Chapter 1776: Calamity Comes Knocking While Lying in the Coffin

Outside of Time [Webnovel]

Erniu had gone mad.

To him, Xu Qing's words were more enticing than anything—second only to the time he had snatched flesh from Desolate.

Back then, he'd only managed to snatch a few scraps of meat by exploiting the ascension of a Divine Realm. But now... this was half a Lord God's corpse!

Especially under the stimulation of Xu Qing's meteoric rise, this divine corpse had become Erniu's ultimate obsession.

'The flesh of Desolate takes forever to digest. I can only lick it bit by bit. If I take too much, I'll explode on the spot!'

'But a Lord God's corpse? Even if it's still hard to absorb, it's gotta be easier than Desolate's flesh!'

'Plus, with those True God remains Little Qing gave me, I'll have a full set of a god!'

'Good times are coming!'

His eyes burned crimson, glowing with manic hunger as he rushed through the mist like a rabid dog, zeroing in on his target.

Food was everything.

"My treasure, I'm coming for you!!"

The instant Erniu lunged forward, the countless divine chains binding the bronze coffin shivered violently.

Runes ignited along their lengths, radiating an unfathomable power—yet strangely, the energy remained confined to the chains themselves, as if warning intruders: Touch nothing, and no harm will come to you.

But Erniu, in this life and all his past ones, was a veteran of audacious heists.

Though unfamiliar with the Fourth Star Ring, his experience in "grand ventures" was unparalleled—after all, every failure in his past lives had cost him his life.

Such "practice" had honed his instincts to perfection.

So the moment he entered the rift, his body instinctively knew what was safe to touch and what meant instant death.

To Xu Qing's astonishment, even blind in the mist, Erniu weaved through the chains with preternatural precision—a mouse darting through cracks, homing in on Lord God Chiuz's corpse!

Worried for his senior brother's safety, Xu Qing stepped forward, crossing into the rift's inner world.

The chains flared anew, and Xu Qing's every hair stood on end as lethal energy pulsed from them—and the coffin they bound.

This caused Xu Qing to stop in his tracks.

Every hair on his body stood on end as thick anomalous substances radiated from the coffin, chains, and Lord God Chiuz's corpse, permeating the entire rift world.

Xu Qing's flesh began showing signs of mutation under this heavenly aura, while an overwhelming pressure crushed down, threatening to pulverize all intruders!

But the fortune of the Fifth Star Ring shielded him, neutralizing the worst of the assault.

At the same time, a true name blazed in his soul—the reward from when the Young Master Aurora had taken him to leave his mark on the Primordial Mother Planet.

Under the illumination of this true name, the corruption's assault weakened, allowing Xu Qing to relax slightly while growing even more curious about Erniu's origins.

Because under such terrifying pressure, Erniu was still charging through the mist!

His entire body shone with blue light, enabling him—just a Ruler—to resist the anomalous substances.

'Senior Brother's background holds too many mysteries. Could he really be an Origin Sin?'

'From what I've seen, only Origin Sins can ignore divine aura and anomalous substances, since gods are fundamentally connected to Origin Sins...'

Xu Qing pondered, though according to his understanding, Origin Sins couldn't leave their mother planets.

'Could it be that Wanggu is the Ninth Star Ring's Primordial Mother Planet?'

Xu Qing's mind shook at this unbelievable speculation, but he quickly dismissed it.

'Something still doesn't fit. If that were true, why could Senior Brother leave...'

Xu Qing still had doubts about Erniu's origins, but now wasn't the time for deep thought. Through his penetrating gaze, he saw the crazed Erniu had already found a path through the chains and was approaching Lord God Chiuz's corpse.

But then an abrupt change occurred!

Just as Erniu found the right path and tried to approach—BANG!—his body exploded, shattering into countless blue worms with Erniu's face!

Xu Qing's gaze sharpened as he prepared to intervene, but in the blink of an eye, the maddened worms charged at the corpse again.

However, continuous explosions followed as the worms were destroyed in waves, turning to dust.

Yet Erniu's madness only intensified. As the blue light flashed, the dust transformed into even more, even smaller blue worms that continued the assault.

This cycle repeated—shattering, reforming, multiplying—until finally, through sheer numbers, the worms reached the corpse!

All the worms let out piercing shrieks:

"Little Qing, help me!"

Even as they cried out, Xu Qing had already acted.

The power of his Immortal Embryo erupted as his Ordinance of overlapping universes rose, augmented by the terrifying might of his Dao Artifact nail, which he hurled to suppress the corpse!

Simultaneously, the blue worms attacked from all directions!

Just as they were about to make contact, a pale golden light suddenly flashed from Lord God Chiuz's corpse!

As it shone, terrifying pressure erupted.

Though Xu Qing's power offset some of it, his Immortal Embryo crumbled and Ordinance trembled—the residual might of a Lord God was still formidable.

However, the Dao Artifact's power proved effective, making the corpse's golden light flicker unsteadily.

Yet even so, with Erniu's cultivation, he couldn't withstand it.

In an instant, all his blue worms disintegrated under the golden light, this time erased so thoroughly not even dust remained.

But... Erniu wasn't truly gone.

Pushed to the brink, fueled by boundless greed for the Lord God's flesh, Erniu unleashed some unknown method—and underwent a new transformation!

Blue threads emerged from where the worms had vanished, rapidly coalescing into a giant ice-blue hand covered in spikes! The hand exuded primordial majesty and elderly desolation, its palm splitting open like a maw as it grabbed at Lord God Chiuz's corpse!

When it touched the golden light, the icy hand melted back into threads. But combined with Xu Qing's Dao Artifact power, they desperately drilled into the light.

Though ninety-nine percent perished in the process, a few stubborn threads made it through!

Mad with greed, they rapidly spread across the corpse, seeking to envelop it completely.

To an observer, this seemed like a hard-won success. But Xu Qing's instincts told him otherwise.

His eyes narrowed as a strange feeling arose.

"Even as a corpse, this was once a Lord God—and Lord God Chiuz's divine aspect was special. Logically, this shouldn't be going so smoothly... even given Senior Brother's uniqueness."

Xu Qing suddenly looked up, his gaze piercing the void above the corpse.

Though he saw nothing, his Fifth Star Ring fortune-enhanced senses told him something was there.

Hence, he immediately urged.

"Senior Brother, hurry!"

The blue threads covering the corpse buzzed in response, accelerating their efforts.

Xu Qing's intuition was correct.

At that moment, in the void he was staring at, there was a figure that Xu Qing couldn't see!

The way that figure existed was extremely special. Its form was illusory.

Its appearance was actually Lord God Chiuz!

He was in the process of returning!

After suffering grave injuries, He had used His connection to the coffin's occupant to flee here, intending to recover while hidden.

His method of healing was unique:

Using death as a medium, He could reverse all injuries and return to peak condition—an ability tied to His divine aspect!

The corpse served as both anchor and vessel for this resurrection.

Losing it would disrupt the entire process.

The plan had been flawless... until two anomalies—Xu Qing who had fate divine aspect, and Erniu who defied all norms—crashed the scene.

Now, watching His vessel being stolen before His eyes, Lord God Chiuz's consciousness turned to the chained coffin:

"Venerable God, I beg your assistance."

The coffin remained motionless.

"Venerable God..."

"SILENCE!"

A voice vibrating at a level beyond Xu Qing and Erniu's perception thundered through Lord God Chiuz's mind:

"I don't want to be tainted by such karma!"

"It's just half a body. Just give it up!"

Chiuz remained silent.

Inside the coffin, the ancient being was deeply unsettled.

'One connection to Desolate was trouble enough. Now there are two?!'

'That eternally starving Desolate could manifest here through them at any moment!'

'Not to mention the Fifth Star Ring's Venerable Immortal scheming in the shadows...'

'Letting them take Chiuz's corpse and leave is the safest option!'

While the Venerable God in the coffin was thinking, the blue threads transformed by Erniu also sped up to the limit under Xu Qing's reminder. In the end, it completely enveloped the half body.

After that, it curled up, forming a sea of blue light that swept out.

A triumphant roar echoed through the rift:

"Success! Little Qing, let's get out of here!"

Xu Qing moved to follow, but a sudden inexplicable feeling made him pause. Against his better judgment, he turned to look once more at the mysterious chained bronze coffin.

The moment his gaze landed upon it, the ancient being inside felt an inexplicable chill.

Meanwhile, back in the Ninth Star Ring, above Wanggu, the colossal fragmented-face that loomed over all living things like an eternal catastrophe...

Its long-closed eyelids twitched faintly.

As if they were about to open.