The Existence of the Tree of Epoch, Its Lingering Warmth Burning to the Very Last Moment
The Existence of the Tree of Epoch, Its Lingering Warmth Burning to the Very Last Moment
“So this is the Land of Rebirth deep within Sky Deer City. From the looks of it, someone used great Transcendent power to move it away ahead of time.”
Deep within Sky Deer City, inside a well-hidden stretch of space, the figures of Gu Changge and the Sky Deer Goddess appeared.
However, this place was now completely different from when the Sky Deer Goddess had last come.
The sky was still dim, with little light to be seen, and faintly flickering mist drifted through the air.
As far as the eye could see, there was only a terrifying, bottomless pit stretching out for an unknown distance.
It was even larger than the span of many stars, and in some areas, one could even see deep craters smashed out by the debris of stars.
If she hadn’t sensed that the aura of the world’s laws here was the same as when she had come before, she would have suspected she had come to the wrong place.
After Sky Deer City was breached, the armies stationed at the foot of the mountain marched in and occupied every area. The experts of the various races of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains either fled or surrendered.
After a period of reorganization, Sky Deer City, as the first city of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains occupied by the Beyond, had its territories divided among the various races and Dao Lineages according to their battle merits, and order had now been restored.
At present, the various Dao Lineage forces were already discussing how to proceed with the next stage of conquest.
With Sky Deer City broken, the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains were effectively left with their gates wide open.
Therefore, the various Cults of Immortality and Supreme Dao Lineages were all planning to send troops one after another to attack the races of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains. There was no longer any need for all forces to unite and besiege cities as before.
To the various Dao Lineage forces of the Beyond, the races within the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains were hardly worth concerning themselves over. They only needed to dispatch armies to swiftly crush them.
However, Gu Changge was more interested in the Land of Rebirth deep within Sky Deer City, so he had the Sky Deer Goddess bring him here.
Unfortunately, everything he saw here left him somewhat disappointed.
“A step too late.”
“It seems the Land of Rebirth of Sky Deer City really did hide something. Here, I can actually sense the aura of reincarnation...”
Gu Changge swept his gaze across the distance with great interest, then a divine rainbow appeared beneath his feet as he headed deeper into this place.
This place was vast and boundless, rather like another unknown universe.
What slightly surprised Gu Changge, however, was the presence of a great deal of Death Qi here, wisps of it coiling through the void, the whole place presenting a withered, desolate state.
In some places, there were even traces of battle, though they were extremely ancient, as if they had existed since primordial times.
Beyond that, there were many shattered ancient steles and black calamity-soaked earth here, incapable of nurturing even the slightest bit of life.
Between some of the broken clods of earth, one could even see rivers of blood flowing underground.
“Back when the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains separated from the Beyond, part of the Beyond’s Fortuity was stolen away, causing the Beyond’s laws to be incomplete and its Great Dao imperfect across these epochs. That is why no Immortal has been born there to this day.”
“For there to be remnants of the Beyond’s Force of Law here... perhaps the Fortuity stolen back then is indeed connected to this place.”
Gu Changge walked forward all the way, and at the very end, he saw a black ocean.
However, this black ocean seemed to have been moved away once before, appearing somewhat dried up. Specks of light dripped down from it, like the light of living beings.
Of course, they were extremely sparse, and compared to the vast, boundless entirety of the Land of Rebirth, they seemed all the more insignificant.
In Gu Changge’s view, this must have been moved away by the supreme experts within Sky Deer City using great magic power when they withdrew. It was clear they had left in great haste, as they hadn’t even had time to erase the many traces here.
These specks of light, resembling the light of living beings, clearly contained a faint trace of spirituality.
This Land of Rebirth might truly contain something connected to reincarnation.
“The corpses that were once buried here are all gone.”
The Sky Deer Goddess walked over from another direction, her heart unable to conceal its turmoil at this moment.
She had gone to search for the corpses of those supreme experts who had died in the great war against the Beyond and were subsequently buried here.
In the end, she found that their coffins were all empty, with no figures inside at all.
This shook her heart, and she couldn’t help but form a conjecture—perhaps their deaths in battle back then had merely been a means of deceiving the world.
It seemed she had still underestimated those great clans. They would even fake something like this, deceiving the entire Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains.
“Let’s go. There’s no point in saying any of this now.”
“It seems the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains are hidden even deeper than you knew.”
A faint smile appeared on Gu Changge’s face.
The Sky Deer Goddess nodded, her gaze complicated.
If not for the Beyond’s assault on the city this time, she probably would never have learned of these matters in her entire life.
Speaking of which, was this fortune or misfortune?
Outside the Land of Rebirth, people were already waiting respectfully. They were none other than the few old men who had voluntarily surrendered to the Beyond.
Every one of them possessed extremely profound cultivation.
At the very least, they were far stronger than the True Daoists of the Four Powerful War God Clans who had gone out of the city earlier to put on that fake resistance.
However, their cultivation was currently sealed by the experts of the various races using special runes, so they could not easily use it.
Even so, the power of their blood and qi was not to be underestimated, and ordinary people dared not approach them.
As prisoners, they were kept under guard, but since they requested an audience with Gu Changge, no one dared to stop them.
“Greetings, Young Master Changge.”
They glanced at the Sky Deer Goddess with complicated expressions, then spoke respectfully to Gu Changge.
“Oh? You have business with me?”
Gu Changge swept a somewhat surprised glance over them.
He was still considering how to deal with the surrendered True Daoists within Sky Deer City—whether to devour and absorb them as nourishment, or keep them alive for his own use.
After all, the entire Beyond had now personally witnessed him suppress those True Daoists of the Four Powerful War God Clans.
If they were to disappear, it might provoke unnecessary suspicion.
Of course, that didn’t mean Gu Changge would spare their lives for this reason. He simply found it troublesome.
“This concerns the secret of the Land of Rebirth. We know a bit about it.”
The old men did not conceal anything upon hearing this. They wanted to use this to negotiate terms with Gu Changge, hoping he would treat the prisoners well.
“The Land of Rebirth? It should be something stolen from the Beyond back then. That isn’t hard to guess, I’d imagine.”
Gu Changge smiled faintly.
Countless years ago, when the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains separated from the Beyond, although it was related to the Demon Lord’s world-destroying palm strike, the theft of the Beyond’s Fortuity was a separate matter.
Hearing this, the old men exchanged glances and smiled bitterly. They had known such a thing could not be hidden from Gu Changge. However, what they wanted to speak of was not this matter, but the secret hidden within the Land of Rebirth.
“It is said that within the Land of Rebirth there is a Tree of Epoch. That Tree of Epoch has spanned several epochs. Though its vitality is faint, it has never withered away. Several epochs ago, someone discovered that the Tree of Epoch seemed to be sprouting tender buds, about to grow new branches and leaves...”
They spoke, revealing a secret that no one had known before.
“The Tree of Epoch?” Gu Changge raised an eyebrow.
The Tree of Epoch, the World Tree, the Tree of Spacetime... these were all mysterious ancient trees widely spoken of in the Beyond.
He himself possessed a World Tree Seedling, which was currently evolving and growing within his Inner Universe.
But for it to grow to the point where its branches and leaves could hold up worlds would take a very long time.
This Tree of Epoch was an extremely mysterious ancient tree, one that grew across entire epochs at the slightest. There was even a saying that by traveling along its branches and leaves, one could cross the River of Time and journey to the past or the future.
The Spacetime Stone and the Mirror of Wonders were actually much the same as the Tree of Epoch, achieving similar ends by different means.
However, the Tree of Epoch ultimately existed only in legend.
No one had ever truly seen it. Even in the Beyond, there were only scant records of it.
“So in other words, what this Land of Rebirth nurtured was actually a newly born Tree of Epoch? But if it were a true Tree of Epoch, none below the Celestial Realm could approach it. How did they move it away? There must be something strange about this. It definitely wasn’t a complete Tree of Epoch.”
Gu Changge fell into thought. He wasn’t worried that these men would dare deceive him.
So he guessed that the withered Tree of Epoch had either transformed into a seed, or a sapling, or perhaps even a fruit?
Thinking of it this way, a divine object like the Tree of Epoch involved the Fortuity of an entire world.
When it was stolen from the Beyond back then, it caused the entire Beyond’s Fortuity to plummet, leaving the Heavenly Path incomplete. The already shattered laws of heaven and earth found it even harder to bear the power of the Immortal Dao.
“So this is the real reason no Immortal has ever been born in the Beyond.”
Gu Changge couldn’t help but narrow his eyes. A bold idea suddenly arose in his heart.
Since this Tree of Epoch was so deeply involved, it could surely influence the changes in the Beyond’s Fortuity.
If he were to refine it, wouldn’t he be able to directly control the Beyond?
Of course, this control did not mean control in the true sense, but rather that Gu Changge could control the matter of attaining Immortality in the Beyond.
To become an Immortal, one would inevitably have to undergo the baptism of the Immortal Dao’s light.
Without his permission, who could become an Immortal?
But for now, Gu Changge was still uncertain what exactly remained of the so-called Tree of Epoch.
In the period that followed, the armies of the Beyond were all stationed within Sky Deer City. The ancient city, spanning tens of millions of li of territory, was carved up and occupied by the great immortal forces and Supreme Dao Lineages.
Every day, one could see rifts tearing open across the sky as vast armies charged out, rushing toward every corner of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains.
In the eyes of the various Dao Lineage forces, the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains were now nothing more than a piece of fat meat on a chopping board, something they drooled over endlessly.
The few Domains among the ten with especially vast and fertile territory drew everyone’s attention in particular, so nearly every day, some force or Dao Lineage dispatched armies toward them.
Compared to the remote desolation of countless years ago, the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains of today clearly had far richer resources.
The flames of war spread, and the sounds of slaughter rang out across the great Domains. Vast iron cavalry swept through like floods, bringing despair and calamity to the living beings of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains.
However, many of the younger generation, such as the King of Six Crowns, the Phoenix Lady, and the Sky Demon Sovereign, returned to the Beyond after the Grand Array of Sky Deer City was broken, and did not continue participating.
To them, this great war was more like a training experience. Now that the training was over, returning to the Beyond to cultivate was only natural.
And Gu Xianer, unsurprisingly, left without saying goodbye again, not saying a single word to Gu Changge.
When Gu Changge learned of this, he merely chuckled softly and paid it no mind.
This great war had served as considerable training for Gu Xianer. Her current strength was not far behind the strongest of the younger generation.
It was just that she herself was still not satisfied.
In the time that followed, Gu Changge’s cultivation improved considerably once more. When he secretly disposed of those True Daoists of the Four Powerful War God Clans, he learned another piece of news from their mouths.
The ones who had ordered the spread of the message to abandon the city and flee within Sky Deer City were precisely the ancient figures standing behind them, whose seniority was terrifyingly high, traceable all the way back to the very birth of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains.
However, those ancient figures had clearly already fled Sky Deer City by now and returned to their clan grounds. They might even have already relocated their clan grounds entirely.
Just like the Beyond, the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains also had quite a few Overworlds beneath them. With their abilities, they could easily tear open Space Rifts and descend into the Overworlds to hide there.
This news surprised Gu Changge quite a bit.
However, he then thought of a candidate who might serve as the opportunity to destroy these so-called Four Powerful War God Clans.
If his guess was correct, the Land of Rebirth deep within Sky Deer City had likely been taken away by the ancient figures of the Four Powerful War God Clans.
“Gu Changge, what else do you want me to do?”
Outside the palace, Lin Wu walked over, his expression extremely ugly.
Although he had now betrayed the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains, it was only in secret and had not been exposed.
At least on the surface, no one knew of this matter yet.
At this moment, he had been escorted over directly because Gu Changge had something to order him to do.
During this period, although he had seen Lu Luo, things between the two of them had only improved somewhat compared to before. They had not gained their freedom, and their movements were restricted to the courtyard.
Though Lin Wu was displeased by this, he could only suppress it in his heart, not daring to show it.
“There’s one more thing I need you to do. Once it’s done, I’ll naturally let the two of you go.”
Gu Changge sat by the window, a faint smile on his face, gently blowing on the tea beside him.
“You promised me you wouldn’t hurt Lu Luo anymore. What do you want now?”
Lin Wu gritted his teeth, staring fixedly at him. Never in his life had he lived in such humiliation as he did now.
Although he had survived this great war, it brought him no peace of mind whatsoever.
At every moment, he felt the guilt of his conscience being condemned.
“It’s very simple, actually. Help me find your clansmen.”
Gu Changge smiled, his tone casual. “If you’re unwilling, then all your previous efforts might just go to waste.”
“Don’t forget, a certain prodigy of my Family is still pining after your beloved.”
“Gu Changge, you really are despicable...”
Lin Wu was first stunned, then realized what Gu Changge’s words meant.
In an instant, rage surged in his heart. His teeth ground together with a creak, and his voice carried bone-deep hatred.
Gu Changge’s goal seemed simple to him. After all, no one yet knew that he had betrayed Sky Deer City, betrayed the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains.
So Lin Wu could naturally find an opportunity to return to his clan.
If his guess was right, the Blood Dragon War God Clan was probably now looking for a way to migrate and leave the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains.
Gu Changge was planning to move against the clan behind him!
At this moment, Lin Wu wished he could fight Gu Changge to the death right here and now.
Moreover, he knew that even if he refused now, it was already too late. Having fallen into Gu Changge’s trap, he had no other choice but to walk this dark path to its end.
“I’ve given you the chance. How you choose is no longer my concern.”
Hearing this, Gu Changge still smiled nonchalantly, then unhurriedly blew at the tea in his cup, as if he had no idea why Lin Wu hated him so.
Lin Wu’s entire body trembled, his eyes even reddening slightly. The fury and hatred in his heart could no longer be concealed.
Yet he dared not make a move against Gu Changge. Just as Gu Changge had said, he no longer had any way back.
Having betrayed the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains, there was no turning back for him.
“If you agree, I’ll have someone send you out of the city right now. I guarantee no one will discover you.”
Gu Changge’s face still wore a faint smile.
“Gu Changge, acting like this, aren’t you afraid of retribution one day?” Lin Wu’s gaze was incomparably cold. He felt that encountering Gu Changge was the greatest calamity of his life.
“Oh? Retribution? Then I rather look forward to that day.”
Gu Changge smiled faintly, not caring in the slightest.
Lin Wu’s value lay in his current identity. As the most outstanding young prodigy of the Blood Dragon War God Clan in recent years, the clan surely couldn’t bear to let him perish outside just like that.
Gu Changge knew that the clan grounds behind Lin Wu were probably long deserted by now.
However, he believed Lin Wu should have a way to contact his clansmen, which would conveniently save Gu Changge the time and trouble of searching for them one by one.
As a Fortuitous One, Gu Changge naturally intended to wait until he shone and burned to his absolute limit, his lingering warmth burning to the very last moment.
Otherwise, it would do a disservice to the words “Fortuitous One.”
Of course, the Four Powerful War God Clans were, in Gu Changge’s eyes, far more valuable than the other races.
The one who stole the Beyond’s Fortuity back then was likely deeply connected to these four great families.
Beyond that, there was one more point. With Sky Deer City broken, the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains were effectively left wide open, and he needed to set another matter in motion.
Another Fortuitous One—the Guardian lineage behind Xiao Yang!
In this great war, not a single member of the Guardian lineage had appeared, which surprised Gu Changge somewhat.
By all reason, at a time like this, a heroic figure should have emerged to turn the tide.
Perhaps he had overthought it. Or perhaps this so-called Guardian lineage was, like these Four Powerful War God Clans, nothing but frauds who deceived the world to steal fame.
“The hidden pieces my Gu Family laid in these Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains back then—it’s time to put them to use.”
“The whereabouts of Gu Wudi and Xiao Yang have always been within my grasp.”
Gu Changge’s gaze gradually grew deep and unfathomable.