642: Chapter 642 Tai Qingtian

"I was born on the Taiqing Continent."

When these five words were spoken from his mouth, the voice was as light as if he were reciting a name from a dream.

Taiqing Continent—these four words seemed to carry some strange magic, causing the atmosphere of the entire Dao Field to soften.

The galaxy that had flowed for hundreds of millions of years seemed to slow down, as if listening to a story so ancient it was almost forgotten.

"The Taiqing Continent is a very, very small Lower Realm in the Myriad Heavens and Worlds. So small that... in that era of brilliant stars, the Primordial Era, no one would have spared it a second glance."

His gaze pierced through the boundaries of the Dao Field, through the endless Void Realm, and landed on that distant continent.

It was a land so barren it was heartbreaking—the Spiritual Qi was as thin as morning mist, resources were so scarce that one couldn't even refine a decent Magical Artifact, and even the sky was gray, as if someone had splashed a layer of indelible ash across it.

There, a Cultivator at the Foundation Establishment Stage could be called an expert, and a Cultivator at the Golden Core Stage could establish a sect and be revered by thousands.

The people there would never know in their entire lives how big this world was, how vast the Myriad Heavens and Worlds were, or that the land beneath their feet did not even count as a speck of dust in the vast Universe.

"I could not Cultivate from a young age."

Luo Xiaojiu was slightly stunned.

It was a very short pause, only for an instant.

But in that instant, her pupils constricted slightly, her brows furrowed gently, and her lips moved, but no sound came out.

A Great Accomplishment Desolate Ancient Sacred Body, unable to Cultivate since childhood?

Who would believe such a statement?

But the Golden Giant's expression told her—this was no joke.

There was no mockery on his face, only a deep bitterness that seemed carved into his bones.

"My Physique is special; before I was sixteen, I never had an Awakening. It wasn't hidden and dormant, but simply incapable of Awakening. It was as if some power in the dark had Sealed my Sacred Body, letting it sleep, letting it lie dormant, letting it... exist within me like a joke."

His mouth curled into a self-deprecating arc.

There was no joy in this smile, only a sarcasm that reached deep into his marrow.

Can you imagine?

A person possessing the strongest Physique of the ages, yet unable to Cultivate.

It is like a person carrying the most precious Treasure Trove in the world in their arms, but unable to open the lock of the treasure chest.

He could only watch helplessly as others grew stronger day by day, watching his peers make a Breakthrough in their Realm one by one, watching those who were once inferior to him leave him far behind.

And he, could only stand where he was.

Unable to do anything.

That sense of powerlessness, that sense of humiliation, that day-after-day, year-after-year torment, was enough to drive a normal person insane.

But his voice was as calm as stagnant water.

Luo Xiaojiu could hear the turbulence beneath this calm—it was an emotion repressed for too, too long, like magma deep within the earth's crust; calm on the surface, but surging with power enough to destroy everything beneath.

"When I was sixteen, two people came to my home."

The light in his golden eyes changed drastically at this moment.

It came so suddenly, so violently, like a monstrous wave suddenly rising on a calm sea.

Those flickering stars and flowing galaxies all disappeared at this moment.

In their place was an extremely complex emotion—recollection, warmth, sadness, guilt, regret, admiration... all intertwined, making these eyes, which were originally like eternal stars, seem as if they could shatter at any moment.

"They descended from the sky."

He said these four words very slowly, with an indescribable awe in his voice.

It was not awe of power, but awe of something more noble and pure—this was the awe that only an ant would have when looking up at the firmament.

"One was my Revered Master. The other... was my Revered Master's spouse."

Luo Xiaojiu noticed that when he said the words "Revered Master" and "Revered Master's spouse," his voice trembled slightly.

A Great Accomplishment Desolate Ancient Sacred Body, an existence sitting cross-legged in the starry Dao Field, suppressing the powerhouses of the Void Clan—his voice was trembling.

A very slight tremor, so slight that if one did not listen carefully, it would be impossible to detect.

But once detected, this tremor was like a dull knife, cutting into your heart one stroke at a time.

What kind of memory could make a Great Accomplishment Desolate Ancient Sacred Body, after hundreds of millions of years, make his voice tremble just by mentioning it?

"My Revered Master accepted me as a disciple. My Revered Master's spouse used earth-shattering power to forcibly break the Seal within my body, helping me achieve Awakening of the Desolate Ancient Sacred Body."

As he said this, the golden light suddenly became soft.

This softness did not seem to be emitted by a high-and-mighty expert, but rather like the warmth in the eyes of a child recalling their parents.

"From that day on, I Cultivated with my life on the line."

The Golden Giant's gaze became distant, piercing through the ages of time and space, landing in that distant past.

There stood a frail youth, standing on a barren hillside, looking up at two figures receding into the sky.

His fists were clenched tight, his nails embedded in his palms, and blood dripped one drop at a time through his fingers. But those eyes were as bright as two stars, bright enough to illuminate the entire night sky.

From that day on, he began to Cultivate crazily.

Cultivating during the day, Cultivating at night, Cultivating while eating, and even Cultivating while sleeping.

He did not sleep or rest, did not eat or drink, like a tireless machine.

His body collapsed again and again, and was reconstructed again and again; his Meridians ruptured again and again, and healed again and again. Every time he Cultivated, it was like dancing on the tip of a knife, and every Breakthrough was like crawling back to the human world from Hell.

But he did not care.

He did not care about anything.

He only cared about one thing—

"I want to become stronger."

He said these three words very softly, as light as a sigh.

But the power contained within them was more shocking than any roar.

"Not for hegemony, not for glory, and certainly not for longevity."

He paused, and a trace of vulnerability flashed in his golden eyes.

It flashed by, so fast that one would almost think it was an illusion.

But Luo Xiaojiu caught it.

"I just want to..."

He paused again.

This time, the pause was longer.

So long that the galaxy on the Dao Field flowed a full circle, so long that the air currents in the Chaos surged once.

"Just want to be able to stand by their side."

The moment these words were spoken, Luo Xiaojiu's heart gave a sharp tug.

"To be able to keep up with their pace."

His voice was lower, so low it was as if he was afraid of being heard.

"To be able to... not become their burden."

He said the last few words very slowly, very slowly.

Every word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth, every word carrying a bone-deep pain.

Luo Xiaojiu was silent.

She looked at this Golden Giant and suddenly felt that he was no longer as distant and unreachable as he had been at the beginning.

His obsession, his unwillingness, his regret—she understood these things.

She understood them too well.

Just like Blood Butcher lying on the ground, clutching the soil, hating himself for not being strong enough, hating himself for not even having the qualifications to stand by her side.

That hatred, that unwillingness, that madness of wishing to take his own bones apart piece by piece and reforge them—she had seen it.

Just like herself, stepping onto the altar step by step, bones breaking, blood flowing, yet refusing to stop.

Because she could feel that call, because she also wanted to become stronger—strong enough to protect the people she wanted to protect.

That persistence, that stubbornness, that will to crawl forward even if her body was shattered to pieces—she had possessed it.

So she didn't speak.

She just looked at him quietly, using her gaze to tell him: I understand.

The Golden Giant looked at her, seemingly reading something from her eyes, and his mouth twitched slightly, revealing a very reluctant smile.

This smile contained gratitude, relief, and a trace of faint bitterness—just like a person who had been lonely for too long, finally meeting someone who could understand their story.

"The things that happened later are simple to tell."

"I Cultivated all the way, became stronger all the way, fought my way out of the Taiqing Continent, traversed the Myriad Heavens and Worlds, stepped over mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and finally..."

His voice suddenly had a bit of heroism.

This was the heroism that only someone who had experienced countless life-and-death moments and crawled out of piles of the dead countless times could have when looking back on the path they had come.

How many people had he killed?

He himself could not remember.

He fought his way out of a small Lower Realm, all the way up, fighting all the way.

He had encountered opponents a hundred times stronger than him, encountered desperate situations of certain death, and encountered moments that made him so desperate he wanted to give up.

But he never stopped.

Because he could not stop.

Because there was no one behind him, but in front of him were the people he wanted to protect.

"Finally, one day, I ruled supreme over an Immortal Realm."

When he said this, there was no pride or complacency in his voice.

Only a faint, calm, as if after experiencing all the vicissitudes of life.

"I thought I was strong enough."

"I thought I could finally stand by their side."

"I thought I could finally..."

He did not finish.

The words stopped abruptly, like a piece of music suddenly snapping a string at its most impassioned part.

In his golden eyes, the stars began to flicker violently, as if countless stars were erupting and extinguishing at the same time.

That flickering was not beautiful, it was crazy, it was painful—it was the madness of a person discovering that the thing they had spent their entire life pursuing was actually just a joke.

"I was wrong."

"Terribly wrong."

His voice became extremely deep, like a roar coming from the depths of the earth, carrying a suffocating heaviness, like a mountain pressing on the chest, making it hard to breathe.

"Only after I ruled supreme over an Immortal Realm did I know—"

He took a deep breath.

This breath was very long, long enough to seem like he wanted to inhale all the air in the entire Dao Field into his lungs.

"My Revered Master is the little princess of the Celestial Race, a super power in the Immortal Realm. Her talent was unparalleled, crowning the Immortal Realm, and she was one of the most dazzling Prodigies of that era."

As he said this, his voice carried a deep sense of powerlessness.

This sense of powerlessness was not because the enemy was too strong—but because he discovered that the finish line he had reached with all his might was merely the starting point for others.

"And my Revered Master's spouse's status is even more terrifying. He is the Taiqing Heavenly Lord of the Taiqing Ancestral Realm, one of the five great Ancestral Realms in the legendary Divine Realm."

"Taiqing Heaven."

The moment these three words were spoken from the Golden Giant's mouth, the galaxy around the Dao Field seemed to tremble.

This trembling was not a physical one, but a deeper one, as if touching the essence of the world—it was as if the three words "Taiqing Heaven" itself carried the power to suppress the Myriad Heavens.

Luo Xiaojiu did not know what an Ancestral Realm was, did not know what a Heavenly Lord meant.

But she could feel a heavy, oppressive power from these four words—a power that transcended the mundane, transcended immortals and gods, and even transcended time and space itself.

"My Revered Master's spouse..."

The Golden Giant's voice was even lower.

"He is the Taiqing Heavenly Lord of the Taiqing Ancestral Realm, sitting in Taiqing Heaven, ruling over an Ancestral Realm, one of the top existences in the Myriad Heavens and Worlds."

"And I..."

He smiled bitterly.

That bitter smile was like a dull knife, slowly cutting his heart, and also cutting the heart of the listener.

"I am merely a Cultivator in the Myriad Heavens and Worlds who is not too bad."

"Ruled supreme over an Immortal Realm?"

He repeated these four words, his voice full of self-deprecation.

"In front of my Revered Master's spouse, this achievement... does not even count as a speck of dust."

Luo Xiaojiu opened her mouth, wanting to say something.

But in the end, she said nothing.

She could feel that this was not a story that needed comfort.

This was a story that needed to be told, to be remembered—

A story about a youth starting from a barren Lower Realm, fighting his way through the Myriad Heavens and Worlds, stepping over mountains of corpses and seas of blood, finally standing in an extremely high place, only to find that he was still far from reaching them.

A story about chasing, about obsession, about never being satisfied.

A story about respect and looking up.