<h4>Chapter 614: The Secret of Imperial-ss Techniques!</h4>


    Xu Qing took a deep breath. Eyes shining, he sat cross-legged and immersed his thoughts in the golden crow. This time, he didn’t focus on transforming the golden crow. Nor did he concern himself with the golden crow’s history or sun memories. He peeled away all such thoughts. Everything else faded away from his senses, until the only thing he perceived was the golden crow, glimmering brightly. The ck body and resplendent mes became the only thing of concern to Xu Qing.


    <i>If I’m being truly thorough, then I might as well ignore the mes. They’re essentially illusory and meaningless!</i>


    As those thoughts took hold in Xu Qing, he could sense the exterior mes surrounding the golden crow dimming until they were gone. When the mes winked out, Xu Qing shivered. He had never done anything like this with the golden crow. As pain wracked his body, the damage being inflicted on the golden crow affected the associated nascent soul.


    In the past, Xu Qing would never have proceeded past this point. He could sense that he was in extreme danger. But with the advice from the Heir Apparent, he suppressed the ufortable feelings and focused on the ck-colored golden crow, which now really looked like an ordinary crow.


    It looked at Xu Qing, trembling.


    Xu Qing looked back, frowning. As far as he was concerned, for the golden crow to look like this was a bit superfluous. He sent out a thought, and the golden crow trembled as its feathers started vanishing, leaving behind a featherless body.


    The bacsh for doing that was even more evident. Xu Qing struggled to breathe, but reminded himself that he was going in the right direction. Gritting his teeth, he squashed all extraneous thoughts in his heart.


    Next, a boom rang out as the golden crow exploded. Countless bits of flesh and blood sttered everywhere. Blood sprayed out of Xu Qing’s mouth, and yet his consciousness remained as firm as ever as the gore enveloped him.


    What was more, he was now able to sense countless colorful threads within the flesh and blood, like a tangled skein that intertwined with everything. Every one of those threads contained spirit fluctuations of intelligence. Within himself, Xu Qing could sense his nascent souls, the mes of the Heavenfire Sea, and the souls of hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of lifeforms. That was the umtion of everything the golden crow had ever devoured.


    “That’s thebination of the tea leaves and water!” he murmured. “Now I just have to filter out everything from inside!”


    He sent his thoughts out again, and the flesh and blood shrank down rapidly. Countless threads were separated, which piled up on the side. As it yed out, the golden crow howled in anguish.


    Xu Qing kept coughing up blood, but his eyes shone with determination, and he gritted his teeth and continued.


    As time passed, Xu Qing was like a person possessed. He forgot all about his surroundings, and was focused only on whittling the golden crow down. Days went by. Eventually, more than ny percent of the chaotic threads that made the golden crow were gone.


    There were actually only three left. One was ck. One was red. One was violet!


    <i>The tea leaves and water are almostpletely filtered!</i>


    Xu Qing could sense that the violet represented his own nascent soul, the red represented the mes, and the ck was the golden crow’s life essence. Those things formed the substructure of the imperial-ss technique.


    <i>The Heir Apparent was telling me that, even though the leaflet went its own way, its essence remained the same. It was still part of the whole. Therefore, despite having been separated, it could still be returned to normal.</i>


    Although it was a suggestion from the Heir Apparent, it was through the actions of separating the parts of the golden crow that Xu Qing came to experience it for himself. Threads that he had separated out hadn’t disappeared; they were still there. They were connected to him in myriad ways, and therefore, all it took was a thought to get them to fly back to where they came from. This again went to confirm how realistic the Heir Apparent’s advice was.


    <i>I guess I should start with separating out the fire!</i>


    Xu Qing gritted his teeth, converged his divine sense, and then slowly began peeling away the red thread. It was immeasurably painful, causing him to tremble from head to toe. But he didn’t give up.


    Days passed. Given how focused he was on his cultivation, he had no idea that, during the past seven or eight days, he had been releasing some significant fluctuations. The back room had slowly be full of violet spirit power fluctuations, which manifested as countless threads that whipped about and released cracking booms.


    He was currently soaked in blood! His clothes had been burned off, and the golden crow totem tattoo that covered him howled in grief. Every single brush stroke that made up the tattoo oozed with blood.


    However, that wasn’t what was most noteworthy. Over the past few days, his aura had be dramatically outrageous. asionally, it would release terrifying fluctuations, and asionally, the life force within it would vanish. And it was just barely possible to sense the consummately terrifying power that was awakening. It was a power that seemed unpermitted by heavenly daos, and something that Revered Ancient could not tolerate.


    During the past week or so, the sky above the Green Spirit Pharmacy in the Bitter Life Mountains had transformed constantly. Winds and clouds swirled, and the sound of rumbling thunder echoed out. The living beings in the Bitter Life Mountains were stunned, and had no idea what was going on. The thunder almost sounded like iprehensible words being spoken.


    Few people could understand those words. However, the Heir Apparent could understand them. And because he could, he was increasingly astonished by Xu Qing.


    Ling’er was extremely nervous. The Captain was both fearful and shocked. Ning Yan was astonished and terrified. Wu Jianwu was so stunned he wasn’t sure what to do.


    The Heir Apparent... was now in the back room, seated cross-legged in front of Xu Qing, watching him closely. He had mixed emotions on his face. On numerous asions, he had lifted his right hand as he considered interrupting Xu Qing’s enlightenment. But in the end, he forced himself not to.


    <i>This kid is gaining enlightenment of Revered Ancient’s unbelievable, unspeakable taboo! I... I didn’t say anything!</i> The Heir Apparent hesitated as he thought back to everything he had said. After a while, he breathed a sigh of relief. This was his first timeing to the realization that there was something very strange about this kid.


    The booming thunder outside reached the Heir Apparent’s ears, as if the heavenly daos of Revered Ancient were giving him a very strong warning.


    <i>Every imperial-ss technique contains a sealing mark put in ce by one of Revered Ancient’s heavenly daos.... Except, I was clearly giving him some advice regarding coexistence and abandonment....</i>


    The Heir Apparent sighed, then waved his hand to seal the aura from Xu Qing and act as dharma protector for him.


    Xu Qing was still immersed in his own senses, and was working hard. At a certain point, he finally managed to peel off that red thread. As of now, the golden crow didn’t look anything like before. There were only two threads left, one ck, one violet.


    <i>Next is my violet one.</i>


    Without the slightest hesitation, he started extracting his own violet thread. That process was so painful that veins bulged out all over him, and he trembled down to his soul. However, his intuition was telling him that the key to all of this was to extract that violet thread.


    <i>Get out here!</i>


    Xu Qing’s mind reeled as he worked hard for an indeterminable period of time. Eventually, the violet thread peeled off. When that happened, the only thing left of the golden crow was the ck thread!


    The thread vibrated, sending out fluctuations of extreme terror.


    <i>This....</i>


    Soul trembling, Xu Qing focused his senses and then started making that ck thread bigger. Then bigger. Then even bigger! Eventually, the ck thread was vastly bigger, almost like an entire world in Xu Qing’s senses. When it was big enough, he saw it for what it really was! It wasn’t just a single ck thread. It was actually made of countless ck chunks, all converged together. And between each chunk was something like a bolt of lightning.


    The lightning bolts were like ropes, piercing through the infinitude of ck chunks. That was why, after they all clumped together, they looked like a ck thread. The chunks were irregrly shaped, but if you put them together... they looked like a shocking ck spear!


    When Xu Qing sensed it, a new understanding filled his mind.


    <i>Taboo weapon!</i>


    It was a weapon that could crush heavens, shatter earths, destroy daos, and massacre gods! The sight of it sent Xu Qing’s thinking into turmoil. It shook his soul. No matter what ideas he could havee up with, he never would have guessed that within the golden crow’s essence was... a host of fragments of a terrifying weapon!


    <i>Do all imperial-ss techniques have a simr substructure? Is this the golden crow’s essence? Does that mean that every single imperial-ss technique is, in reality, formed from the sealed fragments of a terrifying weapon? Who sealed it? A heavenly dao? And why? Also... who owns this taboo weapon?</i>


    <i>If that’s the case, why do people cultivate imperial-ss techniques? Don’t tell me... that imperial-ss techniques are fundamentally a method of repairing a taboo weapon? And the ultimate goal is to control such weapons?? How many secrets are wrapped up in the Revered Ancient maind?</i>


    Xu Qing shivered as his mind reeled. Gradually, he retracted his senses, and with it the violet thread, then the red thread, and then all the other threads.


    In the blink of an eye, they were all clumped together. The flesh and blood of the golden crow gradually formed again into the outline of the crow. Then its feathers appeared, and it ignited into mes.


    As heat pulsed out, Xu Qing slowly looked up. His eyes opened, and he coughed up some blood. As he gasped for breath, he realized that, at some unknown point, the Heir Apparent hade in and was sitting in front of him.


    Before Xu Qing could say anything, the Heir Apparent said, “Don’t say anything. And don’t ask anything.”


    As fear lingered in Xu Qing’s heart, his eyes glittered. He took some time to control his breathing, then looked around. He could sense the fluctuations that still existed, and could also sense the dramatic things happening outside. Finally, he looked at the Heir Apparent and nodded. Then he took out the pearl with Guru ckeyes in it.


    “Senior, I don’t need this thing anymore. I can’t beat ckeyes, and I don’t want him devouring my golden crow. Most importantly, I’ve found my dao of the golden crow!”


    “You really don’t need it...” the Heir Apparent said, taking the pearl. He looked at Xu Qing with aplicated expression. He could sense the golden crow within Xu Qing, and knew that it now possessed an unprecedented sharpness that it didn’t have before. And just barely, he could discern that it now looked like a spear. This was the trump card for Xu Qing’s golden crow nascent soul!


    “Many thanks for your advice, Senior. It helped me refine my enlightenment!” Xu Qing took a deep breath, struggled into a standing position, then bowed to the Heir Apparent. He was truly grateful. Without the Heir Apparent’s words earlier, he would never have gained enlightenment as deep as this.


    The Heir Apparent suddenly said, “Did your Master ever give you advice in this manner?”


    “Yes,” Xu Qing said with a nod, surprised and wondering why the Heir Apparent would ask something like that.


    The Heir Apparent said nothing for a moment. Then he sighed. “It must not be easy being your Master.”