Chapter 126

Chapter 126: Another World

Lou Yun had been with Chang Xiang for over two years and had come to fully understand Chang Xiang’s personality. When Chang Xiang adopted such a serious expression, it meant he was about to speak of something extremely important. Moreover, Chang Xiang’s words were indeed highly intriguing: "things you’ve never known, never even imagined." This perfectly piqued Lou Yun’s curiosity!

“What things?”

"Actually, the universe holds more worlds than just the Spirit Weapon Star. How many exactly, I don’t know. But I came here from another world!"

Chang Xiang truly began with a shocking statement. His very first sentence struck Lou Yun like a thunderbolt, leaving him stunned. He stood there frozen for a long while before finally regaining his composure, yet still filled with deep confusion as he asked, “Another world? What kind of world is that?”

Chang Xiang paused briefly before explaining, "How to put it? That world is actually quite similar to the Spirit Weapon Star you live on. It also has humans – ordinary people, magical weapons masters, alchemists, skilled weapon makers – as well as demon beasts and other living creatures. Their difference lies in strength; the people of that world are vastly more powerful than those on your Spirit Weapon Star!"

"Vastly stronger than us? Why? If all are human, how come their strength far surpasses ours?"

"Because the first humans and cultivators on the Spirit Weapon Star originally came from that world. However, those earliest arrivals, for reasons unknown, hid the true methods of cultivation!"

The humans and cultivators of the Spirit Weapon Star were actually descendants of those who had come from Chang Xiang’s world! In other words, those people somehow arrived on the Spirit Weapon Star, reproduced and thrived here, and after a very long time, eventually formed the Spirit Weapon Star as it exists now!

This theory was something Lou Yun, let alone anyone else on the entire Spirit Weapon Star, had likely ever heard before. Naturally, Lou Yun’s heart was now filled with doubt, scarcely able to believe Chang Xiang’s words.

"Why did people from your world come to the Spirit Weapon Star? And are you saying the cultivation methods we follow now are false?"

Chang Xiang nodded, avoiding a direct answer. Instead, he countered, "Lou Yun, do you remember when I told you about the ten Divine Heavenly Weapons?"

"I remember! Ten individuals obtained Divine Heavenly Weapons. But later, nine of them formed an alliance, maintaining appearances while harboring discord, to deal with the one possessing the strongest Divine Heavenly Weapon."

"Yes! Then, do you know the surname of that person who possessed the strongest Divine Heavenly Weapon?"

"How could I possibly know his surname!" Lou Yun shot Chang Xiang a sideways glance and casually added, "It couldn’t possibly be ‘Lou’, could it?"

As soon as Lou Yun uttered this, a mysteriously profound smile appeared on Chang Xiang’s face. He kept his lips sealed, offering no response, simply staring straight at Lou Yun.

Lou Yun felt utterly baffled by Chang Xiang’s gaze, unable to decipher the meaning behind the man’s smile and intense look. Just as he was about to ask aloud, a sudden realization flashed through his mind. His eyes widened dramatically, and he blurted out involuntarily, "Could it really be… ‘Lou’?"

Chang Xiang lightly nodded with a chuckle. "Yes, indeed surnamed ‘Lou’. Moreover, he is the ancestor of your Lou Family!"

Lou Yun sprang to his feet. "Impossible! The very first book every child in our Lou Family reads after learning characters is our Family Genealogy and History. There’s absolutely no mention of anything related to a Divine Heavenly Weapon!"

Chang Xiang emitted a distinct snort of derision. "Your current genealogy and history, how many years back do they even record? Of course they wouldn’t have any records of him or the Divine Heavenly Weapons!"

"But how could the genealogy and history possibly not record the deeds of our Lou Family ancestor?!" Lou Yun was practically frantic with impatience, wishing he could tunnel into Chang Xiang’s brain to uncover the whole truth. "Brother Chang, what exactly is going on? Stop being cryptic and just tell me!"

Chang Xiang offered a faint smile. "Don’t rush. Let me ask you this: Don’t you find it strange that your master, Mr. Commoner – who seems like a veritable god to me – is someone utterly unknown to everyone you’ve ever asked about him? So much so, they haven’t even heard of him? And what about the Chaos Golden Cauldron? You’d think Beichen Ming, the highest-ranked skilled weapon maker on the Spirit Weapon Star, would surely recognize it, yet he acted as if he’d never seen such a thing before. Strange, isn’t it?"

"And what about the matter of the Divine Heavenly Weapons? Nine super-powerful families joining forces to eliminate the strongest one among them. Logically, no matter when this happened, even if it was extremely ancient, such famous events would surely be passed down. Even the faintest trace would be amplified and glorified by later generations, widely publicized. Yet, you’ve never even heard a whisper of it. Don’t you find that exceedingly odd?"

This barrage of questions from Chang Xiang caused Lou Yun’s brow to furrow deeply, his expression somber. However, after Chang Xiang finished speaking, Lou Yun took a deep breath, finally grasping the answers to these puzzles. "These events and people… they must all belong to your world, right?"

"Precisely!" Chang Xiang affirmed with a light smile. "The Divine Heavenly Weapons, the War of the Ten Clans, the Divine Forger Mr. Commoner, the Chaos Golden Cauldron – they all exist or happened in that other world!"

Although Lou Yun had already guessed it, hearing Chang Xiang confirm it with his own words sent a powerful tremor through his heart!

This proved that Chang Xiang was likely telling the truth. After all, Lou Yun possessed the Chaos Golden Cauldron and was a disciple of Mr. Commoner. And judging by the vast, ocean-deep knowledge Mr. Commoner had left him, even if he wasn’t a god-like being, he must have been enormously famous. Regardless of how many years passed, it was impossible his name would vanish so completely, becoming utterly unknown. Therefore, only one possibility remained: he was from another world!

By the time Lou Yun had begun recovering from this shock, Chang Xiang promptly delivered an even greater bombshell. "The individual who obtained the strongest Divine Heavenly Weapon back then was indeed surnamed Lou. He was the ancestor of your Lou Family. Possessing that Divine Heavenly Weapon, he became the mightiest being in that world. He married, had children, and gradually founded a lineage – a family. Yet, precisely because of this dominance, he provoked the jealousy of the nine others who held Divine Heavenly Weapons. These nine conspired in secret, uniting to plot against your Lou Family!"

Having already accepted Chang Xiang’s account as truth, Lou Yun instantly realized the family targeted and attacked by the nine families was none other than his own. A surge of hot indignation rose within him, and he pressed the tale forward anxiously. "What happened then? To our Lou Family? To our ancestor?"

Chang Xiang raised his head, gazing at the ceiling. The smile vanished from his face, replaced by a rigid sternness. A trace of faint, cold killing intent seemed to flicker in his eyes. "Your ancestor possessed the strongest Divine Heavenly Weapon. He led his clan, resisting the siege of the nine families. This struggle lasted for an astonishingly long period!"

"In the end… he secretly sent his descendants to the Spirit Weapon Star. By that time, the Spirit Weapon Star was already inhabited. Top-tier experts from his world, discovering this place entirely by accident, deemed it uniquely suitable for settlement and had chosen to live here."

Hearing this, despite his intense desire to know what happened next, Lou Yun couldn’t help interjecting, "Brother Chang, where exactly is this other world of yours? How could those high-level experts discover the Spirit Weapon Star? How did they even manage to move and settle here?"

“Haha,” Chang Xiang chuckled lightly, “that question delves into complexities I cannot clearly explain. You’ll grasp it naturally in the future, when you yourself possess that level of capability.”

Lou Yun sighed in resignation. Whenever Chang Xiang encountered a topic he wished to avoid, he always used this line as a shield, leaving Lou Yun with no viable means to counter.

Chang Xiang resumed his narration where he’d left off. “He himself, however, returned to his world. He summoned the leaders of the nine families – the nine holders of the other Divine Heavenly Weapons – all at once, demanding a final, decisive confrontation. In truth, he had already resolved himself to death. He intended to trade his own life for the safety and continued existence of the Lou Family’s future descendants back on the Spirit Weapon Star.”

“Knowing the primary objective of the nine was to seize his Divine Heavenly Weapon, he brought it with him to the rendezvous. As the ten convened, initially, hypocritical pleasantries were exchanged. But soon, all pretenses fell away. The nine launched a joint attack! Your Lou Family ancestor, facing nine adversaries alone, showed no fear. His valor was unparalleled! The battle that ensued was cataclysmic – it caused the sun and moon to lose their light, shaking heaven and earth! He successively slew four of the nine, and grievously wounded the remaining five. Yet, in the end, he exhausted his strength and fell dead. Even in death, however, his corpse remained standing tall.”

Chang Xiang took a deep sigh and closed his eyes. It was as if he was seeing the horrific scenes of that fateful day replaying before him. He remained silent for a long time.

Lou Yun listened, his blood surging fiercely with excitement. He fervently wished he could have been there to personally witness that battle, likely unparalleled before or since – truly witnessing the glorious, peerless bearing of his ancestor!

To confront nine super-powerful masters alone – to ultimately kill four and severely wound the other five – and then, even after death, to remain standing tall! What magnificent, indomitable spirit!

After a period of silence, Chang Xiang continued his story, speaking slowly. “The five who survived were, at that juncture, nearly at death’s door themselves, utterly spent and incapable of further combat. Within their hearts, hatred warred painfully with involuntary respect for your Lou Family’s ancestor. Remember this, lad: when a man manages to compel his most sworn enemies to respect him despite themselves… his life can be definitively judged a success!”

Lou Yun silently nodded in deep agreement. He acknowledged the profound truth in those words.

“Gazing upon his body – standing impossibly erect despite being lifeless, an almost serene smile upon his face – not one of the five survivors dared approach. One would push another forward, only to be nudged back himself. Finally, summoning their collective courage, they advanced together as a group. Their target, naturally, was the Divine Heavenly Weapon still gripped within his hand!”

“What happened next, however, astonished them all. The Divine Heavenly Weapon suddenly emitted an anguished, mournful hum. It seemed to keen with grief, perceiving its master’s demise! A radiant light flared forth violently! Wrenching itself free from his grasp with terrifying strength, the weapon transformed into a streak of light – shooting straight upward, piercing the heavens and vanishing amidst the clouds. From that moment onwards… it genuinely was never seen again.”

“The nine families had suffered devastating losses. Not only had the heads of four clans perished, but the five survivors returned mortally wounded and soon joined them in death. Prior to departing for the fateful confrontation, each of the nine had meticulously arranged their family’s affairs. They bequeathed to their descendants a common, unyielding ancestral command: every generation must seek out and kill anyone across all corners of their world who bore the surname Lou!”

“After the demise of the original nine clan heads, their successors zealously followed this ancestral decree. They embarked on a brutal purge, seeking out and executing every individual named Lou within their grasp throughout that world. It was only at this point they discovered something odd: people bearing the Lou surname were surprisingly scarce, and none seemed particularly powerful. Putting their heads together, they made a deduction: the descendants of the Lou Family must have been sent away… likely to the Spirit Weapon Star!”

“To utterly sever the root of the threat, each of the nine families carefully selected a contingent of its members. These individuals were sent forth, crossing out of their own world to arrive upon the Spirit Weapon Star. Their charge was singular: track down any survivors of the Lou lineage dwelling there… and exterminate them. Only upon fulfilling this mission could they earn the right to return to their home world.”

“And so it was that representatives of the nine families firmly settled upon the Spirit Weapon Star. Their power and capabilities indisputably placed them among the mightiest individuals on the planet. However, primarily, they kept a notoriously low profile—fearful that overt aggression might inadvertently alert the very Lou descendants they hunted, inviting retaliation before they could strike first. They opted for caution: some chose permanent seclusion in remote, sparsely populated locales; others changed names and discarded ancestral identities entirely. Each clan pursued the relentless investigation of the Lou descendants’ potential whereabouts deep in the shadows."

Here, Chang Xiang fixed his gaze firmly on Lou Yun. "Do you grasp the truth now? Your Lou Family – you are the descendants of that man surnamed Lou! And from the day your ancestors set foot upon the Spirit Weapon Star, their existence has hung perpetually under the black shadow of imminent extinction—total annihilation lurking timelessly just beyond the horizon. As for why your family history and genealogy remain utterly silent…? I suspect it was deliberate—a deliberate veil drawn to protect each subsequent generation. Their motive: to shield the people of the Lou Family from the constant, gnawing terror of knowing their peril."