<h4>Chapter 552: When Striving Against Heaven, the Days Do Not Pass (part 2)</h4>
As he dropped down, and the fire raged, the violet crystal immediately sprang into action. Xu Qing inhaled, and fire swept into him. After a moment of thought, he reached out and touched some of theva. It was very hot, but his hand wasn’t injured.
<i>My body is strong enough to sustain this</i>.
With that thought in mind, he dropped down into theva. When he had sunk down to his waist, he inhaled, and could sense the intense heat wrapping him up. It was starting to sting.
<i>I can’t go any deeper.</i>
After looking around vigntly, he inhaled again, bringing masses of fire inside of him.
As the violet crystal rapidly absorbed the fire, it sent out six streams of violet light that thoroughly illuminated his sea of consciousness. Because of that light, the life mist didn’t obscure things as much as before, and the five lifemps within it became bright.
Xu Qing’s heart filled with anticipation. Although he couldn’t control the light emanating from the violet crystal, as it shone through the life mist, it firstnded on the ck umbre lifemp.
That was the lifemp he’d acquired in that temple in the Merfolk Isles. As the six beams of lightnded on it, it once again showed signs of melting. One of the umbre spindles no longer looked as sharp. It gradually began to bend, until it ultimately turned into liquid that flowed downward. A drop of liquidnded in his sea of consciousness, causing thunderous rumbling to fill Xu Qing’s mind.
A tremor passed through him as the fantastic elements that made up the lifemp flowed into his blood. Things were going exactly as they had in his previous experiments.
Eyes shining, Xu Qing took another deep breath, and more fire raged into him. Another six beams of violet light formed, and the melting continued.
Two hourster, the second drop of liquid fell from the ck umbre lifemp. At the same time, the nascent soul that had formed from thatmp began to blur.
Xu Qing stopped to assess the situation. What he confirmed was that the nascent soul wasn’t being harmed. Instead, some of the melting parts of themp were fusing into it. Breathing a sigh of relief, he continued.
Three days passed.
Because of the unending ess to the mes, Xu Qing was able to constantly work at melting the ck umbre lifemp. By now, it was thirty percent melted. It no longer resembled a lifemp, but rather, a broken umbre.
Meanwhile, the lifemp elements in his blood were growing stronger. Xu Qing got the strong feeling that, once those elements reached a certain level of strength, then it was highly likely he would be able to form his own personal lifemp.
With such thoughts on his mind, he steadied his breathing and, instead of continuing to absorb the fire, flew back up into the air. He flew for about a day, found a new spot, checked carefully to make sure it was safe, then dropped back down into theva and started again. Given how unfamiliar he was with the environment, and his vignt and cautious nature, he was acting very simr to the way he had back when he first arrived in Seven Blood Eyes. He knew that it was too dangerous to stay in one spot for long. [1]
<i>It’s too bad this sea of mes isn’t a suitable space to set up spell formations. That would make things much simpler.</i>
After some thought, he used his Gruegloom abilities to be semitransparent.
That method made him much more difficult to spot. Only then did he start absorbing the fire again. With the light of the violet crystal shining, the ck umbre lifemp, which no longer looked like either a ck umbre or a lifemp, continued to melt. It was now down to the base of themp.
Three dayster, Xu Qing switched spots again. Themp was now melted by fifty percent.
<i>It’s fine. I have plenty of time!</i>
Xu Qing wasn’t in a hurry, so he continued at this pace. He would never stay in one ce for more than three days. He was constantly switching locations.
The ck umbre lifemp went from fifty percent to sixty percent. Then seventy percent. Eighty.... During that time, red crystals continued to form, each of which he would instantly put away. He still wasn’t sure exactly what they were, but he still didn’t think it was a good idea to keep them out in the open.
As it turned out, being cautious in that way had its benefits....
***
“High-grade heavenfire crystals!”
A small team of Mirrorling cultivators was flying along over the Heavenfire Sea. They were different from the Mirrorlings that Xu Qing had encountered previously. They didn’t have mirror bodies. Instead, they had fleshly bodies. However, those bodies were actually those of other species. In the forehead position of each of them was a diamond-shaped mirror shard, blood red, without any cracks on its surface. The mirrors were not dirty in the least bit; in contrast, they were as clear as ss. These were members of the Mirrorling nobility, with bloodlines that far surpassed ordinary members of their species. All of them had enved members of other species, and used their bodies like puppets.
The leader of the group was a cultivator with three pairs of wings on his back and a body covered in ck scales. He had a geomanticpass in his hand, which glittered with red light as it led him in a certain direction.
The Mirrorling cultivators spoke in hushed, excited tones as they sped along.
“Our luck is good today. We actually found a high-grade heavenfire crystal!”
“High-grade heavenfire crystals are usually hidden deep at the bottom of the sea. But asionally theva flows dislodge them and they rise toward the surface. That doesn’t happen often, though.”
“Let’s hurry. If we get there toote, someone else might get it, and then we’ll have to kill them.”
A momentter, their expressions flickered as the red light on the geomanticpass suddenly went out.
“Dammit! Someone took it!”
“Let’s keep going in this direction and see if we can find whoever stole our crystal!”
This scene wasn’t just ying out with the Mirrorlings. There were other cultivators in the area who had noticed the high-grade heavenfire crystal. And it had happened several times.
“It happens every three days. But it vanishes almost as soon as it appears.”
“How could there be someone getting the heavenfire crystals so quickly?”
Not far away in a different direction was a group of Skyface cultivators, who were having a simr situation with their geomanticpass. Outsiders might not be familiar with high-grade heavenfire crystals, but these people knew exactly how valuable they were.
“There’s got to be a reason why these sacrificial items are appearing with such regrity!”
“We should ask the royal preceptor toe help. His geomanticpass is extremely urate. It can even lock onto things hidden in firebrane boxes!”
***
As dramatic developments were brewing in the area, Xu Qing was focused on melting his lifemp. The ck umbre lifemp was now ny percent melted.
<i>I only need one more day!</i>
Eyes glittering, he looked around. Although he had no idea that there was increased cultivator activity in the area, his bluegreen dragon had been sending him warning signals, and he felt the need to be more on guard than ever.
Looking at theva, which was at his chest level, he gritted his teeth, sent Ling’er into his bluegreen dragon heavenly pce, then sank deeper. In the blink of an eye, theva covered him. Everything seemed to be going smoothly. Xu Qing’s aura waspletely masked by theva. That said, he couldn’t go very deep. At the most, he could go down a bit more than a meter. Gritting his teeth, he started moving. Thanks to theva, he left no trace of his passage.
When he was a good distance away from his previous location, he once again settled into a cross-legged position and started absorbing fire. Instantly, huge waves of fire entered him, the violet crystal stirred, and light shone out again.
In that matter, time slipped by slowly but surely.
Twenty hours passed. At that point, a loud crack rang out from the ck umbre as thest bits of it melted into liquid and fell into Xu Qing’s sea of consciousness. A boom followed. It had taken a month, but the ck umbre finally melted.
The sound swept like wind over the water, causing ripples to spread. It reached the dome of heaven, and rumbling like thunder echoed out.
Xu Qing shivered uncontrobly in theva. Unafraid of the heat, his eyes opened. Within them, something like a swirling mist converged, pulsating, preventing theva from harming him.
Meanwhile, the lifemp elements in his blood had reached the requisite level. As the thunderous rumbling continued, and as theva seethed around him, something like a vortex appeared in the sea of mes, with him at the center. It spun rapidly and visibly. However, beyond the 3,000-meter area of the vortex, everything seemedpletely normal.
Only within that area did everything look different.
Xu Qing remained cross-legged in the middle of the vortex, flickering with light that pulsed between bright and dark. At the same time, an aura erupted from him that contained the advancement of life force.
Inside of Xu Qing’s sea of consciousness, a tempest raged in the spot where the ck umbre lifemp had once sat. Throughout Xu Qing’s body, violet threads appeared and gathered there.
As they did, a new lifemp began to take shape. This lifemp was actually made from Xu Qing’s blood, making it one-of-a-kind in heaven and earth! Whether it was the Ancient Emperors or the Imperial Sovereigns, when they created lifemps, they were just like this. After the arrival of the broken face of the god, people who could attain Imperial Sovereign personhood, even when taking in the entire Revered Ancient maind as a whole, were <i>rarer than phoenix feathers or qilin horns</i>. Thus, it was the same with new lifemps.
Yet right now, a lifemp that had never been seen before in the world was now being born!
What appeared first was a circr te of violet jade, tilted at an angle. The disk had twenty-four marked sections, each of which contained masses of magical symbols. All in all, the violet jade te lookedplicated and somehow full of holiness. Right in the middle of the te was the spot where the violet threads were gathering. They slowly took the shape of something that resembled an upright needle!
It was a gnomon!
There was also a ball of light that slowly rotated around the gnomon.
When looking closely at that ball of light, it was possible to see that, seated cross-legged inside was one of Xu Qing’s nascent souls!
The light shining from the nascent soulnded on the gnomon, casting a shadow onto the te. And that shadow was constantly rotating as the nascent soul rotated.
It was... a sundial!
This was Xu Qing’s lifemp! Violet jade formed the te. Greenish gold made the needle! A ball of light floated around it, creating an image of ancient time.
It was: <i>the sundial moves; the timescape is eternal. When striving against heaven, the days do not pass!</i>
1. In thinking back to the Seven Blood Eyes days, I feel like the reference here is to when he was opening dharma apertures by provoking attacks by sea creatures. He went from ind to ind doing this, simr to what he’s doing here. That was described in <u>chapter 142</u>. If you can think of something else from the Seven Blood Eyes days that this could be referencing, please feel free to mention it in thements. ?