Shrouding the Heavens: The Ultimate Daoist Venerable

Chapter 488 Abandoned Heaven
Just as this young man began to diligently cultivate and break various records on this ancient star, an unexpected situation occurred.

Decades later, another earthquake struck, this time on a wider scale, causing severe damage to a large part of the ancient planet.

In an instant, the earth collapsed, life was ravaged, and the entire ancient star was in grave danger.

Clearly, their worst fears had come true: the ancient star was indeed beginning its demise, and the earthquake was the aftershock of its slow internal collapse.

Clearly, the barren environment and weak laws of the Great Dao of this ancient star were signs of its impending demise.

However, there were simply no powerful cultivators on this ancient star, so they didn't even realize this truth beforehand.

Faced with this world-ending crisis, the cultivators of this ancient star united as one, pooling their wisdom to open all the relics left behind on the ancient star, as well as those exposed by the earthquake, and obtained a great deal of scriptures, supernatural powers, and magical treasures from them.

Using these resources, they continuously deployed various array patterns throughout the entire ancient star to maintain its stability and delay its demise.

After all, even if the strongest cultivators could leave this place, all their relatives and friends were on this ancient star. How could they abandon them all and escape on their own?

Moreover, the area beyond this ancient star is utterly desolate, with no direction known, and countless years have passed since anyone has been able to reach the outside world and return. Therefore, even if they escaped, it would be difficult for them to survive in space for an extended period.

Therefore, their primary goal is to find a way to prevent the destruction of the ancient star.

And this young man naturally participated as well, dedicating his efforts to the entire ancient star.

After witnessing the terrible crisis brought about by countless disasters, the boy became more and more convinced that his existence in this world must have a purpose, and perhaps saving this ancient star that was heading towards irreversible extinction was his mission.

Therefore, he devoted himself to this self-rescue operation, fighting to the very end for the survival of the ancient star.

In this process, his reputation continued to rise, and he was seen by countless people as the hope of the future, the reincarnation of a savior. After all, his progress was so rapid that it shocked all other cultivators.

People were absolutely certain that he could leave this ancient star and bring them a bright future.

Soon, the boy was able to stand on his own and take charge of an entire continent.

Of course, this was partly due to his rapid improvement in cultivation, and partly because there were very few high-level cultivators left on this ancient star.

So the young man, who was entrusted with this critical mission, began to set up a grand formation on his own to reinforce the area and stabilize it by activating the deep earth veins.

But his good fortune didn't last long. Just as he was about to act, another earthquake struck, causing the sky to collapse and the earth to cave in, and even the unfinished array patterns began to crumble.

Thanks to his already considerable cultivation level, the earthquake did not have much impact on him, but countless lives were affected and were in grave danger.

Therefore, the young man activated the formation with all his might, barely maintaining the stability of the continent with his own power, buying countless lives a month to allow them to evacuate safely.

In the eyes of these people, this boy was like a god, bringing them hope.

After all the lives were evacuated to a safe area, the boy, who was already severely exhausted and could only hold on by sheer willpower, suddenly went black and fell into the deep, bottomless ravines that had cracked in the ground, and could no longer be found.

For a boy like him, even a fall from an astonishing height wouldn't endanger his life. And for cultivators, knowing where he landed would make it easy for others to find him. Moreover, even if others couldn't find him, the boy could easily escape and leave the area once he recovered.

Therefore, this accident should not have caused any special consequences, and the savior should have reappeared after recovering and led everyone into the future.

But at this crucial moment, the gears of fate began to turn.

Among the countless ravines created by the earthquake, countless mineral deposits buried deep within this ancient star have been revealed, and the source is clearly the most widely distributed and common type of mineral deposit.

In most people's eyes, the Immortal Source is just a legend, something they can never see, especially on this barren ancient star.

Therefore, the Divine Source is the highest-level source on this ancient star.

Divine Source also has a special form called Divine Source Liquid. This substance can seal life within it, preventing lifespan from diminishing.

The bottomless ravine into which the boy fell happened to have a pool of divine source liquid emerge. The boy fell into it and was subsequently sealed inside.

Because he had temporarily lost consciousness, he was unable to react until the divine source solidified and completely sealed him inside, and thus he fell into a deep sleep in a daze.

Just as the others on this ancient star were searching for him in the place where he disappeared, an aftershock of an earthquake struck, throwing the area into chaos, and the last trace of his presence vanished completely.

From then on, this promising future star disappeared in the natural disaster, and no one ever saw him again.

When he returned to the landmark from the depths of the earth due to changes in the terrain, and gradually recovered due to the damage to the divine source, it was already ten thousand years later.

Over the long span of ten thousand years, this ancient star suffered from constant natural disasters, eventually falling into silence, and no more disasters occurred.

But this doesn't mean the ancient star is beginning to recover. On the contrary, it means the ancient star has completely perished and is slowly becoming a dead star.

In the ancient star today, not only is the spiritual energy of heaven and earth extremely scarce, but the entire Great Dao of Heaven and Earth has also reached a point where it is difficult to support cultivation.

Therefore, the era of ten thousand years ago has completely vanished into the annals of history. All of this young man's relatives, friends, and lovers have become a part of history, and even his entire clan has disappeared.

In other words, he has now become a complete ghost; no one remembers him anymore, and none of the people he remembers are still alive.

Although the boy did not know how many years he had been asleep, he deeply felt a sense of despair.

The nine near-death experiences of his childhood did not destroy his body, nor did they shake his will; instead, they strengthened his resolve to pursue the Dao. This is the essence of the saying, "What doesn't kill me makes me stronger."

But this time, he was truly defeated.

The power of time caused him to lose everything, making all the things he was proud of and valued vanish into the past, never to be recovered.

From then on, he buried his past self, fell into complete depression, and changed his name to Qitian (meaning "abandoned heaven").

(End of this chapter)