Nowadays, he is nearly without desires, holding on to just two remaining thoughts: one is to return to Jiu Province, and the other is to uncover the mystery of the Long Life Lock.
If he were to be seen by the heavenly eye that can trace the past, how far back could it go?
Is it the last time he died in the Return Ruins? Or thousands of years ago when he was still a boy? Or even further back, to a time before he crossed over into this life?
The Heavenly Emperor’s daughter holds a special status; there are few who can compare to her among all the realms.
Since she is the Empress Reincarnation, perhaps she can help reveal some secrets about the Long Life Lock…
Qiao Mu’s tone was unexpectedly serious.
However, Lingling Taoist Priest next to him looked unhappy.
"No," Lingling Taoist Priest instinctively tried to refuse for her apprentice.
Lingling Taoist Priest has interacted with members of the famous Qiao family from Jiu Province several times.
There were indeed many strange and unbelievable things about the Qiao family member, like teleportation that happens once in a lifetime and an endless cycle of death…From Lingling Taoist Priest’s perspective, such a mysterious Qiao family member surely has a big secret; they are not an ordinary family.
Moreover… she remembered that many years ago, Qiao Canxue, while in Zhong Province, had looked into the eyes of a Qiao family member named Qiao Shui, only to be shocked and harmed.
"Although the master said that Shuangxue is the Empress Reincarnation, she is not truly the daughter of the Heavenly Emperor, and her abilities are worlds apart from those of the True Immortal daughter of the Heavenly Emperor. If one rashly looks, it is likely to be—-"
But at that moment, Qiao Canxue shook her head, held the plump Taoist priestess’s hand, and slowly yet firmly shook her head:
"Master, I can do it."
She turned her head and closed her eyes, looking at Qiao Mu. Her expression changed, and she took several deep breaths as if preparing herself mentally.
"The ancestor says I am the reincarnation of the Heavenly Emperor’s daughter from the Upper Realm. If this is true, it is indeed a blessing for the snow."
At this moment, Qiao Canxue closed her eyes, but the corners of her mouth lifted slightly as she reminisced:
"When I was young and both my eyes were blind, I once imagined that my eyes were not blind but held mysterious powers."
She said to herself:
"When my heavenly eyes open, both the inhuman and Martial Saint will turn to dust…"
"And Martial Saint died fifty years ago at the hands of a member of the Qiao family."
"As for the inhuman… now there is only one Immortal Gate Soul Predicting Path left. The Inhuman War has reached its final stage."
"But these things are actually not very related to me," Qiao Canxue said with a wry smile.
"My strength is only enough to guard this small part of Qingming Medicine Valley. I couldn’t kill Martial Saint in fifty years, and my usefulness will be limited after another fifty years."
"Why should you underestimate yourself?" Qiao Mu spoke up at this moment.
"Cultivating in the path of immortality takes a very long time. You have broken through to the Soul Changing Stage after over fifty years of practice, which is a speed of cultivation that even unparalleled geniuses cannot match. It is remarkably fast; one can only think that it may be due to a powerful being reincarnating to practice again."
"But that is still not enough," Qiao Canxue said.
"If I really am the Empress Reincarnation, it would indeed be an extraordinary fortune," she said with a smile.
"The immortal realm is too far away for us human cultivators, and we lack understanding of it. The Daughter of the Heavenly Emperor must be a great figure beyond my imagination."
"Since such a great figure has reincarnated as me, there must be some kind of scheme, and I am simply useful."
She paused and continued.
"If this Jiu Province has reached its end, I do not wish to be a useless person."
The words stopped here.
Qiao Canxue, ignoring Lingling Taoist Priest’s attempts to stop her, suddenly opened her tightly closed eyes.
Her eyes were filled with a blinding white light, like a white storm raging inside her, but it lasted only a moment before her eyelids began to twitch.
What she saw with those eyes was not the living beings of this world, but a distant past. When she was young, Qiao Canxue had no control; now, it was different.
In her eyes, time flowed backward like the Sky Piercing River, rolling up toward the sky, and from Qiao Mu, she saw a shadowy figure faintly hovering above him.
The enormous shadow was a large snake, difficult to see, quietly suspended in an unusual position, with its head and tail connected.
Qiao Canxue wanted to open her eyes to see clearly, but soon an uncontrollable sensation of tears rushed in, and blood flowed from her eyes, causing a strong stimulus that made her instinctively close her eyes tightly, unable to open them again.
"What do you see?" Immortal Diyuan’s eyes widened slightly.
The events happening before her, even for a flying True Immortal like her, were hard to understand.
The daughter of the Heavenly Emperor is extraordinary; even if she has not awakened her past wisdom and lacks full divine powers, she is still remarkable.
According to reason, this pair of celestial origins comes from the Daughter of the Heavenly Emperor; it should not lead to such results, even when glimpsing a True Immortal or looking directly at the Heavenly Emperor.
"It can’t possibly be related to the Great Dao Father, can it?" For a moment, Immortal Diyuan could think of only this possibility.
Even the Heavenly Emperor, the ruler of the celestial realm, stands at the same position as all True Immortals in the realm of immortality; the essence of life is no different, and the only difference is the strength of their protective abilities.
Immortal Diyuan has ascended to the celestial realm for thirty thousand years, making her a young junior among True Immortals.
Although she and other True Immortals have reached the ultimate realm of "long life like heaven and earth," their cultivation levels naturally vary.
From this perspective, all True Immortals, including the Heavenly Emperor, exist within the same grand realm, and the differences among them often come from the length of their cultivation time.
The longer one lives, the older they are, and generally, they have greater magical power and master more spells.
If there is a creature in this world that even the Heavenly Emperor’s daughter cannot see, she can only think of…
The Dao Ancestor?
It is said that the Dao Ancestor achieved enlightenment a very long time ago and was the first immortal cultivator to teach the later generations about immortality.
But how long ago is this "very long time ago"? It has long been impossible to verify.
"I saw….." Qiao Canxue said as she caught her breath.
"A ouroboros, a giant snake with its head and tail connected, is coiled around Senior Qiao Huo. Besides that, I could not glimpse any more of the past."
Qiao Canxue’s heart was pounding.
What she saw this time was exactly the same as what she had seen years ago with Qiao Shui.
Does Qiao Huo and Qiao Shui share the same past, the same origin, or…..
Qiao Mu’s gaze also shifted slightly.
This means that his past is hidden by the Ouroboros Long Life Lock, so even the Empress Reincarnation cannot see it.
Or is his past closely tied to the Ouroboros Long Life Lock?
The Ouroboros… Immortal Diyuan’s brows gradually furrowed.
As a True Immortal, her knowledge and experience are quite profound, but in the fairy world, having only ascended for thirty thousand years, she can only be seen as a young junior.
When she reached the demon realm, Immortal Diyuan was defeated by the older Immortal Lord Qingxuan, suffering ninety percent damage to her immortal body, and was forced to use the Immortal Boat.
If we are to say her knowledge and experience are truly remarkable… that may not be entirely true.
"Perhaps… perhaps…" Immortal Diyuan hesitated.
"Maybe I know what this is; I have seen something similar in the drawings by the barbarians," Qiao Canxue suddenly spoke up.
At this moment, even Immortal Diyuan showed a look of surprise.
"Senior Qiao Huo, Earth Origin Ancestor, please follow me."
Qiao Canxue, with her eyes closed, led the way and turned directly into the cave dwelling.
……………………………………….
This cave dwelling is now the training place for the Earth Origin Temple cultivators, located inside a cave in Qingming Medicine Valley.
After passing through the long cave path, suddenly the view opened up, and once they exited the cave, they saw white clouds and a blue sky.
What lay before their eyes was a vast land, with ancient trees reaching the sky and unknown giant beasts roaring in the forest, while the wind howled like crying.
"The Secret Realm Space in the cave? No, this is another big world?" Qiao Mu quickly discerned.
Over the past fifteen years, he had traveled through a thousand realms and had entered many vast worlds, gaining a wealth of experience.
It seems that the location of the Earth Origin Temple was not chosen randomly.
"Indeed, this place is called the Wilderness Realm by the local tribes. The tribes living here seem to be stuck in ancient times and still worship Ancient Gods and Demons."
"In recent months, a corner of the Wilderness Realm overlaps with Jiu Province, and tribes have appeared in places like Zhong Province and Nan Province…"
Qiao Canxue and Lingling Taoist Priest are clearly not visiting the Wilderness Realm for the first time.
The two of them brought Qiao Mu here, clearly not to have an adventurous journey together, and in a blink, a Sky Boat soared up, transforming into a rainbow light weaving across the Wilderness Realm.
"Long before the mystical teachings appeared in Jiu Province, there was a tradition of worshiping primordial deities among the beings of countless worlds."
"Seeing the sun, they worship the Sun God; seeing the moon, they worship the Moon God; when there’s a tsunami, they worship the Sea God… such practices have existed since ancient times."
"The so-called Ancient Gods and Demons can actually be seen as personifications of natural phenomena."
In fact, Qiao Canxue didn’t need to explain all this.
In the demon world where Qiao Mu and Immortal Diyuan once visited, there are similar totem beliefs, and Qiao Mu even found a special case where a tribe uses the pattern of the ouroboros as their totem.
"I found a large tribe of barbarians."
Amid the sounds of conversation, the Sky Boat controlled by Qiao Canxue landed right beside this barbarian tribe.
Whether it is Qiao Canxue or Qiao Mu, everyone among these barbarians who believe in Ancient Gods and Demons is seen as a powerful and almost god-like figure.
With just a small show of power, the whole barbarian tribe believed and knelt down in prayer.
"Now can you explain what’s going on? Surely you didn’t come here to play tricks in front of these primitive barbarians just for fun?"
Qiao Mu urged.
"I think I understand now," Immortal Diyuan said with a sigh, as if realizing something.
"Even the Heavenly Emperor’s daughter, without awakening her past wisdom, is still quite clever."
She turned to look at Qiao Mu.
"Qiao Huo, my friend, you and I once traveled together on the Sky River Immortal Boat, exploring countless worlds. We know that different species and even beings from other worlds have similar myths that have been passed down."
"The flood that destroyed the world, the legend of the Return of Ruins, the god who created heaven and earth… and many more like these."
"This is because all worlds are not isolated; their existence is influenced by the Ancient Gods and Demons…"
"This Wilderness Realm still worships the Ancient Gods and Demons, and we can trace back through the words of the wild people here to the Ancient Gods and Demons that were defeated by the True Immortal…" explained Immortal Diyuan.
Just from the perspective of life, a True Immortal, who has achieved immortal life, can be seen as the ultimate goal of all beings pursuing spiritual growth.
However, there is another type of being, one that is born immortal, living a long life that knows no end, living as long as the heavens and the earth.
They are the greatest enemies of the True Immortals: the Ancient Gods and Demons.
And this is the purpose for Qiao Canxue bringing Qiao Mu and the others to the Wilderness Realm, which overlaps with Jiu Province.
Then, Qiao Canxue made a gesture, and a faint image of an ouroboros appeared in the air before her. She pointed at the ouroboros and directly communicated with the minds of the tribe’s wild people.
It was clear that she was trying to communicate with the wild people, wanting to see if there were any serpent-like gods or demons similar to the ouroboros in their myths.
Soon, Qiao Canxue’s efforts bore fruit.
Among the group of wild people, a person who looked like a priest with a wooden staff excitedly began to dance and started drawing a picture in the mud with his staff.
The image was of a giant serpent, so large it seemed like a mountain, with its massive mouth wide open. Mountains crumbled beneath its huge jaws, and the ocean overturned, being pulled into its mouth.
It looked like the arrival of the end of the world.
"Is it the snake that devours the world? I have indeed heard of similar myths," Qiao Mu nodded.
"The so-called devouring of the world is just a facade," Immortal Diyuan spoke:
"This is a picture drawn by the wild people, of a serpent god they believe in, which is ultimately limited by their understanding."
She sighed and said slowly:
"The so-called Ancient Gods and Demons are actually awakened natural phenomena, transformed by the rules of heaven and earth."
"The sun has a sun god, the moon has a moon god, the sea has a sea god… At the beginning of all worlds, there is the first god who opened the heavens and created the earth, but what about the end of all worlds…"
Immortal Diyuan looked at the giant snake devouring the world depicted on the ground, waved his large sleeves, and a light mist spread out instantly.
This light mist only covered a corner of the picture drawn by the barbarian priest, just the part of the giant snake.
Thus, the image on the ground changed into a scene that Qiao Mu had seen many times before:
Mountains crumbled, oceans rolled back, as if being pulled by an invisible force, gathering into a certain direction.
This was the scene he had witnessed with his own eyes a thousand times during his travels through the many worlds.
It was the destruction of a great world.
"This is the Great Collapse that sweeps through all worlds," Qiao Mu said deeply.
The snake that devours worlds, resembling the ouroboros pattern, is merely a symbol; its mythological origin represents the destruction of a great world.
"Ancient Gods and Demons are living natural phenomena, and the Great Collapse can be seen as one of them."
As the worlds fall into chaos, the future and the past overlap, all spaces combine, and everything from every direction and time comes together in one place. Thus, Return Ruins becomes the direction of evolution for all worlds, the end of all heavens and realms.
"So, does the ouroboros pattern mean a serpent-like demon is devouring all worlds, causing the Great Collapse?" Qiao Mu asked, half understanding.
"No, that’s not it," Qiao Canxue said with her eyes closed at that moment.
"It’s not the great serpent that caused the Great Collapse, but rather… the Great Collapse that created a primal demon representing the end of all worlds."
"You could say it is the Great Collapse itself."
As she said this, Qiao Canxue seemed momentarily stunned, frozen in place, her brow slowly furrowing tighter.
After a long time, she finally made a sound.
"Entropy."
"His name is Entropy."