The Desolate Ancient black hole was as boundless as it was chaotic, spinning wildly like endless turbulent vortices.
Boom—!
An explosive roar like thunderclaps erupted, shaking the entire Desolate Ancient black hole into violent tremors, churning the chaotic currents into smoky, mist-like wisps.
After emerging from the Desolate Ancient ruins, Gu Qingfeng immediately sensed someone watching him.
And not just one person.
What was eerie was that these people weren't using their divine sense to watch him; it felt more like they were hiding in some corner of the Desolate Ancient black hole, secretly spying, leaving him no way to investigate or determine who exactly was watching.
Previously, there had been people secretly watching him, but not in such numbers, and their presence had been faint and elusive. This time, after coming out from the ruins, he could clearly sense many presences covertly observing him.
Could it be because of that so-called Omen Object?
Gu Qingfeng had heard Senior Elder Feng Zhu say that many beings had always been eyeing the Omen Object covetously. Could it be that all these people secretly watching him were after that Omen Object?
Perhaps.
He didn't know for sure.
To be honest, if these people really were after the Omen Object, he wouldn't mind handing it over.
After all, he had no interest whatsoever in that damn Omen Object and had never actively sought it out. It had inexplicably fused with his body on its own.
The key issue was, even if he wanted to hand over the Omen Object now, he couldn't. He couldn't sense its presence within himself at all, nor did he even know what exactly this thing was.
Given that, how could he possibly hand it over?
Thinking about it, the whole affair was quite ridiculous, and it frustrated Gu Qingfeng immensely.
It wasn't just the Omen Object; many things on him had inexplicably sought him out, the kind that couldn't be shaken off no matter what. He didn't want them, yet he had no choice but to accept them.
Like the Avici Endless Malevolent Asura.
Like the Ascent to Azure Descent to Yellow Springs.
Including the so-called Original Sin, the so-called Delusion, the so-called Variables, and so on and so forth.
If these were all considered fortunes, then without a doubt, they were all mysterious, bizarre, powerful, and terrifying fortunes. It was precisely because of these fortunes attached to him that Gu Qingfeng had been constantly plagued by troubles, never having a moment of peace.
Fortunately, after all these years, he had long grown accustomed to this life mired in trouble.
One trouble was trouble, two troubles were also trouble, three, four, even a hundred or a thousand troubles were still just trouble. No matter how many troubles piled up, it didn't matter to Gu Qingfeng anymore.
After returning to the Desolate Ancient black hole, Gu Qingfeng didn't move, just stood there, expecting that some of those secretly watching beings would come to seize the Omen Object.
To his considerable surprise, after waiting for a long time, no one came to seize it—not even a single one. Not only did no one come to seize it, but not even a divine sense came probing.
After waiting a while longer and seeing no action from the other side, Gu Qingfeng decided not to wait any longer and simply left.
Boom—!
Another thunderous roar erupted, shaking the Desolate Ancient black hole into even greater chaos.
He had no idea what exactly was causing these roars, as if they originated from the very source of the Desolate Ancient black hole. Each time they sounded, they would throw the black hole into utter disarray.
When the roars had sounded earlier, the Avici Endless Malevolent Asura and the Ascent to Azure Descent to Yellow Springs within him had stirred excitedly, eager to move. But later, after inexplicably fusing with the Omen Object inside the Desolate Ancient ruins, both presences had become unusually quiet.
Now, with the roars sounding again, the Avici Endless Malevolent Asura and the Ascent to Azure Descent to Yellow Springs began to stir once more. Moreover, this time, Gu Qingfeng felt another presence within his body also seeming to stir.
Although this sensation was extremely faint, Gu Qingfeng still detected it, and he suspected it should be that Omen Object.
Unfortunately, Gu Qingfeng could only sense a faint stirring; he still couldn't feel the presence of the Omen Object itself, nor did he know what kind of existence this thing truly was.
Shaking his head, he didn't dwell on it further.
He wandered through the Desolate Ancient black hole.
The countless Desolate Ancient ruins still rotated within the black hole like turbulent whirlpools.
Outwardly, they seemed unchanged from before.
The only difference was that as the Desolate Ancient black hole grew increasingly chaotic, each ruin-whirlpool continued to expand. Upon touching other ruin-whirlpools, they would actually merge into an even larger ruin-whirlpool.
Gu Qingfeng deliberately spent some time wandering the Desolate Ancient black hole and discovered that the ruin-whirlpools were all merging with each other—some two merging, some three or four...
Even more.
He understood clearly that each whirlpool was formed by a Desolate Ancient ruin. If two whirlpools merged, did that mean two Desolate Ancient ruins would also merge together?
If ten or eight whirlpools merged, that would be ten or eight Desolate Ancient ruins merging.
It was important to know that within the Desolate Ancient black hole, each chaotic current contained many spaces—spaces that were utterly lawless and ever-changing. Moreover, these spaces were inherently interwoven and tangled, impossible to distinguish clearly. While the spaces of the Desolate Ancient ruins weren't as ever-changing as those of the chaotic currents, they also lacked any origin or law. So, merging wasn't an impossibility.
Without overthinking it, Gu Qingfeng considered going in to take a look.
After wandering the Desolate Ancient black hole a while longer, he specifically sought out a relatively large ruin-whirlpool and charged into it.
Soon, he entered a Desolate Ancient ruin.
Inside the ruin, the entire sky was a massive whirlpool, sweeping up the chaotic currents of the Desolate Ancient black hole.
Below was an endless desert.
The difference was that the desert contained many undulating sand dunes, looking like a continuous range of mountains. The desert also held many dilapidated peaks and numerous desolate ruins.
Not far from Gu Qingfeng stood a mountain peak. Sweeping it with his divine sense, he was quite surprised to find several cave dwelling ruins atop the peak.
That's right.
Cave dwelling ruins.
A cave dwelling was also a type of space.
Specifically, a space opened by a great power using supernatural abilities.
Like worlds and secret realms, cave dwellings had an origin. If that origin vanished, their structure would gradually collapse, and the cave dwelling would disintegrate, thus becoming cave dwelling ruins.
These things were generally hard to discover because, once they became ruins, they would drift with the wind like grains of dust.
If a world-space's origin dried up, it would gradually fall from the Great Wasteland into the Endless Sea.
But cave dwellings wouldn't, because they were opened within a larger space like a Desolate Ancient ruin. As long as the Desolate Ancient era existed, the cave dwelling would persist.
For a world-space, the Great Wasteland was its heaven and earth.
For a cave dwelling, this world was its heaven and earth.
World-spaces were nurtured by heaven and earth, while cave dwellings were opened relying on worlds.