2025.11.28
Xu Qing strolled along with Grandmaster Bai through the starry sky and within time itself. Ordinary cultivators could not see or sense them. Only a Summer Immortal would be able to catch a blurry glimpse.
As they walked, they chatted more. They talked about old stories, about current events, and about future possibilities. Eventually, when they reached the border of the Fourth Star Ring, it was time for Grandmaster Bai to leave.
Before they parted, Xu Qing’s teacher gave him two things. The first was a seed.
“Xu Qing, after you get back to Revered Ancient, see if Chen Feiyuan and Tingyu are still around. If so, I’d like you to ask them on my behalf if they’d be willing to join me here. If they do, then I’d like to ask a favor. Please plant this seed. On the day it blooms, they can use the fragrance of the flower as a guide to come to me.”[1]
“What if they’ve already passed?” Xu Qing asked quietly.
“Then please plant the flower at their graves,” Grandmaster Bai replied, his voice hoarse.
Then he gave Xu Qing the second item, which was a lamp. Its frame was made from a special type of clay covered with strange patterns. It almost looked like it had been grown, and the patterns seemed like ancient magical symbols that pulsed with a mysterious power. The material seemed very similar to Grandmaster Bai’s medicinal decocting pot.
The lampshade was weaved from spirit threads that gave it a faint, seven-colored glow. The light flickered and flowed like dreams or illusions, making it seem like the lamp contained the glory of the many heavens and the myriad worlds.
The exquisite weaving of the spirit threads created an amazing and mysterious image. Sometimes that image was of an immortal mountain surrounded by swirling clouds, and other times it was a starry river filled with dazzling heavenly bodies. It was almost as if the lampshade contained numerous miniature universes, all of which hid endless mysteries.
But most fantastic of all was the wick inside the lamp! Astonishingly, it was an eye! It had been refined many, many times, but it still contained some of its godly grace. Its majesty and mystery was so great that no person would seek to look at it. And within the veins of blood on the eye was a terrifying will. It was as if one glance from this eye would cause all things in the world to tremble.
Grandmaster Bai explained that the eye came from the God Paragon of the Fifth Star Ring! Grandmaster Bai had created this lamp using very special methods relating to plants and vegetation, which allowed it to contain some of the God Paragon’s godly authority.
“The God Paragon of the Fifth Star Ring had the godly authority of entropy! Entropy is the process all things go through, a transformation from order into chaos. Back in hīs prime... hē could increase or decrease it to change the structure of anything.