Swallowing the Stars: 100x Return for Teaching Apprentices

Chapter 197 Stepping into the Cosmic Sea

In a remote corner of the primordial universe, there lies an incredibly massive black hole.

The black hole's gravity frantically devours all tangible and intangible matter, plunging the surrounding vast star field into complete darkness.

call!
A towering figure, clad in ancient, turquoise armor resembling vines and carrying a black and white divine sword, suddenly appeared in the void.

An incredibly chaotic and violent aura emanated from this towering figure, causing the surrounding space and time to subtly distort.

"Huhu~~~"

The powerful devouring and twisting force caused by the massive black hole would have instantly reduced a cosmic venerable to ashes if it were applied to his body.

However, the towering figure simply took a casual step forward, and the powerful destructive force was easily neutralized by the equally distorted field around his body and the armor on his body.

The towering figure continued to advance, and soon arrived at the deepest part of the black hole.

"That is the true form of the Toya Black Hole."

The towering figure looked ahead and immediately saw a sphere about three meters high, entirely black.

The surface of the sphere is covered with dark gold patterns, and countless patterns form a very strange pattern. This sphere with dark gold patterns is the black hole itself, generating an endless and terrifying twisting and devouring force.

Around it was one of the membrane walls of the entire primordial universe, and even that membrane wall was torn open by this twisting force, creating a hole with a diameter of nearly 10,000 kilometers.

"This secret rune, this chaotic and twisted power, is actually somewhat similar to the 'singularity' form of the core of that Time Prison."

The towering figure gazed at the golden runes on the surface of the black sphere, and the distorted field around him subtly changed, becoming somewhat in sync with the distorted state around the black hole.

This figure was none other than Qi Yuan's Shangqing clone, who had departed from the Divine Kingdom.

After spending nearly half a year in the divine kingdom, thoroughly familiarizing himself with the newly acquired treasures and information about the cosmic sea, Shangqing's avatar finally set off from the divine kingdom and rushed towards the direction of the Toya Black Hole.

There are two ways to travel from the primordial universe to the cosmic sea. One way is to directly enter the spatial interlayer and proceed all the way until you reach the end of the spatial interlayer, then break through the endless cosmic membrane!

The second method is to exit through the void in the membrane of the primordial universe, which is torn open by the distorting power of the 'Toya Black Hole', which is said to be the strongest black hole in the primordial universe.

However, most of the powerful beings who travel to the Cosmic Sea in the primordial universe choose the route to the Toya Black Hole.

One reason is that it's easier to go out, but another reason is that there are 39 natural wormholes in the area corresponding to the exit of the Toya Black Hole.

The cosmic ocean is vast and boundless.

Moreover, once you enter the Cosmic Sea, you are no longer within the original universe, and methods such as divine kingdom teleportation and dark universe traversal can no longer be used.

The primary means of rapid movement in the cosmic ocean is teleportation.

However, the universe is terrifyingly vast, and even the primordial universe is only a part of it. How long would it take to teleport across such an immense distance using only teleportation?
Fortunately, the environment in the cosmic ocean is harsh and bizarre, and there are countless natural wormholes. Traveling along a natural wormhole from one end to the other could be hundreds of billions of light-years.

If a suitable natural wormhole can be found, a lot of travel time can be saved.

The region corresponding to the Toya black hole, the two points connected by those natural wormholes have long been explored by many powerful beings, making it a very convenient 'transfer station' for many powerful beings in the original universe to go deep into the cosmic sea in various directions.

call!
The Shangqing clone flew past the black hole itself, easily resisting its pull, and then flew directly out through the irregularly torn membrane opening.
Outside, there is the cosmic sea!

woohoo~~~
The endless chaotic energy flowed and floated like a hazy mist, generating immense pressure that was utterly terrifying.

Although these chaotic currents did not attack intentionally, their natural pressure alone was enough to annihilate an immortal god!
Unlike the 'digested' chaotic energy in the initial universe, the endless chaotic energy in the cosmic sea is extremely pure. Even the small universes need to absorb this chaotic energy to maintain their operation, making it the source of all energy.

"Leaving the primordial universe means venturing into the cosmic sea."

Qi Yuan turned his head to look behind him. Standing in the void, he turned around and looked back. Not far behind him was the irregularly torn membrane wall opening.

Around the opening, an enormous, seemingly endless cosmic membrane spread outwards, as if severing the entire cosmic ocean in the middle.

Of course, it wasn't a real partition; it was just that the membrane was far too enormous, far exceeding the limits that Shangqing's clone could perceive.

"The primordial universe... it was ridiculously vast!"

Looking at this enormous cradle that nurtures all life, Qi Yuan was deeply moved.

All the colossal celestial bodies, secret realms, and stars within the primordial universe are nothing compared to the primordial universe itself—they are like a single drop of water in the ocean!

In Qi Yuan's previous life, there was a long-standing debate about whether the universe was finite or infinite.

But if the universe in the previous life was really as ridiculously large as the original universe, it would be basically no different from infinity for life on Earth in the previous life!

"Vast and powerful. Just its sheer size is enough to make one unable to even think of resisting. I wonder how that progenitor was so brave back then."

Shangqing's clone sighed silently to himself, then turned and teleported away.

First, they teleported to a void.

There are 39 twisted spatial openings and 39 natural wormholes around the void. The openings vary in size and lead to different directions.

"I'm heading to the spaceship, and I can use this 11th natural wormhole to get there."

Qi Yuan took a step forward and entered one of the larger, twisted spatial entrances among the 39 natural wormholes.

"Whoosh!" In an instant, space and time shifted!

When he appeared on the other side, he had already traveled hundreds of billions of light-years.

Swish!Swish!Swish!
He teleported continuously, and two days later he passed through a natural wormhole again, and then continued to teleport.
These two methods are used alternately to advance.

It took Qi Yuan's Shangqing clone about 12 days to finally arrive at the 'Cosmic Boat,' one of the three forbidden lands of the legendary Cosmic Sea.

The reason he went to the Cosmic Ship on his first trip to the Cosmic Sea, instead of the Peak Realm where more powerful human beings gathered, was because he felt that this was the only one of the three forbidden lands that was not naturally formed, and that there would be a higher chance of coming into contact with the remnants of ancient civilization knowledge.

The spaceship was enormous, with a diameter of over 100 million light-years. He didn't necessarily expect to encounter a powerful lineage like the 'Duan Donghe lineage' in the original story; having some knowledge of a slightly lower level of lineage would be enough.

Then, through the system's return function, you will naturally have the opportunity to obtain higher-level inheritance rewards.

The map of the three forbidden zones of the Cosmic Sea provided to him by the Lord of Chaos City contained a more detailed description of the Peak Realm, while the route records for the Cosmic Boat and the Flowing Mountain region were relatively brief.

However, this summary mainly refers to the most dangerous areas within the inner domain.

For the relatively less dangerous outer regions, there is a lot of map information circulating throughout the universe. Over the long years of humankind's exchanges and trade with various forces, the maps have actually recorded quite detailed information about the dangerous places in the outer regions of the universe, which is more than enough for Qi Yuan's initial exploration.

When he becomes stronger enough to venture into the inner region, he may have already obtained a more detailed map.

"In front of us is the spaceship."

Qi Yuan teleported for several more minutes.

Suddenly the scenery changed; the chaotic air currents thinned considerably, and an incredibly shocking scene appeared in the distance.

Qi Yuan stood in the void, gazing at the incredible scenery hundreds of millions of light-years away. Even though he had seen it in documents, seeing a real 'spaceship' for the first time was still incredibly awe-inspiring.

An endless, majestic spaceship...

It was an incredibly massive, damaged ship, tens of millions of light-years high and hundreds of millions of light-years long, its entire body a deep black mixed with alluring purple. And the ship's hull... even from hundreds of millions of light-years away, he could see hundreds and thousands of dense cracks and holes.

It was as if a ship had been shot through by a large number of lasers, and then slashed by a large number of giant knives...

Very damaged!

"Boom~~~"

A monstrous attraction was released from the space ship, wildly devouring the surrounding chaotic airflow, making the chaotic airflow around it always very thin.

The devouring of chaotic energy caused the entire spaceship to constantly unleash boundless power. Enormous rivers of flame encircled the spaceship, while a vast sea of ​​icy air enveloped it, within which glittering, mirror-like ice could be faintly seen... At the same time, massive vortexes of wind raged around it...

Crack!

Giant electric snakes, each tens of thousands of light-years long, raged and roared.

The dazzling rays of light in various colors were so eye-catching.

Huge, dark green vines climbed the entire surface of the spaceship, creating a serene atmosphere.

……

Flames, cold air, wind, lightning, vines, light...

At the outermost periphery, there are a large number of 'fragments' that are flying around the spacecraft at high speed all the time. They should be the fragments that broke away from the hull of the spaceship. Those countless fragments are flying at high speed all the time.

……

This was not what shocked Qi Yuan the most.

The most shocking thing was below the spaceship... Below the spaceship, there was a dense mass of chaotic energy. Within the diffused chaotic energy, there were faint flashes of various colors such as gold, red, blue, and cyan lightning. And within the chaotic energy flow was a huge, damaged miniature universe!

The upper part of that small universe was no longer visible, as if it had been 'eaten up' by the spaceship!
The enormous spaceship constantly devours chaotic energy, and can even devour smaller universes, converting all absorbed energy into various forms of energy such as metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, lightning, light, time, and space!

It should be understood that none of the powerful beings in this cosmic sea can directly devour the chaotic energy. Even the strongest beings in the universe can only absorb the chaotic energy and transform it into the primordial energy of the universe through their small universes, while they themselves cannot do so.

And this spaceship, this legendary giant ship built by an ancient civilization, is actually able to achieve a level comparable to a small universe origin, which is truly incredible!

"The spaceship, even among those so-called ancient civilizations, can be considered the pinnacle of mechanical engineering!"

"According to the description in the original work, after breaking through to the level of the Lord of the Universe, the ultimate direction of cultivation in the Law path is to integrate all ten fundamental Laws and control the entire Chaos Law. This cosmic ship absorbs the chaotic energy and decomposes it into various fundamental energies such as metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, lightning, light, time, and space."

"One is integration, the other is decomposition."

"If one could gain even a slight understanding of the design principles behind this spaceship's creation, it would likely provide significant insights into the path of fusing the Ten Great Laws to control chaos. It's a pity, though, that the entire spaceship is completely shattered. I wonder if any clues can still be found in its various special regions."

After a long period of silent reflection, Shangqing's clone finally teleported forward again.

It took more than half an hour of teleportation to finally reach the surface of the huge, damaged spaceship.

"With the return system at my disposal, to be honest, I don't have a huge need for treasures. So, my main purposes for adventuring on this spaceship are only two—"

"First, let's see if we can find any information about the legacy of ancient civilizations. Just some simple information will suffice as a gift from the system. Second, let's engage in numerous battles with the cosmic lords in the vast cosmic sea, seeking inspiration from their diverse fighting styles to create even stronger secret techniques."

Shangqing's clone made a silent decision, then followed a large, dark, and broken entrance entangled by numerous vines below, directly entering the interior of the massive spaceship.
(End of this chapter)