novelraw Chapter 302 : Born for You
Chapter 302 : Born for You
When Chu Sang woke up, she found herself back in her room at the sect. She half propped herself up, rubbing her head with some frustration. The stabbing pain in her mind had disappeared, as if it had never happened.
Master was sitting by the bed, staring at her intently.
She felt uneasy under that gaze. Clearing her dry throat, she managed to squeeze out a word, "...Master?"
"Finally awake, are you?" Master glared at her. "You little one, do you know you almost lost your life? The cause of death would have been—death by divine soul explosion?"
Chu Sang's previously hazy mind suddenly became alert. Death by divine soul explosion? So that unbearable, piercing pain that suddenly appeared in her sea of consciousness was because her divine soul was about to reach the brink of collapse, about to explode!
The death of a cultivator's physical body generally falls into two categories. Lower realm cultivators may, by chance, become ghost cultivators after death. For higher realm cultivators, as long as their Nascent Soul or Primordial Spirit isn't destroyed after physical death, they have a chance to find another host and seize a physical body to be reborn. But besides these two situations, there's actually a third—the annihilation of the divine soul.
For cultivators, the annihilation of the divine soul is true death, completely disappearing from the world.
Even Chu Sang couldn't help but feel afraid as she looked down at her hands. In the face of true divine power, her strength was far too small. Her divine soul, which she had always arrogantly believed to be superior to others, was so easily on the verge of being extinguished.
Seeing her cowed appearance, Master chuckled lightly, leaning back slightly, with a half-smile, "Don't worry, it's fine now. I've already stabilized your divine soul... I must say, your divine soul's recovery power is quite strong. Even if I hadn't arrived in time, you probably wouldn't have actually died."
Chu Sang thought for a moment and then asked, "Master, I have something I want to ask you. If an Upper God truly descends to the Spirit Abyss Continent, do we really have no way to resist? Or in other words, is the lower realm truly unable to resist divine power?"
She actually wanted to directly ask about the special nature of her blood, but after some thought, she swallowed those words. She believed in her master and trusted her character, but it was still better for fewer people to know about this. She changed to a more tactful way of asking.
"Your question hits the mark. Let me think about how to answer you."
Master was silent for a moment, but didn't directly answer this question. Instead, she changed the subject, "By now, you should be clear that the upper realm's covetousness of this continent isn't just once or twice. It can be said that over ten thousand years, they have never given up on invading this continent. Yet in all this time, they've actually only succeeded twice... No, more accurately, once, which was the great battle ten thousand years ago."
"Compared to the current mere descent of time-space cracks, the battle ten thousand years ago could truly be called devastating. That was a true descent of gods... To put it bluntly, at that time, the Spirit Abyss Continent was truly only one step away from complete destruction."
Only one step away meant it wasn't truly destroyed. Otherwise, the two of them wouldn't have the chance to sit here alive and talk.
Master knew what she wanted to ask and brought the topic back around, "As you imagine, ten thousand years ago, the Spirit Abyss Continent faced the same calamity, but ultimately turned danger into safety. Do you want to know why?"
"What was the method?" She sat up straight and asked directly.
"It's a long story, and I can't explain it clearly in a short time. You'll probably have to find out for yourself."
"What should I do?"
The faint smile usually on Master's face disappeared, replaced by solemnity. She gazed at her silently, for a moment almost seeming like a different person.
She hesitated, then just sighed, extending a finger to touch her body.
A faint light quickly flashed over her body. Four bright points surrounded her. As the light faded, they transformed into four fragments... Were these the four map fragments she had collected?
What were these things?
Why did Master specifically take them out?
"Do you know what these are?" Master asked.
"I'm not sure." Chu Sang shook her head honestly. She truly didn't know. When she obtained the first map fragment years ago, she had searched in the archive pavilion but found no related information. Later, she just treated it as a fragment of some hidden secret realm scroll map, thinking that after collecting them all, perhaps they could be pieced together into a complete scroll to read, opening a treasure secret realm or something. Beyond that, she hadn't thought much about it.
"This is no ordinary scroll map, nor is it some treasure map." Master shook her head. "This is a time-space fragment."
Time-space fragment?
That was a new term.
Master stood up and looked at her, explaining unhurriedly, "Actually, the historical records of the cultivation world are not entirely true. To be precise, the Spirit Abyss Continent ten thousand years ago didn't truly overcome that crisis."
"The continent was already destroyed once."
"Huh?"
She was stunned.
The continent was destroyed? Then what was the situation with the current Spirit Abyss Continent?
This really left her at a loss.
"Back then... I was there too." Master explained in a low voice. "I saw with my own eyes the plates of the Spirit Abyss Continent crumbling piece by piece, countless living beings perishing, the entire world falling apart, heading towards irreversible destruction. As for later... a new turning point appeared."
She paused, then continued, "To put it in a way you might understand more easily, after this continent was destroyed, it was reshaped by another power. It can also be seen as a reversal of time and space, returning the shattered Spirit Abyss Continent to its state before it broke apart. The people reborn won't have memories of the continent's destruction. As for why I know about this? I know what you want to ask, but that's this master's secret, which I can't tell you. You can understand me as an uncontrolled outsider, the only person in this world who knows the truth that the Spirit Abyss Continent was once destroyed."
"And the shattered Spirit Abyss Continent didn't completely disappear. The fragments in your hand are its pieces." She said, "Back then, the Spirit Abyss Continent broke into five major fragments. If you can find these five time-space fragments, you can re-enter that world."
"With the end of the great battle ten thousand years ago as the dividing line, the shattered Spirit Abyss Continent and the Spirit Abyss Continent we live in now are already two different branches. Everything you experience in that Spirit Abyss Continent won't affect the current Spirit Abyss Continent. It can be seen as two parallel worlds that are the same yet different."
"If you can gather all the time-space fragments and enter that world, perhaps you can find the truth about saving the Spirit Abyss Continent and find a way for the Spirit Abyss Continent to survive."
"But... why me?"
Chu Sang frowned, the confusion in her heart growing. She had a feeling of being imperceptibly pushed by some profound force.
The time fragments didn't come to her through intentional seeking; they somehow ended up in her hands without her realizing.
Rather than saying she actively sought the time-space fragments, it was more like these time-space fragments found opportunities to gather around her.
She didn't believe it could be such a coincidence.
"Your doubts are not wrong. Indeed, it's not that you accidentally found it, but that it was looking for you."
Master said, "You don't need to deliberately search. These time-space fragments will, within the rules, come before your eyes through various opportunities in any scenario, letting you find them... As for why, perhaps you'll need to enter that world yourself to find the answer."
Well, it seemed Master was also being cryptic. She couldn't get much useful information from her mouth.
It seemed she would only find all the answers after collecting all the time-space fragments and entering the other Spirit Abyss Continent.
She took back the four time-space fragments in her hand and used her divine sense to piece them together. She could clearly see that there was still one piece missing.
"Still missing the last time-space fragment..." She had no idea where to find it. Waiting for the time-space fragment to come to her on its own, who knew how long that would take? It was too uncertain.
Unexpectedly, Master had left her with a big surprise.
Immortal Chanyu opened her palm, and the last time-space fragment was right there in her hand. "It's been with me, which is why you haven't found this piece all along."
After saying this, Master also looked a bit embarrassed as she rubbed her nose. This wasn't her fault. She didn't know her little disciple was actually that "person." If she had known earlier, she would have given it to her long ago.
"When time and space shattered and reshaped back then, I grabbed one of the fragments."
Master raised her hand, and the five fragments combined into one, forming a complete map fragment floating in the air.
The map flashed with a faint light, and the seams disappeared, completely becoming a flawless, intact map.
Chu Sang stepped forward and extended a hand. Her hand easily passed through the paper surface. She could clearly sense that another world seemed to appear behind the wall.
"Sang Sang, I need to warn you of one thing. What's behind the map is not an illusion, but a real, separate Spirit Abyss Continent that was split off. Everything that happened in the cultivation world ten thousand years ago will play out within it. It's an independently existing, real world... If your true self enters, death there means true death. Your physical body and soul will rest eternally in that world, never able to come out again."
"Mm, I understand."
She nodded, without hesitation.
"I'll keep this secret for you. I wish you a safe return." Master's voice gradually lowered. "Something that could harm a god's true body, I've only seen one..."
After her figure completely disappeared into the map, Immortal Chanyu said meaningfully, "It was born for you. Only you can accomplish all this."
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The map indeed concealed another world. Chu Sang arrived in the legendary Spirit Abyss Continent of ten thousand years ago. Looking at the endless flow of people on the streets of the town, she felt slightly dazed. Her first thought was that the spiritual energy here was incredibly dense. Just from the spiritual energy alone, she knew this was definitely not the cultivation world she came from.
The Divine Surge Period of ten thousand years ago truly lived up to its name.
The buildings in the city and the clothing of the people on the streets weren't much different from the cultivation world ten thousand years later.
The only change was in the cultivation levels of the passersby.
In the Spirit Abyss Continent ten thousand years later, most were ordinary people, with cultivators being only a small portion. But here, every seemingly ordinary person on the street was a cultivator. If you randomly grabbed a cultivator, their cultivation level would basically be above the Golden Core stage, with even Nascent Soul and Divine Transformation stages being common.
The legend that Divine Transformation and Unity stages were everywhere during the Divine Fall Period was no joke.
The spiritual energy in the Spirit Abyss Continent ten thousand years later was scarce. Advancing to Divine Transformation required extremely high talent and great effort from cultivators. But ten thousand years ago, anyone with a bit of spirit root talent could casually cultivate to Divine Transformation. It was really enviable and jealousy-inducing. She couldn't help but imagine how nice it would be if she could cultivate to the Tribulation Transcendence stage in this place.
With her Celestial Spirit Root, ascending wouldn't it be a piece of cake!
Envy aside.
The principle that extreme prosperity leads to decline proved that this flourishing scene was but a fleeting moment, coming quickly and going just as fast. The cultivators in the city were completely unaware that a great calamity was quietly brewing. Soon, the great tribulation would arrive.
But since she was here, she couldn't leave empty-handed. Opportunities couldn't be missed. In the cultivation world, she had never seen such good spiritual energy, inexhaustible and limitless. It would be too wasteful not to use it.
Chu Sang didn't know how long she would stay in this world, but for every day... no, every minute! Every second! She would uphold the principle of not wasting a single moment, doing her utmost to take as much as she could.
Chu Sang didn't linger in the city. She found an empty, uninhabited mountaintop, planning to go into seclusion for a few years.
Unfortunately, Heaven didn't give her the chance to be a glutton. Just a few days into her seclusion, she heard the sound of fighting not far outside her cave. She rushed over and found a group of cultivators chasing and trying to kill a little girl.
Judging by their attire, these people should belong to some organization, looking a bit like evil cultivators or an assassin organization.
At a glance, this group of people were all at the Divine Transformation and Unity stages. The Divine Transformation and Unity cultivators in this world really were as common as dirt. Chu Sang wiped away a tear of envy, having run out of words to express her jealousy. But what was strangest was that the person this group was chasing and trying to kill was just an ordinary-looking little girl, only at the Qi Condensation stage.
A group of assassins chasing and trying to kill a Qi Condensation stage little girl?
Wasn't this scene a bit too absurd?
How utterly unconscionable!
Seeing injustice on the road, she couldn't stand idly by. Chu Sang couldn't help but intervene, beating down all these assassins.
She could rampage among those of the same realm, single-handedly taking on dozens of people without issue. Dealing with this group didn't take much effort. She rescued the little girl.
The little girl was covered in dirt, her whole body filthy, and her clothes unrecognizable from their original state. Chu Sang wanted to step forward and extend her hand to pull her up.
The little girl was quite cautious, shrinking back slightly, raising her head to look at her, her eyes still filled with fear that hadn't yet faded.
"Don't worry, I won't harm you." Chu Sang shrugged. "If I were really in cahoots with those people just now, there'd be no need to waste effort saving you. If I really wanted to do something to you, do you think you'd have the strength to resist?"
The little girl didn't speak, lowering her head to timidly stare at her toes.
Chu Sang crouched down to be at eye level with her, extremely curious. "By the way, why were those people trying to kill you?"
The little girl was just at the Qi Condensation stage. A group of Divine Transformation and Unity stage cultivators chasing and trying to kill a little girl at Qi Condensation stage was absurd and ridiculous. If it wasn't because this little girl had something they wanted, she couldn't believe these people would go to such lengths.
However, to the little girl, she was just a stranger, at most a stranger who had saved her life, not enough to make her let down all her guard. Seeing that the other party remained silent like a little mute, Chu Sang sighed and stood up again, no longer asking questions. She extended her hand to her, "Forget it, let's just say I rarely did a good deed today. I'll help you to the end. Do you have somewhere to go? I can take you back."
Leaving a little girl in the wilderness would be too dangerous. She could take her to a safe place.