blessed Land... and the myriad forms of pain and horror endured when it was erased in all other worlds!

It transformed into an unimaginable, grand-scale execution by a thousand cuts!

At this moment, Xu Qing stood in the void where the opponent's last avatar was annihilated. Beneath his feet was the inconspicuous desolate rock, and beside him, nine burning purple flame lanterns. These were not formed from his original Divine Sovereign's Eye but were fires of origin tracing, created from Derozi's avatars during the pursuit.

In the firelight, Xu Qing's expression remained utterly unchanged, as if his recent actions were merely flicking off a speck of dust from his clothes. He merely lifted his eyelids slightly, but the icy murderous intent in his bottomless purple pupils had not diminished; instead, it grew even more concentrated.

He clearly “saw” it: at the source of those million overlapping shrieks, deep within the boundless dimensional turbulence... a passage, no longer perfectly hidden due to all avatars being destroyed and its core consciousness suffering devastating damage, now revealed itself!

“Interesting…” Xu Qing murmured. As he raised his hand, the bronze lantern appeared before him, and he took a step forward.

It was a hidden passage. Derozi, utterly weakened and at its limit, had transformed into a colossal face, furiously speeding through this passage. It was afraid. As its realm had fallen, the upheaval brought by life and death made it feel the approach of death.

“There’s still hope!” “This passage was left by me years ago for my schemes concerning Wanggu. Its end leads to the future of the Hou Tu Star Ring. If I can leave from there, I still have a chance to gain enough time!”

Derozi accelerated. At its current True God realm, it reached the end of the passage in an instant. There, was a mirror-like seal. Through the seal, it could see the outside world, where a chubby man with a terrified expression stood.

Ignoring these, a golden glint flashed in Derozi's eyes, and its colossal face abruptly charged towards the mirror-like seal. The moment it drew near, the mirror-like seal seemed unable to withstand the force; it shimmered with light, and numerous cracks immediately appeared. From the other side, one could clearly see a colossal face rapidly bulging from below on the mirror-like seal!

The mirror resembled a membrane, and the bulging face seemed to represent endless malevolence, as if trying to burst out of the seal.

“Hope is right before me!” Within the passage, Derozi roared softly, approaching with full power. To it, this seal was like paper; breaking through was effortless. So, what it needed to prepare for was to condense its power, and at the moment of breakthrough, escape with all its might.

But just as it was about to touch the seal... outside the seal, before the terrified chubby man, a swirling vortex of starlight suddenly appeared. And from within the vortex, a finger made of starlight abruptly extended!

It landed directly on the seal! As it descended, an aura belonging to a Summer Immortal, as if replacing the very will of that world, powerfully descended. It pressed onto the forehead of the face!

Derozi trembled all over, its roar turning into a shriek, its own aura collapsing instantly at that moment. “A Summer Immortal! How can there be a Summer Immortal there precisely now! And this person is no ordinary immortal…” Derozi spat out divine blood, its face instantly shriveled and withered. It tried to struggle, but at its current realm, everything was futile under that finger! After resisting for only three breaths, it was powerfully repelled, halted before the seal.

Just as it was about to gather its momentum and try again, the next instant... a chill that froze its entire being and made its very divine soul tremble approached silently from behind. It became a hand, which... seized its head!

“Found you.” Derozi's divine soul roared, directly assaulted by the Nomological dimension, which enveloped the seal. Xu Qing's figure appeared within the passage.

He held Derozi in one hand, while nine purple flame lanterns floated around his body, and he looked towards the mirror-like seal Derozi had just tried to breach. The cracks on this mirror-like seal were visibly healing under the power of the starlight from outside. Watching this mirror-like seal, Xu Qing narrowed his eyes and walked forward.

As he approached, the mirror-like seal trembled violently, stirring intense fluctuations, as if Xu Qing's mere slow approach had pushed the seal to its absolute limit. Outside the seal, the finger extending from the vortex was slowly dissipating, as if everything was about to conclude.

But the next instant, the starlight within the vortex suddenly paused, and an unprecedented sense of gravity powerfully coalesced within it, subsequently forming a pair of icy eyes.

“Halt!” A faint voice emanated from the vortex, passing into the seal. Hearing this, Xu Qing paused at the edge of the seal, lifting his head to look outside through it. His gaze first swept over the chubby man, then settled on the starlit eyes within the vortex before him.

With that glance, he saw a white-haired cultivator, exuding overwhelming murderous intent from his entire being, whose cultivation had reached the Summer Immortal realm! “Interesting. I pursued Derozi for three months, slaying millions of its avatars, yet I never imagined its main body had set up a passage to an outer domain here, at some unknown point!” “Even more interesting, here... I actually encountered a fellow Daoist who feels like a kindred spirit to me!”

Xu Qing spoke calmly, then turned around, carrying Derozi in his hand, and walked away step by step. He did not force his way through; that was not his world. However, after a few steps, his voice carried out.

“My surname is Xu.”

“My surname is Wang.” From the mirror-like seal, a voice came from outside.