Quinn Shepherd himself didn’t know how he managed to cast the Great Brahma King Buddha’s Boundless Tribulation Sutra; he simply felt the method was in his mind, and at that moment, he wanted nothing more than to sleep.
As he drifted into sleep, he instinctively performed the Boundless Tribulation Sutra.
In his dream, he saw a bubble-world—a world that opened up within the dream, the bubbles growing and gradually merging with the ruins of the Drakebar Dragon Kingdom.
Inside this bubble-world, countless versions of himself sprouted up like weeds and ran amok in every direction.
It was a bizarre dream—each version of himself seemed to be an independent entity, yet all were connected to his own sight. Even his sleep-talk became the language spoken by these tiny Quinn Shepherds.
His muttered words in the dream were nonsensical—even the little Quinn Shepherds struggled to understand one another. Eventually, he decided to use the simplest language for them to communicate, so the Mahā language of the drakes became their shared tongue.
It was a dream of wild revelry. Amidst the great dream, Quinn Shepherd scoured the Drakebar Dragon Kingdom and finally found the clues left by the founding master. Only then did he awaken, yawn, and stretch.
The bubble-world collapsed and vanished with his awakening, as if the end of the world; all those tiny versions of himself disappeared without a trace.
The Boundless Tribulation Sutra of the Great Brahma King Buddha possessed unfathomable powers—this dream-world was but one of its wonders. There were other wondrous cultivation techniques, but Quinn Shepherd had no idea how to train in them or use them; everything seemed to happen naturally.
He set aside his confusion about the Boundless Tribulation Sutra and went to the ruins he’d discovered.
Dragon-Qilin and Annie followed him there, and saw Quinn Shepherd standing atop an observatory in the Drakebar Dragon Kingdom. The armillary sphere and other divine instruments on the platform were shattered, leaving only wreckage.
Quinn Shepherd lowered his head to examine the star-marks on the ground, then took out a calculation spirit-tool and performed calculations with a crackling noise.
Annie wasn’t skilled in numerology. After watching for a while and failing to understand, she asked curiously, “Young Master, what are you calculating?”
Dragon-Qilin replied, “This is a puzzle left by the founding master of the Heavenly Saint Cult. Every time, our senior brother would use numerology to pose a challenge for the Cult Master to solve. Once solved, it would reveal his clues. The brothers often communicated in this language of numerology.”
Annie exclaimed in surprise, “Numerology is a language too?”
“To a master of numerology, it certainly is,” Dragon-Qilin said.
Dragon-Qilin continued, “People always say the Daoist sects are the greatest in numerology, but they overlook our Heavenly Saint Cult. Back then, I followed the founding master in studying numerology, and gained some skill. Our cult’s teleportation divine arts, transmission arrays, star-constellation formations, and arts of creation—all are based on numerology. The founding master was a numerology expert, the Woodcutter Sage was a grandmaster, and even his mount, Senior Brother Tiger-Respect, was an adept. In the Daoist sects, he’d be ranked among the top experts.”
Annie rewarded him with a spirit pill and praised, “Fat Dragon, you sure know a lot!”
Quinn Shepherd solved the puzzle left by the founding master and paced around the observatory, muttering to himself, “He left behind spatial dimension data, but to pinpoint a spatial dimension, you need a center. If we take the observatory as the center…”
His expression turned odd; suddenly, arms sprouted from under his armpits and began calculating with nimble fingers.
“This spatial dimension isn’t in the same realm as the Primordial World!”
Quinn Shepherd’s expression grew stranger. According to the dimensional data Wayne Gale left behind, the Guixu was indeed not part of the Primordial World—it belonged to another realm entirely.
This kind of dimensional structure is just like Youdu in relation to the Primordial World.
Youdu overlaps with the Primordial World and with all heavens and myriad worlds, yet it exists on a different dimensional plane.
Guixu is the same.
“It’s very difficult to enter this dimension using only teleportation divine arts.”
Quinn immediately inscribed runes on the observatory platform. To enter the dimension Wayne Gale marked, only a star-grade teleportation array might succeed.
Dragon-Qilin helped as well. After two days, they finally constructed the teleportation array.
Annie transformed into a blue sparrow and perched on Quinn Shepherd’s shoulder. Dragon-Qilin moved to the center of the observatory. Quinn activated the array; beams of teleportation light shot into the sky. When the light faded, they had vanished from the Drakebar Dragon Kingdom!
When Quinn Shepherd’s feet touched solid ground, he found himself surrounded by dim, shadowy light. The sky overhead was filled with low-hanging planets, each riddled with gaping holes. Around the broken edges, many fragments drifted quietly, suspended in the air.
Beneath their feet stretched a pitch-black ring of mountains, and beside them stood a cluster of resplendent golden palaces. Beyond the ring, an endless sea of darkness spread in all directions.
At the very center of the ring of mountains yawned a bottomless abyss!
The ring of mountains was vast—its circumference unknown. Even if all twenty heavens of Mount Sumeru were moved here, they would not fill the abyss at its center.
This abyss was none other than the Guixu Abyss itself!
The Celestial River begins in the Heavenly Court and ends at Guixu.
Yet Quinn Shepherd saw no trace of the Celestial River flowing here. Looking up, he could just make out the faint channel it once carved across the sky.
That channel was a spatial scar pressed into existence by the weight of the Celestial River itself.
But the Celestial River had been severed.
At the end of the Supreme Sovereign Era, Ling Heavenly Venerable performed a divine art in the Supreme Sovereign Heavenly Court of Yuandu, cutting off the Celestial River. She replaced its substance with herself, unleashing a heaven-shaking art that pierced through past, present, and future.
From that moment, the Celestial River no longer flowed to Guixu, but instead poured into the Eastern Sea.
When the Primordial World was sealed, the Celestial River became the Yongjiang.
With the Celestial River severed, it no longer fed Guixu. The shattered planets overhead must have once orbited the Celestial River, but a great battle left many of them broken.
Quinn and his companions stood before the Guixu Side Palace, peering into the abyss. Instantly, their heads spun and their souls seemed drawn toward its depths—they quickly looked away.
“This is the place marked on Senior Brother’s geography map.”
Quinn retrieved a rolled-up map from his gluttonous pouch, spread it out, and examined it closely. Long ago, Wayne Gale had drawn this Guixu map with star-sand outside the Star Canyon by the Ark of the Other Shore.
Twenty thousand years ago, he had come to Guixu to explore ancient secrets, seeking to achieve the Threefold Path to Sainthood. Here, he’d witnessed a miraculous event: the Celestial River flowing again.
Though the Celestial River had been severed, when Wayne Gale arrived it suddenly reappeared—mighty waters cascading from the sky, pouring into Guixu through the dried channel.
Strangely, a mist surged from the Celestial River and swept Wayne Gale into its depths. Within the mist, he encountered Ling Heavenly Venerable. When he finally escaped, he found himself back in the Dragon-Han Era, swept into that tumultuous age. He became the commander of the Feather-Guard Corps in the Dragon-Han Heavenly Court, leading the Heavenly Emperor’s most powerful army of gods and demons.
Quinn studied the geography map carefully.
On the ghost ship, Wayne Gale had kept a notebook that also contained a map of Guixu’s routes. However, it differed from the map in Quinn’s hands—clearly drawn at a different time.
Still, the general layout of Guixu remained unchanged.
“Senior Brother’s legacy is hidden somewhere within Guixu.”
Quinn’s expression grew odd. He glanced from the map to the abyss, feeling a bit dizzy.
The map marked Wayne Gale’s hiding place as the abyss itself!
“Can we actually enter the abyss?”
He hesitated. The abyss could swallow even the Celestial River, and its strange power seemed able to devour souls. If they were careless, they might die without a trace.
Dragon-Qilin chose a large boulder and tossed it into the abyss. The stone vanished into the darkness—no sound of impact came, even after a long while.
“Do we really have to jump in?”
Quinn frowned and used the Creation Demon Art to seal his soul, locking it deep within his body. That way, the abyss could not draw his soul out.
Just as he was about to leap into the abyss, a rain of meteors fell from the sky—huge stones plummeting down. A shattered planet had somehow drifted over Guixu Abyss and was caught by its gravity, sending fragments tumbling wildly into the depths.
The fragments of those mountain-sized planets streaked through the air in fiery arcs, falling ever faster into the abyss, vanishing one after another.
Even though the planet overhead was already shattered, it remained enormous. Now, the abyss caught hold of it, pulling it across the sky. Unable to escape Guixu’s gravity, it was dragged inexorably downward.
As the broken planet moved, it was crushed and cracked apart, its surface erupting in blazing fires and tens of thousands of volcanic explosions. Soon, the entire surface was transformed into a sea of molten lava!
Then, the planet was torn apart by a terrifying force, stretching longer and thinner—like a cook in Everpeace pulling noodles, the strands grew finer and longer.
Quinn and his companions watched in horror as the planet was stretched into a streak of fire and plunged into the abyss!
Deep within the abyss, the fire suddenly flared bright, then gradually dimmed.
Quinn wiped cold sweat from his brow, his voice hoarse: “Fat Dragon, maybe we can leave through the Celestial River’s channel…”
He hadn’t finished speaking when more firelight began to glow deep within the abyss, growing steadily brighter.
Quinn froze as the light intensified. Suddenly, a deafening crash shook the heavens—the Guixu Abyss erupted!
“Is this a Guixu undertow eruption?”
Quinn’s heart leapt. The entire Guixu Abyss suddenly burst upward with a flood, surging outward at incredible speed—the torrent was so powerful it shattered the sky!
Earlier, they’d seen a glow in Guixu, but the torrent that erupted was pitch-black, without a trace of light!
Guixu Abyss was like the gaping maw of a colossal monster—after devouring a planet, it belched contentedly!
There was no color in the sky. It had always been dim here, but now it was utterly dark—the sea outside Guixu grew blacker, the sky seemed to dissolve under the torrent’s spray, and a rain of ashes began to drift down.
Those black, wispy flakes were like traces left by a sky burned to ashes. They melted away at a touch, vanishing into smoke and mist.
“This isn’t the sky’s ash—it’s the ashes of that planet just now…”
Quinn looked up at the surging black flood, nearly cursing aloud: “This hellhole isn’t fit for humans! Guixu Abyss can so easily refine a planet—who could ever enter it? Senior Brother, you hid your things too well!”
Just then, the torrent gradually slowed, and the firelight rose higher from Guixu—clearly the glow before the eruption.
Quinn stared, the darkness nearly frozen in midair, flowing slowly like a dark Celestial River.
Within the torrent, the light drew closer and closer.
At last, the light appeared before them.
It was a flower—a colossal flower, with two blossoms growing together like twin lotuses. One was cinnabar-red, the other pitch-black, the dark blossom nearly invisible amid the torrent.
Quinn’s heart stirred, and he burst out laughing: “So that’s it! Senior Brother, you’re clever! Now that Guixu is calm, there’s no gravity—we can enter the flower and, through these twin blossoms, reach the abyss and find what he left behind!”
“Cult Master, are you sure you want to go in?” Dragon-Qilin asked, nervous.
Quinn was already stepping into the dark Celestial River, flying toward the twin flowers. Annie perched on his shoulder, calling back, “Fat Dragon, hurry up!”
Dragon-Qilin hesitated, but looking around at the gloom and hearing eerie cries—whether from the undertow grinding against space or some monster ejected from the abyss—he hurried after Quinn into the dark Celestial River.
“Cult Master, what if these two flowers shrink back into the abyss? Wouldn’t we be trapped inside?” he whispered.
Just then, the twin flowers trembled gently—the dark Celestial River began to flow backward!
Quinn shot him a fierce glare and sped toward the twin flowers!
“Fat Dragon, were you a crow in your past life?” Annie asked curiously.